Mel Brooks movies: Corny or Clever?

[trof]

I'm kinda in between.
Watching 'Spaceballs' now, yet again.

Spoof of the first Star Wars flic.
Hey, it's slow night on the tube.


Miz t. sez "It's just stupid."
I don't entirely agree, but that's what makes horse races, as they say.


I did like 'Blazing Saddles'.
Walked out of 'High Anxiety' after the first 15 minutes.


Definition of corny from the urban dictionary:
Trying to be cool, but ultimately very uncool indeed, and often even extremely embarrassing.
Trite or tiresome; too weak to be effective; -- said of
unsubtle attempts at humor; as, a corny joke; a corny skit.

10 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	1. Clever
	1 (10%)
	2. Corny
	0 (0%)
	3. Stoopid
	1 (10%)
	4. Mel Brooks is way cool.
	8 (80%)
	5. Robb is a dingbat. Any oldtimers remember that?
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[joeybee12]

1. Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein and The Producers...

Sheer brilliance.

Spaceballs? Eh.

[antiquie]

5. I second that emotion.

[HappyMe]

21. I agree.

I like Mel Brooks. Every movie doesn't have to be meaningful or whatever.

[Brigid]

2. Can't really choose an answer.

Not if you take all of his work into consideration. Some, like "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" are absolute classics. Others, like "Spaceballs," are clunkers of the first order.

[NewJeffCT]

23. agreed, it's a mixed bag

comic genius at his best, but...

I thought Spaceballs had a few good moments, but Brooks too often settled for the easy and predictable one-liner. (I mean, who didn't know "What's a matter Colonel Sanders... Chicken?" was coming once they heard that as a character name?)

[mucifer]

3. My favorite was the original "The Producers". I really liked "To Be Or Not To Be" which

was a remake of a Jack Benny film. It was really cute. Anne Bancroft played his wife. Oh and it had some nazis in it.

But, he didn't write it so I guess it doesn't count as much as other Mel Brooks films.

I just really think he's cute. Way cool was the closest to cute that I thought the survey had.

[mockmonkey]

10. He didn't direct "To Be or Not to Be" either.

It still is a funny movie.

[Trajan]

4. Both corny and clever

in varying degrees ...

[LisaLynne]

7. I totally agree with that assessment.

[uriel1972]

18. An erratic genius to be sure... nt

[edbermac]

6. My rankings on Mel on a scale 1 to 5

5:
The Producers
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein

4:
History of the World: Part I
Silent Movie

3:
The Twelve Chairs
High Anxiety
Spaceballs
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Life Stinks

2:
Dracula: Dead and Loving It

The 3's I found to be a mixed bag, some good stuff but should have been better. The real stinker was Dracula.

[LisaLynne]

8. I did love the "blowing up a picture to the size of a room" thing in High Anxiety.

Because still to this day, in movies, they act like resolution is limitless.

[mockmonkey]

11. That's a pretty good list

I would put "High Anxiety" under the 4 list. I like Hitchcock movies and Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman are really funny in that movie. I haven't seen "History of the World" in a long time. I'll have to look for it.

[MrMickeysMom]

15. You order is right in line with what I would choose, too.

I thought Life Stinks was a good attempt, and mixed bag, more of the same way High Anxiety was…

No one's come close to Mel Brooks over-all. He is the King..


"It's GOOD to be the King!"

[deutsey]

35. Agree, mostly, but I might give High Anxiety a 3 1/2

With his clunkers, as a Brooks fan, it was painful to see him go through that awful dry spell during the '80s and '90s.

I was very happy to see him do so well with his stage production of The Producers.

[Cadfael]

9. I remember when I saw the first commercials at the time of Spaceballs release

I thought the movie was going to be fantastically funny. Unfortunately all the best bits were in the commercials. Once you'd seen the commercial the rest of the film was disappointing.

[UTUSN]

12. Proudly vote for WAY GENIUS n/t

[Solly Mack]

13. Brooks is fucking awesome.

[idendoit]

14. Oh, pissboy!

[TeamPooka]

16. He's a genius and don't forget he adapted his own movie to a hit musical on Broadway...

&list=RDruWvMRB72cw

&list=RDNyc-KvAgmh0

Genius.

[Orrex]

17. Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights are unwatchable

[LissaMac]

19. Mel Brooks is a classic!!

[MissMillie]

20. They're both corny and clever

but I don't like urban dictionary's definition of "corny"

[NewJeffCT]

22. The first time I saw "Young Frankenstein"

I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming out of my eyes. I don't laugh like that if a movie is merely corny.

So, i voted both corny and clever.

[NewJeffCT]

24. Trivia - the son of Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft

is Max Brooks, the man who wrote World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide.

[bigwillq]

25. I think his movies are great!

[kentauros]

39. I do too!

The only one I haven't been able to get into was Silent Movie, but maybe it's just a "being in the right mood" thing. The goofy ones still make me laugh. Hell, Airplane is the epitome of goofy and I still laugh at it!

[Demoiselle]

26. It takes a lot of clever to be that corny…I like him a lot. nt

[KamaAina]

27. Yes.

What have you got against corny? Are you a communist or something?

[BobUp]

28. Call me strange, but this was one of my favorite movies

[Wounded Bear]

29. Yes

[Blue_Tires]

30. Comedic genius

[PeteSelman]

31. Mel Brooks is an American treasure.

Right up until he started canibalizing himself in Men In Tights.

But it's hard to find anyone that scored that many hits in a row.

Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are among the funniest movies of all time.

[trof]

32. Funny. I actually liked Robin Hood.

[PeteSelman]

33. There wee a lot of recycled jokes in there.

"What hump?"

"I have a mole?"

But I still liked it.

[kentauros]

40. And then you can watch the movie

that was inspired by Mel's start in his comedy writing career: My Favorite Year

[OmahaBlueDog]

44. I'd forgotten "Men in Tights"

Also, he did a so-so remake of the Jack Benny movie To Be or Not to Be

[mdbl]

34. Producers was my favorite

When I first saw the beginning of Springtime for Hitler with the Vegas like stage show, I couldn't stop laughing.

[GreenEyedLefty]

36. Blazing Saddles is on my "desert island" list of movies

I never get tired of it. "land... land... see 'snatch'"

I first saw History of the World Part I when I was a teenager and rolled on the floor it was so funny. "You are nuts. n-v-t-s, nuts."

So juvenile, but so funny.

[Boxerfan]

37. Corny can be clever-if your good......

And frankly I dislike the either or nature of the question because duality exists and can be the very nature of comedic acts.

[trof]

42. So...does clever/corny become satire?

It seems so to me.

[Kaleva]

38. Corny but entertaining.

[trof]

41. I'll go with that.

[OmahaBlueDog]

43. The Producers (original), Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles are brilliant!

Silent Movie and History of the World have some very funny moments.

Spaceballs and High Anxiety are dreck