Mel Brooks A Jewish Comedy

Mel Brooks's membership in the elite club of Jewish comedians is essentially impossible to dispute. The question is whether or not his comedy is atypical. Satirizing Jewish history and klutzy old Jewish men is normal for Jewish comedy. However, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party," is something that you would not expect to hear in typical Jewish comedy (The Producers). Defined broadly, there are two forms which Mel Brooks's Jewish humor takes. The first form is to discuss specifically Jewish topics in a funny way. This is evident in The Producers and in the Inquisition scene from History of the World, Part I. The other form is to use certain aspects of Judaism for comedic value. This form, is typically used by Brooks'
According to the Sheriff, strange Indians attacked their wagon. Brooks, who plays the Indian chief, allows Bart and his family to go, he tells his tribe, "Zeit nishe meshugge. Loz em gaien…Abee gezint. Which basically means, "take off." Some feel this is Brooks trying to get some cheap laughs by using Yiddish, but Friedman points out that it is "comically appropriate that the West's most conspicuous outsider, the Indian, should speak in the tongue of history's traditional outsider, the Jew" (77). Other than this reference, Blazing Saddles use of Judaism is really little more than an occasional punch line. When Hedley Lamarr is looking for a way to get the citizens of Rock Ridge to leave, his associate recommends killing the first-born male child in every family, to which Lamarr replies-"too Jewish" (Blazing Saddles). When Mongo (a gigantic ruffian) comes into the saloon, someone in the background says "Gottenew" (Oh God!), another Yiddish term (Yacowar 110). Not surprisingly, Mel Brooks finds a way to squeeze Germans into a movie set in the late 19th Century's Wild West. In the finale of the movie, Lamarr recruits an army of lowlifes.
So, even Brooks's most offensive work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor and the modern Jewish experience. The greatest lesson that Brooks has to teach American Jews of today is the expansion of our boundaries. Through his use of Jewish humor to topics which where previously considered off-limits, he allows his viewers to cope with painful parts of history which they may not have been able to cope with in the past. Brooks describes his role as a comedian by saying, "for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one" (Friedman 171-172). He explains that his comedy "derives from the feeling that, as a Jew and as a person, you don't fit the mainstream of American society. It comes from the realization that even though you're better and smarter, you'll never belong" (Friedman 172). Mel Brooks's experience is very similar to that of every American Jew, and his comedy speaks uniquely to the American Jew. So, even Brooks's most offensive work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor and the modern Jewish