History of the World Part II

Being a life long MB fan, this has glimpses of the old days, but current societal trends steer this series into a dull, unfunny direction. Reminds me of post 2000's SNL. Tries to be funny, is trying to be trendy, but it does not translate well into Mel Brooks humor. If the effort was to try to "tune up" the traditional Mel Brooks style of writing, Bring it into a new era, It faceplanted. It felt like younger writers were whispering in Mel's ear, "no no... this is funny stuff, it will play!" Mel "Are you sure??? This just doesn't make sense to me... but if you think so..." Don't get me wrong, I see some comic genius for sure. Noah, Alexander Bell, 1 of the Lincoln bits, the underground railroad were quite funny. Unfortunately the rest felt as if they were trying to grow a batch of Mel brooks humor in their cinematic garden and it was choked out by weeds, mired in fields of boring, ugly kudzu.

Most anthologies are "hit or miss" but this one is extreme in that and, unfortunately, mostly miss. What's even more depressing is that a project bearing the name of Mel Brooks, the Grandfather of Bad Taste, shows so little of his trademark edgy humor. The funniest bit -- far FAR -- is a horribly offensive and utterly hilarious version of Jesus's capture by the Romans entitled "Curb your Judaism." THAT'S the Mel Brooks I know and love! Some bits, like the Russian Revolution, Shakespeare, the Oslo Accords, and the actual "Hitler on Ice" promised at the end of Part I show some of the old Brooks magic. But, sadly, such moments are few and far between.

I hate to use the "W" word, but not sure what other reason there is for spending so much time on Shirley Chisolm (a minor US politician from the 70's) and presenting her as such an important figure in the history of the entire world. She is presented in a seemingly endless, painfully unfunny, virtue signaling sketch based on "The Jeffersons." Another endless and unfunny bit is Jesus (who is Black, of course, along with Mary Magdelene and several Apostles) doing a takeoff on The Beatles "Get Back" documentary. There's a "Jackass" takeoff that is just awful. Other sketches just don't work, and too many attempts to comment on either the technology or social issues of today fall flat.

I'd like to say that they could make a decent 90 minute film out of the 4 hours of the show but I'm not sure. I know they could make an awesome 30 minute show... maybe a "Best Of" would work better?

If you haven't watched Mel Brooks, then don't make this your first impression -- go back and watch "The Producers," "The Twelve Chairs", "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein." Go and seek out "The 2000 Year Old Man" with Carl Reiner. Even minor works like "Spaceballs," "High Anxiety," and, of course, "History of the World, Part 1." If you have consumed all that, you can watch this and try to enjoy the good nuggets. But do NOT let this be your first impression of one of the greatest comic geniuses of all time.

It just feels like "this is supposed to be funny, right?" Where as with the first one the audience sees history through Mel Brooks eyes, this one just feels like Drunk History sketches without the drunk person. It doesn't feel like the piss is being taken, it's just feels cheap. There's no voice that ties it all together, it's all really funny people whose ideas don't mesh well. All these performers are charismatic and so its watchable, like background while your cleaning kinda watchable, but the jokes themselves aren't clever enough for the performers delivering them.

It all feels like sketch that might work live, but definitely doesn't work filmed.

Ultimately, it suffers from everyone behaving like it's a comedy. What worked so well about the first movie is that all of MB's characters behaved as though they were the hero's of their narrative, but this one is just clowning, and at least for me, that really doesn't translate to film.

JB Smoove as JB Smoove is so far the best part.

It's not all bad. I watched it all and thought it would be as funny as the first one. It was not. There are some funny scenes to make you laugh a little but it's not often. It's worth a watch if you are a fan of Mel Brooke's but I can't believe he wrote any of this. The easily offended are ruining everything and now what could have been an amazing series has been toned down to, well what it is. I am really hoping Hollywood begins to go back to cater for the masses and not the small community which is woke and easily offended. It's a comedy and comedy is suppose to offend and make people laugh. Jokes don't represent beliefs they are joke.

This is not Mel Brooks Humor.

This is a reboot of The Kroll Show with special guest Wanda Sykes.

There is WAY too much Nick Kroll here.. way, way, way way too much... and I have never found Nick Kroll funny. He just does some silly accent and thinks THAT makes a bit funny.. it doesn't.

The Sykes sketches are far more political in nature than they are funny. Sykes brought her soapbox to the set....

The Bariholtz sketches are okay.. but only because they are OFTEN merely trying to mimic the atmosphere of Blazing Saddles in some way. Several aspects are direct, uhmm, "homages" to Blazing Saddles.

Every single actor in this is also a producer...

I imagine Mel Brooks just "trusting" these people to write what's (permissibly) funny today. After all, MOST of Mel Brooks's films would NEVER be made today because they would be seen as too offensive.

Unfortunately, this series just isn't funny..

.... the Jackass/Johnny Knoxville/Rasputin bits are the only okay aspect throughout the ENTIRE series.. and they are only 2 minutes in length, if that.

If you like Nick Kroll.. you may love this series. If, like me, you find Nick Kroll more annoying than funny, you may hate this series.