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.

Listen, I love Mel Brooks. Love his humor, his zingers and bluntness. But this was not funny and I don't blame Mr. Brooks for that at all. If you're a fan of Ike Barinholtz, Nick Kroll and Wanda Sykes then this show is for you because they are the main characters and in every episode (Sykes being in only 7 of the 8 episodes). They also direct and write episodes. If you're looking for laughs, this isn't the show for you. I'm seriously hoping they don't make a season 2 because it was so boring and there was too much of Krull and Barinholtz that just killed it for me. Some of the bits went on too long and you just lose interest. Took me way too long to finish the last 2 episodes because I just didn't want to do it.

Started loving it but each episode got worse and worse. The "Shirley" stuff was unwatchable. Unfortunately, it feels like it is half of the series. There were LOL moments but be prepared to fast forward a lot. The moments are worth the watch with some of the actors. Definitely enjoyed enough to keep watching.

Whomever pitched this as a series is hopefully not allowed to get paid anymore.

Now I'm just trying to make sure there is enough characters to post this review and hopefully save others from judging it too harshly. Mel Brooks is amazing. This has great moments. Not enough moments to justify so many episodes of nonsense.

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.

Wow, what a waste of talent. As someone who has loved Mel Brooks for decades (and quoted "Blazing Saddles" on practically a weekly basis for just as long), this was a crushing disappointment.

Clumsy, forced jokes that would embarrass your average middle-schooler combined with just flat-out unfunny writing make a cringeworthy, discombobulated mess. This is also the first time I've ever seen Wanda Sykes NOT be funny. And the D-Day scene at the beginning of episode 2 was just a foul, disgusting mess. Somebody obviously thought that just having people fire stupid lines at each other quickly would somehow be funny - it's not.

Madeline Kahn is spinning in her grave.