TV Talk: Mel Brooks’ ‘History of the World, Part II’ belatedly arrives on Hulu
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Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
PASADENA, Calif. — I remember getting into Mel Brooks movies in middle school in the mid-1980s and wanting to see the comedic director/writer/star make a sequel to his 1981 sketch comedy film “History of the World, Part I.” It took more than 40 years, but “History of the World, Part II” arrives as an eight-episode Hulu series that will be released over four consecutive days beginning Monday.
Was it worth the wait? Yes and no.
It’s certainly a joy to revisit Brooks’ style of humor, whether its cutting social satire or sophomoric gags involving flatulence and vomit.
But to make “History of the World, Part II” cost-effective as a series, it relies too heavily on recurring sketches that, while initially funny, grow tiresome. This is especially true of Shirly Chisholm sitcom “Shirley,” “Curb Your Judaism,” “The Civil War” (“We’re talking about the one in the 1860s, not the one coming up in 2024,” Brooks narrates) and The Beatles-esque “The Last Supper Sessions,” which proves less funny than the two-minute Last Supper sketch in “History of the World, Part I.”
“History of the World, Part II” would be more worthwhile if it was shorter in duration. It has one movie’s worth of strong material stretched out over eight streaming episodes. Maybe consider watching episodes one through four and then skip to eight, which has a fantastic sketch on a focus group’s effort at the First Council of Nicaea to rebrand Jesus as fair-skinned and change the focus of the Bible’s villains.
So, yes, this “History” is hit and miss but there are some solid hits.
In an early sketch on the Russian Revolution that imagines the Romanoffs as a Kardashian-like clan, Dove Cameron (“Schmigadoon”) excels at playing Princess Anastasia as a social media influencer.
A one-and-done sketch in the premiere features Josh Gad as the volatile showrunner of an imagined William Shakespeare writers’ room (in the style of modern sitcom writers’ rooms).
“History of the World, Part II” includes a few musical numbers that, while fun, are puny compared to the grandiosity of “The Inquisition” musical number from “History of the World, Part I.”
In narration, Brooks says he insisted on no repeats of sketches from “History of the World, Part I,” but there are two distinct quasi-sequel sketches (in episodes one and eight) whose topics remain under embargo.
The elderly Brooks narrates but doesn’t act in “History of the World, Part II.” He does get executive producer and writing credits alongside Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen.
“He’s 96. His comedy mind is still so sharp. He’s still so funny,” Kroll said at a January Hulu press conference during the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour. “I had the privilege and deep fear of directing Mel doing voiceover. And there’s nothing better than hearing Mel Brooks say, ‘Oh, good idea.’ There is nothing more crushing than pitching Mel a joke and him being like, ‘No, I’m not saying that. That’s bad.’ But just the idea that Mel Brooks directly telling you that your idea sucks is one of the great privileges of my life.”
Kroll said Brooks had bits ready to go when the writers began meeting mid-pandemic over Zoom, including a gag that’s in the finale of “The Civil War” sketch in episode six.
“He would come into our [Zoom] writers’ room,” Kroll said. “I have pictures of him at the pitch — when we were pitching the show around and we were talking — in a crisp blue blazer, crisp white shirt, kerchief, ready to go. I mean, the guy has an insane life force and he’s still got jokes.”
Contemporary comic actors’ love for Brooks and his work led so many to take part in “History of the World, Part II,” Kroll said. Kroll, Sykes and Barinholtz play multiple characters throughout the series and they’re joined by Pamela Adlon, Zazie Beetz, Quinta Brunson, D’Arcy Carden, Rob Corddry, Danny DeVito, Jake Johnson, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Jason Mantzoukas, Ken Marino, Jack McBrayer, Zahn McClarnon, Charles Melton, Kumail Nanjiani, Andrew Rannells, Nick Robinson, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, J.B. Smoove, and Tyler James Williams among many others.
“All of what we’re doing today in comedy on some level is referenced or stolen from Mel Brooks,” Kroll said, “as Mel took from his forbearers.”
Some may wonder if Brooks-style irreverent humor can still fly in today’s environment where offense is sometimes too easily taken, but Kroll said it can with some tweaks.
“You can still say and do insane things. You just have to be a little more thoughtful about how and why you’re saying them,” Kroll said. “Doing a show about history now — at a time when we are reexamining how things went down — it became a very easy through-line to just continue Mel’s legacy of poking fun at those in power. It’s going after the institutions, going after the rich and powerful and trying to find humorous ways to take them down. Comedy and satire [are] very powerful that way.”