Mel Brooks has had a storied comedic career, going back to his days of writing for variety shows like Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour. His partnerships with Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar helped launch his acting and directorial careers. He is mostly regarded for his films of the 1970s and 1980s, but plenty more have become mainstream successes.

His career has continued well into his ’90s, and he is one of only 27 people ever to earn EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards) status. Brooks is known for his parodies and gags and has been the star of many of his own films. Here, we’ve ranked the best of the best, including ones he’s starred in, directed, and written. Look up any of these if you want a night of laughs.

10

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

A spoof of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula: Dead and Loving It featured Leslie Nielsen as the iconic vampire. It was the lone collaboration between the two brilliant comedic minds, as Brooks directed and wrote the film alongside Rudy De Luca and Steve Haberman. The premise of the film is that Dracula travels to England to look for a bride. Along the way, he meets characters from the book, including Renfield (Peter MacNicol), Jonathan Harker (Steven Weber), Mina Seward (Amy Yasbeck), and Dr. Van Helsing (Brooks himself).

The movie has some good gags, particularly ones where Van Helsing and Dracula are squaring off in a “last word” competition. But the overall laughs feel basically generic, like somebody bumping into someone else or extra silly wordplay. Brooks had success in the past spoofing horror films, but this one doesn’t quite land as well as previous ones did.

9

To Be or Not to Be (1983)

A World War II-set comedy that is based on the 1942 film of the same name, To Be or Not to Be stars Brooks and Anne Bancroft as Fredrick and Anna Bronski, two Polish actors during the German invasion of Poland. At the root of the film is their relationship and how their acting troupe must use their skills to dupe German soldiers. The film features Charles Durning as the head of the Gestapo and Christopher Lloyd as an SS Captain.

Tim Matheson, Jose Ferrer, Ronny Graham, Estelle Reiner, and Jack Riley all co-star. It’s a rare historical film and a spoof film that Brooks stars in but didn’t write or direct. This movie was a big flop at the box office, earning only $13M against a $9M budget. Durning did earn an Academy Award nomination for his role, and the film has a 55% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but don’t let that fool you—it’s Brooks gold.

8

Silent Movie (1976)

It’s hard not to appreciate who has the only speaking lines in Silent Movie. That would be the famous mime Marcel Marceau, as the film is a satire of Hollywood and the silent film era. Brooks plays Mel Funn, a down-on-his-luck film director who decides to make Hollywood’s first silent movie in years. This film, more than any other of Brooks’ career, relies on sight and sound gags, many to strong avail.

The movie was made in 1976 and features a lot of the biggest stars of the time as themselves as Funn tries to get them to be in his movie. Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Bancroft, Paul Newman, and Liza Minnelli all have cameos. Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise star alongside Brooks as the main characters trying to make the movie happen. The movie was seen as an audacious success because of its fun quirk, and it earned $36M at the box office against a $4M budget.

Silent Movie

Release Date

June 17, 1976

Runtime

87 Minutes

Director

Mel Brooks

7

High Anxiety (1977)

Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t escape the spoofs of Brooks as High Anxiety tackled many of his famous films. Brooks stars as Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, a neurological doctor hired to replace a recently killed head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. Thorndyke suffers from “high anxiety” which is a mixture of vertigo and a fear of heights. The film increasingly puts him in situations where he is at high floor levels or is doing something that invokes his anxiety.

The movie tries to be a suspenseful film as Thorndyke must try and help solve a murder. But it successfully and hilariously spoofs movies like The Birds (with Thorndyke becoming the focus of a bird poop attack) and Vertigo (the massive spinning that happens anytime his disorder is triggered). Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, and Dick Van Patten (all frequent Brooks collaborators) all costar.

6

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

A spoof on the classic tale of Robin Hood, Robin Hood: Men in Tights features Brooks in a small role and stars Cary Elwes as the main character. Robin has come back from the Crusades and finds that Prince John (Richard Lewis) has taken the throne from his brother King Richard (Patrick Stewart). Robin finds out that his house has been repossessed by John, and his family has been killed. Robin puts together a crew of “Merry Men” to try and reclaim his father’s land.

Elwes plays into the silliness of a Brooks film by showing how frustrated his character is with all of the nonsense of losing his land. He plays it off as an inconvenience rather than something that is life-changing. The jokes about Maid Marion’s chastity belt being made from Everlast always hit. Brooks puts a spin on Friar Tuck with his Rabbi Tuckman character. Dave Chappelle has an early career role as Ahchoo, one of the Merry Men. Lewis’s deadpan nature and Roger Rees’ diabolical Sheriff of Rottingham have always been personal favorites of mine. It should be noted that this movie came out when I was young, and I have a fondness for it because it was on cable TV a lot.

5

History of the World: Part I (1981)

I remember my dad showing me this movie when I was a teenager, as Brooks is one of his favorite directors. The fact that he plays multiple characters in the film impressed me at a young age. His historical parody, History of the World: Part I, came out in 1981 and skewers centuries of history during its 92-minute runtime.

The movie covers five different time periods: The Stone Age, the Old Testament, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, and the French Revolution. Brooks plays different roles in four of the segments, starring as Moses, Comicus (a stand-up comedian in Roman times), Torquemada, Jacques (a lookalike of King Louis XVI), and King Louis XVI.

Each segment is hilarious, as they cover how music was made by cavemen, how there were really 15 commandments given by God to Moses, what the Last Supper was like for someone who crashed it, how torture can combine well with song and dance, and how the lavishness of the French royalty was ultimately their undoing. The film eventually got a Part II, in the form of a TV series that debuted in 2023.

4

The Producers (1967)

I think I can speak for everyone when I say I’m glad Mel Brooks decided to bring his talents to the big screen after years of TV writing. The Producers was his directorial debut and the first film he wrote solo. It stars Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock, a fading Broadway producer, and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom, an accountant who is hired to audit Max’s accounts. While speaking with Leo, Max realizes that he can make more money from a flop than he can from a hit by overselling interests for the play and then embezzling the funds. Leo goes along with his ruse, and they search for the worst play they can find.

They settle on Springtime for Hitler, a love letter musical to Adolf Hitler, written by an ex-Nazi, played by Kenneth Mars. Bialystock and Bloom set out to produce the play in this spoof of the Broadway musical industry. Mostel is iconic as Bialystock, and Wilder is perfect as the young accountant who suffers from hysterics. Brooks won an Academy Award for the screenplay and went on to turn this into one of the most successful Broadway musicals of all time, starring Nathan Lane as Max and Matthew Broderick as Leo.

3

Spaceballs (1987)

It was the perfect way to spoof Star Wars. Spaceballs turned out so many jokes about the intergalactic epic, and pretty much all of them land. Brooks plays two roles himself in the film: President Skroob, the leader of the planet Spaceballs, and Yogurt, a wise alien who is an obvious spinoff of Yoda. The film stars Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, a mercenary whose half-man, half-dog sidekick Barf (John Candy) accompanies him as they try and rescue Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and her droid Dot Matrix (voiced by Joan Rivers) from capture by the evil commander Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis).

The cast couldn’t be better in this 1980s classic, as every character is a spoof on a Star Wars character. Instead of using The Force, Lone Starr must use The Schwartz. Moranis is particularly hysterical in the film, as he is just constantly flustered by his incompetent crew. There’s even a meta bit in the film with Yogurt breaking the fourth wall to pitch Spaceballs merchandise. It was recently announced that there will be a sequel to the classic film. It’s Brooks’ finest work in the decade.

2

Blazing Saddles (1974)

It’s hard to argue against Blazing Saddles being the best comedic Western of all time. The iconic 1974 film took on an entire genre, not just one film or film series. The movie is set in the late 1800s and features Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), a territorial lawyer who hatches a scheme to try and claim the town of Rock Ridge, which has a new railroad going in that is going to boost its value. He appoints a railroad worker named Bart (Cleavon Little) as the town’s new sheriff. Because Bart is Black, he assumes it will cause uproar with the townspeople, driving them out and making it easy for him to stake claim to the land.

But Bart is incredibly smart and quick-witted, and alongside The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), he aims to move past the prejudices and make the townspeople like him. Brooks plays three different roles: the Governor of the state, a Native American chief who speaks Yiddish, and Aviator Applicant. Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn, David Huddleston, Alex Karras, and Liam Dunn all costar in what is arguably one of the best comedies ever.

The jokes come as fast as The Waco Kid’s shots, and there are jokes in the dialogue, sight gags, and just perfectly placed silliness that encapsulates all that wasn’t really funny about Westerns and makes them funny. You could put this at number one on the list, and not many people would have an issue.

Blazing Saddles

Release Date

February 7, 1974

Runtime

93 minutes

Director

Mel Brooks

1

Young Frankenstein (1974)

1974 was not only one of the best movie years ever, but it was one of the best for Brooks, too. In his take on Frankenstein, Gene Wilder stars as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (but pronounces it Fronk-en-steen) in Young Frankenstein. I have a personal affinity for this film because it is my dad’s favorite movie of all time, and we watched it many times growing up. But despite my personal bias, the film backs it up with its incredible cast and hilarious script. Wilder is insanely over-the-top in the film, and he and Marty Feldman, who plays Igor (but pronounces it Eye-gore), play off one another perfectly. (Frederick and Eye-gore are the grandsons of Victor Frankenstein and the original Igor.)

Peter Boyle plays The Monster, and his physicality and stature are perfect for a Monster that’s actually kind of lovable. Teri Garr plays Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant, and Cloris Leachman plays Frau Blucher, the housekeeper for the Frankenstein estate. There are so many classic scenes in the film, and you’ll never hear Puttin’ On the Ritz the same way again.

Mel Brooks has had one of the greatest careers in the history of comedy, and his movies go down in the pantheon of filmmaking. His films will continue to carry on long after he’s gone, as many of the jokes still hold up over years and years of viewings. From sight gags to perfectly written puns, Brooks’ movies have done it all and provided laughs for audiences for over 50 years.