Our PC world will be the death of comedy warns Mel Brooks
VETERAN Hollywood comedian Mel Brooks says society has become ‘stupidly politically correct’, which has been ‘the death of comedy’.
The producer and director said many of his films – including 1974 comedy western Blazing Saddles, which satirised racism – could not be made today.
Asked if there was anything he would not parody, Brooks, 91, who dressed as Hitler in 1983 film To Be or Not To Be, told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I would never touch gas chambers or the death of children or Jews at the hands of the Nazis. Everything else is OK.
‘Naked people? Fine. I like naked people, they’re usually the most polite. We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. It’s not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king’s ear, always telling the truth about human behaviour.’
Brooks said he thought his 1974 comedy musical Young Frankenstein was among the few of his films that could be made now. He has turned it into a West End show, starring Ross Noble and Lesley Joseph, and said he hopes to do the same with Blazing Saddles.