Book Review: Mel Brooks - Seriously

In this fascinating study, editor Sue Matheson has gathered fifteen scholars to do as the book's title suggests -- take Mel Brooks' comedy seriously. Subtitled Essays on the Films, Television Shows, and Standup, this book from McFarland publishers takes a deep dive into the humor of Brooks.

Many comedians, including that master of cinema's form and function Buster Keaton, would dismiss analyses of his screen work, stating that he just wanted to be funny. Of course that is the visceral intention of any comedy. But with someone like Keaton, there are deeper layers in his work that incorporate cultural history as well as asethetics.

With this study on Mel Brooks, we are invited to scholarly discussions of everything from classic films like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, to TV's Get Smart series, and the timeless bits Brooks performed on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

In one of the book's most interesting essays, Douglas MacLeod jr's "Hitchcock, Brooks, and Pure Cinema," the writer presents a concise analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's work and then responds with elements of Brooks' film High Anxiety which was an attempt to parody Hitchcock. This reviewer has long felt High Anixiety was one of the weaker Broooks satires, but MacLeond's comparative discussion regarding specific aspects of either filmmaker's approach and presentation gave me a better appreciation of what Brooks was doing.

Mel Brooks likely never imagined his work in any medium would attain so lofty a level as to be studied by scholars, but this book does take Mel Brooks - Seriously and does so quite brilliantly. The book is filled with insight, and allows one to appreciate the comedian-filmmaker's work on another level.

The book is available at this link: Brooks