Riding on the coattails and intentionally bad wigs of Mel Brooks’s classic comedy/parody History of the World Part I, the official trailer for History of the World Part II dropped this week and promises more of the culturally inappropriate and historically irreverent laughs that characterized his 1981 film. Starting from the teaser’s initial bit, in which the co-writer/executive producer subtly mocks the presumable senility of his age, and launching into a Catholic Church marketing meeting, Hulu offers a roughly two-minute fever dream of a glimpse into an all-star ensemble including Danny DeVito, Johnny Knoxville, Seth Rogan, Wanda Sykes, and Taika Waititi. Cut after cut, the teaser features historical figures engaging in quick deadpan quips, physical comedy gags, and hysteria that characterize Mel Brooks’s outrageous sense of humor. So stay sharp, or you might miss it.

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Known for an empire of successful features in the 70s and 80s that banked upon stupidity, absurdity, taboo, kitsch, and crassness in the art of the send-up, Brooks has taken turns parodying Hollywood science fiction, Broadway, and the classic horror and western genres in his films. This includes his History of the World Part I, which sent up the epic itself and featured an ensemble cast of historical figures played by actors like Cloris Leachman, Dom DeLuise, Hugh Hefner, Gregory Hines, and Madeline Kahn (and narrated by Orson Welles). Brooks deals in the irreverent juxtaposition of things taken very seriously. Yet while parodying well-known stereotypes, religions, literature, and historical figures through the genre, Brooks keeps his irreverent commentary immersed in the present moment. “If this was on Netfish,” a man in disciple-of-Jesus-looking clothing states in the new teaser, “I would cancel my subscription.”

A Sequel 40 Years in the Making

     Hulu

“When you parody something, you move the truth sideways,” Brooks wrote in a recent memoir covered in the New Yorker. The Hulu teaser promises themes touching upon racism, reality tv, sports commentary, mama jokes, and player-style male self-aggrandizing (even if it is Jesus Christ). Rather than a film, Part II will feature as a four-part series on Hulu in 2023. And, as is usual in all Mel Brooks films, Brooks will make an acting appearance himself. “Possibly more than anyone else, Brooks epitomized American Jewish comedy in the twentieth century,” wrote Michael Schulman, the kind that characterizes “a kvetchy Jewish guy show[ing] up where he doesn’t belong…”

From banking on the zaniness of actor Gene Wilder in The Producers to the unprecedented crassness of Blazing Saddles, many of Brooks’s classic films ignored content requests that Studio execs made–and then subsequently forgot about making, according to his 2022 New Yorker interview. Instead, Brooks simply said yes to the powers that be and did what he wanted to do anyway. His generational influence on breaking taboos is palpable in comedian co-stars like Sarah Silverman and Johnny Knoxville. Likewise, the long, groundbreaking shadow that Brooks casts on the parody genre likely influenced other comedians in this all-star cast, some recognizable for their break-out roles decades ago in MTV’s sketch comedy show The State. Indeed, History of the World Part I may have come out just as they were coming of age into comedy.

History of the World Part II will arrive to make a mockery of many a decade this March 6 on Hulu.