Watch some of the best scenes from Mel Brooks' films, including 'Young Frankenstein,' 'Spaceballs,' 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights,' and more.

Check out a list of some of the best Mel Brooks films, from 'The Producers' and 'History of the World' to 'Spaceballs' and 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights.'

An original review of the 1987 parody 'Spaceballs'

On June 24, 1987, Mel Brooks launched "Spaceballs" in theaters—a comedy starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, and Rick Moranis that spoofed the "Star Wars" trilogy and sci-fi tropes in general. The movie has remained a cult classic ever since. Read the Hollywood Reporter's original review of the film here.

George Lucas gave Mel Brooks his blessing to release his 'Star Wars' parody 'Spaceballs,' though he had one condition: 'Spaceballs' could not sell merchandise.

Mel Brooks served as an uncredited producer on David Lynch's film 'The Elephant Man' because he didn't want people to assume it was a lighthearted comedy.

Mel Brooks got his start in comedy by accidentally flubbing a scene in a play and turning it into a fourth-wall-breaking joke, something that would later become a hallmark of his humor.

The greatest satirical films of all time

This list of satires from the silver screen runs the gamut: There’s a send-up of the music industry (“This is Spinal Tap”), a zombie-filled treatise on consumerism (“Dawn of the Dead”), and an oft-misunderstood analysis of masculinity (“Fight Club”), among several other classic critiques.

Mel Brooks got his first big break in 1950 as a writer on Sid Caesar's 'Your Show of Shows,' a pioneering TV variety show.

Mel Brooks became an EGOT winner in 2001, meaning he's been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

Mel Brooks served in World War II, including a stint clearing landmines at the Battle of the Bulge.

Mel Brooks wanted Richard Pryor, then a relatively fresh stand-up comic, to star in 1974's 'Blazing Saddles,' but Warner Bros worried that he was not reliable enough for a leading role.

Brooks' Broadway adaptation of 'The Producers' was a massive hit when it debuted in 2001, and broke a record for most Tony wins.

'SNL' spinoffs have had mixed success

As “SNL” became more popular, Lorne Michaels sensed an opportunity to turn some of the show’s most popular sketches and characters into feature films. It’s a strategy that had mixed results: “Wayne’s World” and “The Blues Brothers” are modern classics, while others, like “It’s Pat” and “The Ladies Man,” performed poorly with audiences and critics alike.

Watch the 'Star Wars Holiday Special,' a 1978 spin-off that became a cult classic

The CBS television special is a hokey variety show that was widely panned after it aired and, as a result, was never officially released on home video. George Lucas had little involvement, though it did feature the original cast alongside guest stars like Bea Arthur. Interestingly, it also features Boba Fett's first appearance.

'Dr. Strangelove' is widely considered the best satirical film

Stanley Kubrick’s satire about nuclear war came just two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis and spoke to Americans still coming to terms with the possibility of nuclear annihilation. In 1989, the Library of Congress included it among the first 25 films preserved in the National Film Registry, a repository for the greatest achievements in cinema.

Mel Brooks said that learning how to drum as a kid taught him important rules about comedy, including how to structure a joke.

Steve Martin and Robin Williams once starred in 'Waiting for Godot'

The duo starred as Vladimir and Estragon, respectively, in a 1988 production of Samuel Beckett's play. Since then, the show has become an opportunity for other famous duos to engage with the theater of the absurd, including Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (in 2009, and then again from 2013 to 2014) and Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves (from 2025 to 2026). The only complete recording of a Williams and Martin production is available for researchers at The New York Public Library, though you can watch a few scenes below.

How Monty Python shaped modern comedy

This video essay analyzes the way Monthy Python embodies postmodernism and Comedy of the Absurd through its off-the-wall humor, skewering social conventions and powerful institutions through its satirical sketches and movies. The video also traces the impact the comedy troupe Monthy Python had (and continues to have) on modern comedy, illustrating how popular shows like "South Park" and "Family Guy" and movies like "Deadpool" are indebted to the famous troupe.

Before 'SNL,' producer Lorne Michaels was a performer

Michaels was a costar on "The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour," a popular show on the Canadian network CBC. As these clips show, it was a standard variety show, something Michaels would intentionally react against with "SNL."

A blend of brilliance and humor made Stephen Hawking's cameos unforgettable

Throughout his life, he appeared in numerous pop culture moments—from "The Simpsons" to "The Big Bang Theory"—showing his talent for comedy and his love of science outreach. He was the only person to play himself on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," even writing some of his own lines.

The Borscht Belt was a haven for Jewish vacationers—and comedy fans

New York’s Catskills region resorts were informally named after a dish popular with Ashkenazi Jews. The area offered affordable vacationing, as well as cutting-edge stand-up from future stars like Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers.

Michaels doesn’t care when people say ‘SNL’ was funnier when they were younger

"Generally when people talk about the best cast I think, 'Well, that's when they were in high school,'" Michaels told "Today" in 2015. "Because in high school you have the least amount of power you're ever gonna have. ... Staying up with friends later on a Saturday is great, and people attach to a cast."

The best celebrity cameos on 'The Simpsons'

As the show became a pop culture sensation in the late '80s, it began attracting celebrities eager to get in on the fun. This list ranks some of the best of those appearances, including Meryl Streep, Paul McCartney, and Dustin Hoffman.

The studio behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled promotion before its national release

Before its national release in 1975, the studio behind "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" decided the musical movie was too strange, campy, and unwieldy for most audiences and cut its promotional efforts, hoping to minimize its losses. That decision led to the film flopping commercially. It wasn't until a theater began screening the film at midnight that it caught on, attracting a devoted fanbase who attended weekly screenings and dressed as their favorite characters—a tradition that continues to this day.

The studio behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled its promotion before the national release

Before its national release in 1975, the studio behind "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" decided the musical movie was too strange, campy, and unwieldy for most audiences and cut its promotional efforts, hoping to minimize its losses. That decision led to the film's commercial failure.

A professor explores the 21st-century impact of Gilbert and Sullivan

Willard Spiegelmanis, a former English professor at Southern Methodist University, details his childhood love for musical theater legends Gilbert and Sullivan, known for operettas like "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Mikado," and profiles the theater companies keeping their shows alive.

Opera melodies from centuries ago still appear in TV and movies today

Even if you haven't witnessed an 18th century opera, you've likely heard melodies from one in modern media like “Apocalypse Now” and “Sesame Street.” Today, sports events, movies, and television feature operatic melodies even over a century after they were written.

‘Saturday Night Live’ cast rank the show's best comics

"Saturday Night Live" has held a unique role in the cultural zeitgeist since its founding in 1975, providing a national stage of silly mockery and filling our Sunday feeds with the latest impressions of public figures. In its 50th year, 50 cast members weigh in on who their favorite casts and individual comedians were. Read their various opinions here.

The best podcasts about Old Hollywood

If you’re intrigued by the gossip and scandals of Hollywood’s early years, you’ll want to check out this Vanity Fair list of some of the best podcasts on the topic. Some, like Karina Longworth’s "You Must Remember This," cover a different event from Hollywood history with every episode. Others follow a single topic over the course of an entire season, like "No Place Like Home", which explores the 2005 theft of the original "Wizard of Oz" ruby slippers.

The 10 best TV spin-offs ever

The spin-off is a much-maligned genre, often seen as a cash grab more than an artistic enterprise. This list argues otherwise, offering 10 excellent series that come close to besting their source material.

Every ‘SNL’ season, ranked

This list gives an overview of the strengths, weaknesses, and nuances of every one of the 50 seasons of "SNL." Helpfully, it also includes plenty of great sketches, acting as a compilation of the legendary show’s definitive moments.

100 of Broadway's best songs

From the pathos of "One Day More" from "Les Misérables," to the soaring "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked," this video showcasing 100 of Broadway's best songs will keep any musical theater lover quite busy. While the list trends toward modern pieces, there are still plenty of selections from classics and Tony Award winners like "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Miss Saigon."

Jim Henson's 1986 film 'Labyrinth,' an attempt to break out of children's entertainment, was initially a commercial failure in the US, though it slowly gained an audience that now considers it a cult classic.

A comprehensive history of 'The Simpsons'

This documentary explores the wild trajectory of the show, from Matt Groening's early underground cartoons to its status as a groundbreaking pop culture phenomenon.

Whitman's words have appeared in numerous shows and movies

Whitman's poems have had significant screen time in movies like “Dead Poets Society” and television shows like “Breaking Bad.”

The art of miniature sets in Hollywood

Many films utilize meticulously designed miniature sets to produce scenes that would otherwise be too big to film. While artsy filmmaker Wes Anderson is well-known for reviving this technique in an idiosyncratic style, more mainstream films like "Star Wars" and "Inception" rely heavily on small-scale sets filmed in such a way as to make them appear normal-sized. This nine-minute video breaks down how it all works.

The best cult TV shows

Before the streaming era, television shows lived and died by their weekly ratings. That led to early cancellations for several well-regarded shows, like "Freaks and Geeks," "Party Down," and "Veronica Mars." Thanks to DVD boxsets and streaming, the shows often became cult classics long after they were taken off the air.

Auditions for the US adaptation of 'The Office' included many now-famous actors

When NBC decided to adapt "The Office" for American audiences, they auditioned in several comic character actors, including Seth Rogen, Bob Odenkirk, Kathryn Hahn, and Adam Scott. Though those actors didn't land the parts, they did end up with major roles in other critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows, including "Knocked Up," "Abigail All Along," "Better Call Saul," and "Severance."

'SNL' parodied Liza Minnelli's showbiz persona

Kristen Wiig plays Minnelli in the skit, poking fun at the Broadway star's extravagance and onstage presence. Minnelli is unable to perform regular tasks without whipping out Fosse's dance moves.

The disastrous meeting of the Muppets and ‘SNL’

The first season of "Saturday Night Live" featured some of the most cutting-edge comedy imaginable. Curiously, it also featured Jim Henson's Muppets. Henson and his singular brand of puppetry had found success with "Sesame Street," but Henson was concerned he was being pigeonholed as a children's entertainer and jumped at the opportunity to appear in a recurring segment on NBC's new program. The result was a bizarre train wreck that's detailed in this comprehensive retrospective.

Watch an orchestra perform Danny Elfman's theme for 'The Simpsons'

The composer (and former member of new wave band Oingo Boingo) said that the show's main theme, one of the most recognizable in TV history, came to him while driving. It's become a widely performed orchestral piece, including by the all-volunteer Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra, which you can watch below.

HBO premiered the modern stand-up special in 1975

When they appeared on TV, stand-ups were typically limited to five-minute spots on late-night talk shows, like "The Tonight Show." That changed with the fledgling HBO, which offered comics hourlong slots. The first was "An Evening with Robert Klein," a special that would define "the hour" for decades.

Bob Hope's radio shows brought stand-up to the masses

Bob Hope’s 1930s variety shows featured comedic monologues. Unlike the tightly scripted and evergreen sets of vaudeville, Hope’s monologues leaned into topical and political humor, sometimes to the disapproval of his network.

The most controversial moments in ‘Saturday Night Live’ history

This list ranks the show’s biggest controversies over five decades, including Sinead O’Connor’s infamous shredding of the Pope, Elvis Costello’s abrupt set change, and Fear trashing Studio 8H.

Eddie Murphy avoided the show for years thanks to a joke made at his expense

A 1995 segment with David Spade criticized Murphy's unsuccessful film "Vampire in Brooklyn." Muprhy was offended and called the SNL offices to confront Spade. Murphy avoided the show through the 2010s, finally returning in 2015 for the show's 40th anniversary special, where he hugged Spade backstage.

Ranking the 50 worst decisions in TV history

Most shows bomb or never even get recorded; some that do are lost to history, having failed to impress the audience or critics. This list combs through six decades of TV production history and identifies some of the worst decisions made by management in network history. Dive into the 50 worst executive decisions here, from giving the Geico cavemen a show to Geraldo Rivera's live walkthrough of Al Capone's vault.

Watch some of Bruce Springsteen's most memorable live performances

The Boss is as renowned for his songwriting as his live performances, especially those backed by the E Street Band. Check out some of the most significant cuts from his career on the road, including a legendary 1975 set from London's Hammersmith Odeon credited with breaking Springsteen on the world stage.

Fifty backstage photos of musicians in the 1970s

Elton John, James Brown, Cher, Diana Ross, and many others all have famous photos seen multiple times on album covers, iconic images from events, and more. Rare is the unseen backstage photo of the greats, lounging or rocking out or, like Bo Diddley, frying up some chicken pre-show at the Garden. Peruse this incredible collection of candid shots of 1970s stars waiting in the wings to come on stage.

Every ‘SNL’ host who's doubled as musical guest

This chronological list details every entertainer who’s both hosted and performed as musical guest through the show’s five decades. You’ll find some interesting tidbits, like Paul Simon breaking ground as the first to do it in 1975, and some serious headscratchers, like Garth Brooks performing as his alter ego Chris Gaines.

Watch Will Ferrell's ‘SNL’ audition

Making it to “SNL” requires multiple auditions, including one in New York in front of Lorne Michaels and some of the show’s top staff. Will Ferrell’s audition for 'SNL' is one of the most legendary in the show's history. Ferrell runs through several of his classic characters, covering the stage in his singular weirdness.

'The Wizard of Oz' flopped in theaters but exploded on TV

The film cost $2.7M to make—$1M more than the average production in 1939, but didn’t recoup it for almost two decades. Its success is mainly due to television. It aired annually from 1956 to 1965 and was watched by more than 49% of all television viewers.