It is generally ranked well below Blazing Saddles, but above Robin Hood: Men in Tights, based on Mel Brooks’ sketches of the history of the world, the first part of blame for late-night viewing by teenagers. It starts with a parody of 2001 A Space Odyssey, which includes group masturbation (furry Neanderthals find their trash), and ends with false advertising for the second part, which includes “Jews in Space” and “Hitler on Ice.” Along the way, writer-director Star Brooks produced a variety of cock jokes, fart jokes, piss jokes, drug jokes, and punch lines aimed at gays, blacks, Jews, and women. Like the R-rated version of Mad Magazine, The Story, arguably Brooks’ most raw and erotic film, is saying something.
This is also the hardest thing for viewers to understand today – and not just because of the cheesy atmosphere and equal opportunities for attack. Unlike the timeless, subversive coolness of Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein or Craven Little in Saddleback, the style of the house in The Story is broad, hysterically mischievous: robberies, silly puns, clowns. The popular comedy formula today is the deadpan, drugged, bumbling hipster. Modern joke writing must navigate the minefield of humor detection without touching sensitive topics. Laughing at the past can be interpreted as an endorsement of oppression and suffering. All this could explain the unfortunate failure of Hulu History of the World: Part II, which is as interesting as a school textbook thrown in the rain.
Starring the hard-working Ike Ballinholtz, Nick Kroll and Wanda Sykes and narrated by Brooks, this guest series (premiering March 6) weaves together stories of Jesus, the Civil War and revolutionary vignettes in Russia, one of which is without vignettes or fillers. The action takes place more or less in Mel Brooks’ cinematic universe, with winks hinting at producers and red-hot saddles slamming down (notably absent: any variation of “It’s good to be king”). It was a meta-facepalm when whiny Nick Kroll resident Shmak Madman started quoting Leo Bloom’s Max Bialistok madness.
In the 1981 film, Brooks comically pokes fun at major eras—the Roman Empire, the French Revolution, and more—using boomer-era cinematic tropes: The Sword and Sandal Epic, Esther Williams-Bass Busby, Berkeley Pool Party, Mice and Film Friends. A scaled-down (read: cheap-looking) version of the series works similarly, inserting actors or guest stars into historical events and then parodying the TV show or network phenomenon. So the Russian Revolution segment is borrowed from The Kardashian Family, Fiddler on the Roof, and Instagram influencers. Galileo (Nick Kroll) appears as a renaissance experimenter between Ticci Tocci sketches. Johnny Knoxville is Jack Rasp’s host, playing Rasputin, the notorious Romanov parasite who has his penis cut off. Sykes played Shirley Chisholm, the first black congresswoman, on Jefferson’s 1970s sitcom Shirley! Jesus (Jay Ellis), the apostles, and Mary Magdalene (Zazie Beetz) appear in a caustic fashion in “Curb Your Judaism” and then in a tedious Beatles segment appear in a joking riff: roll away.
Few of these collages seem to have been developed behind the field line and are sub-levels of SNL’s satirical timidity. If not ironically, then by default the scenario comes to stone-absurd: Noah (Seth Rogen) brings to the ark not two of each creature, but different cute puppies. If you like historical humor, Cunk On Earth has some wittier stuff.
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By the fifth episode, when three Confederate soldiers (Tim Baltz, Zane McLanon, Tyler James Williams) are sent to rescue Grant (Barrinholtz) and Lincoln while Idiot Son distracts the southern vigilantes with stand-up comedy, the second part begins to find his comedic pulse and his music. Their banjo-inspired ditty “Fuck The North” approaches the level of South Park-inspired silliness (even if the entire musical number is undercooked). Josh Gad plays William Shakespeare as a diva performer in an Elizabethan room and scores with her. God bless us, the funniest passerby was Jason Alexander, notary and part-time Moher, who oversaw the signing of the treaty that ended the Civil War. Alexander’s maniacal pizza with borscht seems outdated and instructive.
As disappointing as the series may be to fans, there is a sobering lesson: the future of satire will depend on how ugly the writers and performers choose to become. Retrograde sluggish comedy stuff; Unfortunately, this half-hearted coda to Brooks’ work is just a hesitant sandwich with his knuckles in his own crotch.
Post time: Mar-03-2023