History of the World: Part II

Most anthologies are "hit or miss" but this one is extreme in that and, unfortunately, mostly miss. What's even more depressing is that a project bearing the name of Mel Brooks, the Grandfather of Bad Taste, shows so little of his trademark edgy humor. The funniest bit -- far FAR -- is a horribly offensive and utterly hilarious version of Jesus's capture by the Romans entitled "Curb your Judaism." THAT'S the Mel Brooks I know and love! Some bits, like the Russian Revolution, Shakespeare, the Oslo Accords, and the actual "Hitler on Ice" promised at the end of Part I show some of the old Brooks magic. But, sadly, such moments are few and far between.

I hate to use the "W" word, but not sure what other reason there is for spending so much time on Shirley Chisolm (a minor US politician from the 70's) and presenting her as such an important figure in the history of the entire world. She is presented in a seemingly endless, painfully unfunny, virtue signaling sketch based on "The Jeffersons." Another endless and unfunny bit is Jesus (who is Black, of course, along with Mary Magdelene and several Apostles) doing a takeoff on The Beatles "Get Back" documentary. There's a "Jackass" takeoff that is just awful. Other sketches just don't work, and too many attempts to comment on either the technology or social issues of today fall flat.

I'd like to say that they could make a decent 90 minute film out of the 4 hours of the show but I'm not sure. I know they could make an awesome 30 minute show... maybe a "Best Of" would work better?

If you haven't watched Mel Brooks, then don't make this your first impression -- go back and watch "The Producers," "The Twelve Chairs", "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein." Go and seek out "The 2000 Year Old Man" with Carl Reiner. Even minor works like "Spaceballs," "High Anxiety," and, of course, "History of the World, Part 1." If you have consumed all that, you can watch this and try to enjoy the good nuggets. But do NOT let this be your first impression of one of the greatest comic geniuses of all time.

Started loving it but each episode got worse and worse. The "Shirley" stuff was unwatchable. Unfortunately, it feels like it is half of the series. There were LOL moments but be prepared to fast forward a lot. The moments are worth the watch with some of the actors. Definitely enjoyed enough to keep watching.

Whomever pitched this as a series is hopefully not allowed to get paid anymore.

Now I'm just trying to make sure there is enough characters to post this review and hopefully save others from judging it too harshly. Mel Brooks is amazing. This has great moments. Not enough moments to justify so many episodes of nonsense.

Wow, what a waste of talent. As someone who has loved Mel Brooks for decades (and quoted "Blazing Saddles" on practically a weekly basis for just as long), this was a crushing disappointment.

Clumsy, forced jokes that would embarrass your average middle-schooler combined with just flat-out unfunny writing make a cringeworthy, discombobulated mess. This is also the first time I've ever seen Wanda Sykes NOT be funny. And the D-Day scene at the beginning of episode 2 was just a foul, disgusting mess. Somebody obviously thought that just having people fire stupid lines at each other quickly would somehow be funny - it's not.

Madeline Kahn is spinning in her grave.

Being a life long MB fan, this has glimpses of the old days, but current societal trends steer this series into a dull, unfunny direction. Reminds me of post 2000's SNL. Tries to be funny, is trying to be trendy, but it does not translate well into Mel Brooks humor. If the effort was to try to "tune up" the traditional Mel Brooks style of writing, Bring it into a new era, It faceplanted. It felt like younger writers were whispering in Mel's ear, "no no... this is funny stuff, it will play!" Mel "Are you sure??? This just doesn't make sense to me... but if you think so..." Don't get me wrong, I see some comic genius for sure. Noah, Alexander Bell, 1 of the Lincoln bits, the underground railroad were quite funny. Unfortunately the rest felt as if they were trying to grow a batch of Mel brooks humor in their cinematic garden and it was choked out by weeds, mired in fields of boring, ugly kudzu.

Listen, I love Mel Brooks. Love his humor, his zingers and bluntness. But this was not funny and I don't blame Mr. Brooks for that at all. If you're a fan of Ike Barinholtz, Nick Kroll and Wanda Sykes then this show is for you because they are the main characters and in every episode (Sykes being in only 7 of the 8 episodes). They also direct and write episodes. If you're looking for laughs, this isn't the show for you. I'm seriously hoping they don't make a season 2 because it was so boring and there was too much of Krull and Barinholtz that just killed it for me. Some of the bits went on too long and you just lose interest. Took me way too long to finish the last 2 episodes because I just didn't want to do it.