10 Movie Directors Who Cast Actors As Cinematic Versions Of Themselves
2. Mel Brooks Knows How To Fight With Humour
No one could have expected Mel Brooks' first hit, The Producers, to be about a play glorifying Hitler and his persecution of the Jewish people. But the play is a hit, not a flop, because the audience saw it not as a love letter to the dictator (as the deranged playwright intended) but a romp.
Unlike Spielberg's undying obsession with WWII and the horrors of the holocaust, Brooks saw the best way to combat racial hated was to laugh at it.
Brooks then further inserted himself into his work; most notably in his Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs. In the film, Brooks is Yogurt, the master of the Schwartz who sees the benefits of franchises, "Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!"
This sly observation is one of many in his works, and even the directors at which he was openly poking fun viewed it as an honour (Hitchcock was a huge fan of High Anxiety).
Brook's first short is an animated film in which an audience member, voiced by Brooks, gets more and more annoyed by the "art house" images onscreen, constantly being asked to keep his voice down by other theatregoers.
But Brooks never shut up, and hopefully never will.