How the Lunar Module REALLY worked. Apparently.

[frenat]

The hardest I ever laughed at Blazing Saddles was one time it was shown on TV. When the beans scene came on, it appeared that the network had decided that bodily function humour was not appropriate. Instead of cutting the scene entirely, they decided to remove the noises. So, the viewers got about two minutes of cowboys sitting around a campfire, in complete silence. Absolutely nothing funny occurred. For some reason, this was hysterical to me.

That reminds me of when I saw Monty Python's Holy Grail on TV.  In the castle Anthrax the censors didn't like the phrase "and then comes the oral sex" so they just cut the sound on "oral".  Then they didn't do anything when all the other girls repeated it.

[cjameshuff]

The guidance system he said wasn't installed (covering for a 200-year-old electrostatic generator design...

A Wimshurst machine disguised as a big gyroscope, driving a Marx generator cunningly hidden in a part of the rocket that was discarded while still in the atmosphere? No part of that makes sense. Wimshurst machines were archaic devices even then, and they use counter-rotating wheels that would provide no net gyroscopic stabilization (never mind that the described restrictions on maneuvers didn't actually exist). And Marx generators produce brief pulses, not a continuous high voltage. And neither is a terribly efficient or compact machine.

This is kind of like talking about the coal powered steam engine moving the rover and how it was limited to rolling on the rails...

[JayUtah]

Wimshurst machines were archaic devices even then...

They date to Ben Franklin's experiments with electricity.  Marx circuits are basically just capacitors in series.  we use them today for things like pyro triggers.  By their very nature they cannot manage a sustained voltage or current.  As I said -- technobabble.  It alludes to things that can be looked up, but which don't work the way the author implies they do.

This is kind of like talking about the coal powered steam engine moving the rover and how it was limited to rolling on the rails...

I was going to make a steampunk joke earlier, but it didn't seem appropriate.

Let's say all of this alleged assortment of cleverly disguised museum-piece electrical gadgets somehow magically produced a sustained high voltage.  So what?  As with a great deal of high-energy and free-energy woo, the line of reasoning seems to be:

1. High voltage
2. ??
3. Levitation
4. ??
5. Profit!

[ka9q]

The hardest I ever laughed at Blazing Saddles was one time it was shown on TV.

A lot of humor is based on violating the audience's expectations. You were familiar with the movie, so you expected crude language and farting at the campfire. You weren't expecting silence.

This wouldn't have worked for someone unfamiliar with the movie. Personally, I never even bothered to seriously watch it on TV, I knew it would be totally eviscerated. In fact, they remove so much they had to pad it out by including some alternate scenes, including footage of Sheriff Bart capturing Mongo by about half a dozen different methods not shown in the normal cut because they simply weren't as funny as "Mongo like candy"...BOOM!

I see there's a "high school edition" for Avenue Q. I just don't see how it could possibly not eviscerate the entire play.

[JayUtah]

Mel Brooks is hit-and-miss for me.  I think most of his collaborations with Gene Wilder are on par.  But my respect for Brooks as a comedy groundbreaker is quite high.  Even for the films that didn't work for me, I could see an audacity that few others would attempt.  Brooks himself harbored deep respect for the genres he parodied:  he and Alfred Hitchcock screened High Anxiety together before it was released, just so Hitchcock could have a private opportunity to object.  His only objection?  The number of shower curtain rings in the shower scene was wrong.

[AstroBrant]

Even for people who didn't care for Blazing Saddles, Madeline Kahn's performance of I'm Tired was one of the funniest bits of truly classic comedy I have ever seen. Her character in the movie was an absolute hoot. That whole sleazy, Germanic/New York/Jewish(?) thing,...so "Mel Brooks" and so hilarious.

SCHNITZENGRUBEN FOR ALL!!

[Bryanpoprobson]

One of the funniest Mel Brooks scenes, is a bit from the producers. They are trying to persuade the mad old German to part with his script for Springtime for Hitler and they are all having a drink together. The mad old German comes out with this classic...

"Nobody ever said a bad word about Winston Churchill, did they? No! 'Win with Winnie!' Churchill! With his cigars. With his brandy. And his rotten painting, rotten! Hitler - there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon! Two Coats!"

[JayUtah]

Her character in the movie was an absolute hoot.

Madeleine Kahn was a comic genius, and not just under Brooks' direction.  Gene Wilder too.  About ten years ago I had the opportunity to chat for about an hour with Cloris Leachman, and she spoke very highly of Mel Brooks.