PRESIDENT Barack Obama said about him: “Suffice it to say, in his satires and parodies, no cow is sacred, no genre is safe. He mocked the musical – and Hitler in The Producers, the Western in Blazing Saddles, and the horror film in Young Frankenstein.”
“But behind all the insanity and absurdity, there’s been a method to Mel’s madness. He’s described his work as ‘unearthing the truth that is all around us’, And by illuminating uncomfortable truths – about racism, sexism and anti-Semitism – he’s been called ‘our jester, asking us to see ourselves as we really are, determined that we laugh ourselves sane’.”
The occasion was the awarding of a Kennedy Center Honor to Mel Brooks, writer, director, actor, producer. One of an elite group to have earned an…
