Top Comedies #1: The decline of our moral fiber.

Mel Brooks would like to think that he is responsible in some way for the vulgarity that we see in movies today. And when he says that, I think he is talking, as usual, about sex. The fictional character, Max Bialystock may have to pretended to produce a play in an elaborate scheme to defraud investors of money, but Mel Brooks (whose initials he shares, MB) probably did in fact create movies in an even more elaborate scheme just to get laid. All his heroes share this common trait. From Robin Hood to Comicus, each has lofty ambitions which are only a role they take on in an indefatigable attempt to get some action. When Robin speaks about justice and patriotism, he is playing. It is only when Marion is involved that he is really engaged. And, the heroines are just as up for it. But the thing that makes Frederick Frankenstein so much funnier than the rest is that he takes himself so seriously, he seems to fool even himself. 


But we know better. When faced with total failure, and the inevitable professional humiliation that he was so terrified of at the beginning of the movie, he finds the time for a quickie on top of the lab.

Ultimately, it isn't the sex that makes Young Frankenstein the funniest movie ever made (in my opinion). Though, that may have been a part of the original charm, in the post-Brooks age of smut filled cinema, where absurdity is delivered is with deadly earnestness, it is the desperate pomposity which Wilder brings Frankenstein that really does me in. He has a chip on his shoulder the size of the monster's schweinstukker. And it drives him to, upon meeting people for the first time, point out that he is "a rather brilliant surgeon." If only he could find a way to work through all this personal frustration.

That zealous pursuit of gravitas seeps into the rest of the movie as well. On paper, the line, "scientists are all the same, they say they're working for us, but what they really want is to rule the world!" can easily fall flat. But when shouted by a villager with a sense of righteous indignation, all the sudden it makes sense. In the end, the monster himself waxes eloquent on the need for a little respect.

There is so, so much more to enjoy. To quote. And to applaud. I won't even try to put them all down here. Rather, I'll just leave you with this: