Mel Brooks, The Producers, and the Ethics of Satire about Nazis

Really enjoyed this one (I just joined, didn't realize you had a Patreon earlier).

Tarot

Good video. I disagree with your dismissal of La Vita e Bella though. I don't think it trivializes the holocaust at all. While I understand and respect why someone might feel differently I don't think its use of humour to deal with horrific tragedy is meaningfully different than what Brooks was doing.

Would you be willing to do a write-up or a post on the changes you made? It would be interesting to see what you changed and why as this video is explicitly talking about presentations of antisemitism and nazi-ism so it would be interesting to see what changes you made to strengthen how you presented these horrors as sensitively as possible.

There's a weird voice change that happens around 15:15

Ng Yi-Sheng

I'm so glad Mel Brooks explained why Life is Beautiful is kind of awful, because my freshman year english teacher was married to a Jew and therefor an "expert" on Jewishness and made us watch this film and praised that "laughter can survive" anything message, and at the time that made me feel really angry but I had no way to put it into words.

De

Is it too late? It occurs to me that crediting Blazing Saddles as a product of one man when there are four people with screenplay credit (and another with story credit) and it is widely agreed to be at the core a product of collaboration between our subject and Richard Pryor (at least as far as any documentary or interview that covers Blazing Saddles has led me to believe). This is important, generally, but also because you are discussing The Producers as a product of a Jewish identity, a Jewish critique of a specific set of propaganda techniques used by the Nazis. Perhaps it is an over-complication for the purposes of your video, but surely the co-authorship matters? Richard Pryor was famous for using that derogatory word that sounds like negro deliberately during this legend-making phase of his career, and I tended to attribute it's use in the film to his sensibility, reinforcing the argument about The Producers. This isn't very clear – late comment written late at night. In any case, probably should at least acknowledge Pryor.

Elisa

I'm prbably too late, but for what it's worth: I thought the video truly was excellent, I felt especially the bit where you pointed out that really the States had a lot less of a glorious history with Jews fleeing the conflict and much more culpability than people like to remember. I also just really like the structure, it's very clear and easy to understand. I guess you might want to stress the whole bit of making Nazis unquestionable monsters through the last 60 yrs of pop culture helped people supress that it was just normal people making awful decisions - you do mention that but maybe another few sentences to really stress that? but honestly in general i think this a really good summation and you make really good points in a very clear way so thank you <3

Felicitas

This is a brilliant piece of history that most people ignore. I wouldn't touch a frame. Keep it up!

I thought it was a well done video, though I agree with others that the Napoleon Dynamite clip was a bit distracting. I did cheer out loud when you mentioned the Satire Paradox from Revisionist history, as that reference had been bouncing around my head the previous few minutes leading up to that point. So I think that part was extremely well set up.

Reo Scrolls

I definitely want to hear a little more about Life Is Beautiful. Personally didn't have the 'ugh' reaction but I can see where you and Brooks are coming from. Although, was that movie meant to be a satire? I think it's more like a Disney-fied version of the Holocaust. The satire paradox is real although I never put a term to it. Because I know some things are satire but much like the Colbert example, it can go over certain heads. I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention the #CancelColbert thing from a few years ago. The person who started the hashtag clearly had never really seen the show. Then again, they also went on a bit of a diatribe on how the show 'Fresh Off the Boat' was an offensive title for a show dealing with an Asian family.

Yvette

this is an interesting point...

Lindsay Ellis

I really enjoyed the video. As usual, the way you invite the viewer to take a deeper and more critical look at the way media is consumed always interests me. If I had any suggestions, they would be minor. Possibly make it more clear what the puppet thing is? If I could also bring a little social theory into your film theory, this reminded me a lot of the work of Rom Harre and positioning theory. It is the way that Mel Brooks and others have positioned Hitler or Facism within their narrative that seems to affect how the text is interpreted.

Ainsley Thrailkill

One suggestion I do have is that you might want to show a few frames of Richard Spencer throwing the Nazi salute, because people less familiar with current events in the US might not realize why he's relevant to a discussion of neo-Nazis.

Klil H. Neori

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Made me reflect on other pieces of satire that are often taken at face value, like Verhoeven's Starship Troopers.

Klil H. Neori

This video is an absolute high point in your work so far, one little thing that felt off was around minute 5:40 when you seem to be about to talk about Brooks' treatment of LGBT people but then weirdly transition to Blazing Saddles, but overall this was one of your most fascinating explorations of a work of art yet.

This might have already been asked (I did try to check and didn't find anything) but when this goes public will the Youtube comments be shut off? I know the comments were turned off for the 9/11 videos because of 9/11 conspiracies but will the same thing happen to this video to prevent Holocaust/Israel/general Jewish related conspiracies from being disseminated? Either choice is understandable for different reasons but I was just curious.

Alan Kase

For clarity I would reword the bit about refugees (something along the lines of "concerned for the welfare of" rather than "worried about;" I see @Erin brought this up too). Otherwise, could do with a nod to sexism as well as homophobia but excellent work, and very topical!

Ugino

Also, your brief deep-voiced psychedelic asides worked well in the transformers videos, but here I think they distract from the subject material and aren’t consistently implemented enough to work well throughout the video. I get the sense that you’re experimenting with a more aggressive unhinged Jim Sterling/Contrapoints style, and I hope that this evolves as you continue to create…. I just don’t feel this video is the time to attempt it. I would scrap them or (possibly) more fully embrace them and add more bizarre glitchy digressions to the video. Great video! Can't wait to see the final version (and the comment section after you release it).

Christopher Stoll

I think one of the most salient points that you make is that 'evil' is not a separate type of human mind, but instead it is a facet of all minds. A great deal of modern media in particular attempts to reconcile this disturbing notion by creating villains that are truly irredeemable and then have them command an army of faceless automata. The true horror of the Nazis (for me) is the creeping realization that every stormtrooper is a man with a family and childhood, compelled to terrible ends by murderous ideology. So many many contemporary films make subtle use of fascist imagery to impart a vague sense of evil, without actually even attempting to delve into the true awfulness of Nazism (Star Wars, Captain America, …. Food Fight?). If the Nazis are always painted as irredeemably and intrinsically Evil and the roots of fascism are not examined and deconstructed then the cautionary value of their story is lost. 
That might be too big of an issue to tackle for a video like this, but I think it’s worth emphasizing because of how this depiction can make Fascism seem distant, easily distinguished, and kind of… cool? I see a lot of people (mostly young impressionable people) online follow this thought process- "I was just called a Nazi/Fascist. Nazi= irredeemably evil, and I am not irredeemably evil. I have a family, and hobbies, and a normal job. So clearly this person angrily criticizing my stated desire to remove the Jews, gays, and people of color from the country are incorrect and this accusation should prompt no self reflection or change in opinion in me. They are being irrational and sensitive, how else could they justify accusing me of being a television/movie villain?"

Christopher Stoll

I thought this was a very informative video with a concise and reasonable message to consider.

Callen

Maybe drop the Napoleon Dynamite clip? I found it super distracting personally. Kinda forgot about that movie and it seems kinda non-sequitur relative to the subject and doesn't get a comment other than it being from 2002 while the other stuff is commented on. It's way down on the 2002 list for this random viewer.

Rebel Girl

Yeah, I would have liked to see more commentary on Life is Beautiful too. My only other comment on something to maybe change would be that I found remembering that Napoleon Dynamite existed distracting rather than an effective establishment of time period.

Rebel Girl

If I must find a criticism, I think you could have provided more examples of Hitler/Holocaust humor that goes too far. I noticed the implicit PewDiePie shade but I would have liked to see more criticism of comedy that's more in poor taste (especially Life is Beautiful!)

Hoooooooly crap, is this good. While I was looking forward to this video, I had no idea how in-depth this would be. Loved it.

During my Teenage Years I used to hang around a bunch of Black Metal Fans, and by proxy also some inrcedibly racist NSBM People. One group of these guys in particular, had a real deep love for "Springtime for Hitler". Not the entire Movie the Producers mind you, just for the Youtube-Clip of that final Dancenumber. They would play it while drinking in preparation for a concert for example. So yeah, at least in my experience missinterpretation of "Springtime", though it might have something to do with an Languagebarrier to german and racist Black Metal circles not being the brightest of subcultures to begin with, does however exist.

Trahbox

Thanks for sharing this! As for feedback, I'm not Jewish so I don't really have anything to add or criticize on that front but I'm also not sure how this will reach beyond your sphere of influence. I like it and your comments about the Satire paradox in particular and I hope it will reach an audience with differing political opinions or even alt-right tendencies but I can't say for sure. I will, however, share this with my friends when you publish the final version to YouTube. They're a little outside your audience, but they're also big on WWII history and media and I definitely think this will provoke some discussion with us. Thanks again!

Emily Daenzer

Brooks would feel proud and honored watching this. I think that's safe to say. It is interesting to look at the evolution of satire and dark comedy. As a 90's kid, I remember dark comedy being huge. We're talking dead baby and Holocaust jokes. I was as guilty as anybody. Looking back, I think the problem with that humor was that it equated a lack of empathy with being cool and courageous. These days,I draw my line right there. The question is, does your humor have empathy?

*slow clap* absolutely amazing. I don't know what to say.

Toryana Frazier

I liked the way you brought it back around at the end to the present day. I'm scared of what the comments on this video might be on Youtube and frankly if you kept them turned off like you did with the 9/11 videos (some of my favorites from you), it might be for the best. Good job, thanks for sharing with us early!

Nana G

This touches on a lot of things I've been thinking about for a long time. If we treat the Nazis as an inhuman, incomprehensible Other, that creates a comforting distance, it allows us to shrug off all complaints about the present state of things with, "Well, at least it's not the Holocaust, right?" and therefore everything is A-OK. The more unapproachable we make the Nazis, the more we demand that all mention of them be in hushed tones with a muted color palette and John Williams music in the background, the easier it is to turn them into storybook bogeymen and thus to deflect any self-reflection. Satire can not only make it harder for Nazis to be taken seriously, it can also bring up parallels to the present day that self-serious dignified dramas can't. (mind you, I'm also skeptical of the usefulness of the emotion of guilt, in a political context, but there's some middle ground between "Sit around feeling really guilty about your skin color and do fuckall else to actually help anyone or change anything" and "Refuse to even think about historical atrocities and how to prevent them from occurring again," you know?)

Nicole Barovic

I quite liked this - one comparison that came to mind (and it may have been beyond the scope of what you already covered) was rape jokes - or the complaints by several comedians about how kids on college campuses these days are too sensitive. This seems to be from the same root as what you were talking about. Keeping the focus on Nazis and specifically Mel Brooks though already left you with probably well over 40 minutes of material - so... I did very much like the ideas presented about the use of comedy and the idea of intent. Excellent work!

Eric Riley

Please dont change this because this is honestly probably some your best work yet.

I'm also a member of the tribe, if only in culture and not religion, and I have got to say that this is really wonderful work. I think that the content is shown in a way that is well balanced and accurate while still drawing a line about what all of this means.

Smart video. That stuff about Tina Fey was especially eye opening. I'd like to see your take on Borat - that seems like a piece of smart satire that got popular among dumb kids and actual racists. South Park as well. When nothing is sacred, doesn't taboo cease to have meaning? But then again there will always be people trying to drown out discussion and critique of their views... good vid anyhow, lots of food for thought

Grace Curtis

As a member of The Tribe (and a huge Mel Brooks fan), I found this enjoyable and insightful. My mantra in life is "intent, intent, intent". You need to look at where a person is coming from, where their heart is, before you can judge the 'material'. Side note: I saw Mel Brooks at Radio City right after Gene Wilder had passed. They played Blazing Saddles, and then he came out and spoke for about an hour. I was in the second row. I thought I was going to faint, I was laughing so hard.

Hayley Nystrom

I have nothing insightful to add except that I thought this was extremely well balanced- there are so many tangents I wish you could have explored, but that's just a case of me being greedy, and not that I thought this essay was lacking in any way...

Also I'm not sure what to suggest getting rid of or changing, this is really well put together like always!

Wagner Koop

I wish I could give constructive feedback. For me it was really interesting to watch and I'll watch it again and share it when it's released. My general rule for comedy is that it should punch up. But your piece goes into more detail and helps explain how comedy/satire can succeed or fail at that. From my level of knowledge there's a lot here so it's great work. If some of your other viewers have thought through this more and can help make it better that's great, but sadly I can only consume the work, not add to it.

Kevin Lyda

(Still watching for content and suggestions but at 4:04 there's some double audio layering when you say 'Brooks') :)

Wagner Koop

I thought the video was a really thoughtful and entertaining essay on the limits of satire and I'm not sure it needed to be framed by a couple of minutes on either side about the way edgelords invoke mel brooks. To me the edgelord arguments either needed more time and attention devoted to them and the specific contexts in which they are used. Or just cut them because the video stands up really strongly as just a discussion of mel brooks and satirising nazis without the need to frame with a pewdiepie thing which hasn't been in the news for like 6 months at this point. Idk i'm not sure how coherent i'm being but I think the core points raised are absolutely brilliant and I would love to see the pewdiepie/edgelord stuff get analysed as skillfully as you did Mel Brooks and the other examples.

I'm really glad you got around to mentioning the whole "make sure you know who the joke is at the expense of" thing, my only suggestion would be highlighting that a little more. Very solid overall, from my (goyish) perspective you came across as professional and respectful.

Matthew Abbott

As always, marvelous work; incredibly informative, well researched, and respectful of the topic at hand. There was only one thing that I was unclear about in this review, and that was the comparison of Jewish refugees to the Syrian refugee crisis we have today. And when I say unclear, I was just unclear of what you meant by 'worried', did you mean worried in the sense that Americans were not as worried about the welfare of the Jews as they are today about the welfare of the Syrians? Or was it to say that they are more worried about the perceived dangers of accepting Syrian refugees vs the perceived dangers of accepting Jewish refugees during WW2. I'm assuming you meant the former but I figured if it was a bit fuzzy to me then others might have been confused as well. Hope this was helpful!

While I don't have any suggestions, I would like to thank you for making a video analysing some of the darker repercussions of satire. I think that the rise and social acceptance of extremely conservative and/or alt-right groups, which can be extremely similar to Nazi ideology, in recent times can be partially attributed to decades of using comedy and satire to ridicule Nazis beyond recognition. Decades of portraying Nazis as overly cartoonish buffoons and not as a real, present and incredibly dangerous insidious political ideology based on xenophobic and racist principals - which a huge amount of people then readily accepted and supported - has blinded people to the reality of many political figures such as Richard Spencer, Milo Yiannopolous, Pauline Hanson, Tony Abbott and Donald Trump. Almost everyone I've met would claim to have no love for Nazis and that they would immediately oppose any Nazi-ideology. But having family members adore Milo Yiannopolous, Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump tells me that they would have supported the Nazi Party had they been alive in 1940's Germany.

Erm, what's wrong with Life is Beautiful? I mean, I love Mel Brooks, I loved "The Producers" and even his remake of "To Be or not To Be" (I'm Polish, so listening to him talk in Polish was wonderful), but I also love Benigni's film. For me the movie itself doesn't trivialize Holocaust, instead it's a story about a father who loves his kid so much that he himself tries to trivialize it in order to save the kid's, let's say, soul at the time of being in the concentration camp. I know it's better to face something like that and the kid probably will when he's older (the narration at the end of the movie points to that), but at the time he's just a kid and wouldn't we all try to do everything in our power to help our kids in a situation like that? Aside from that, Lindsay, I love your video essay, as usual :)

Maciej Żywioł

You didn't miss a beat. If I noticed anything, I'd tell you. I know exhausting inaccurate or scattergun praise can be for a creative person (which can comes as an assault on your good judgement if you have doubts about your work; and you need your judgement more than praise) but that was just deep-down, satisfying, digestible, fibre for the brain and heart. Thank you, you made my night. And I think you've no need of reassurance, from the brief on feedback and that this is more about user testing so as not to inadvertently offend. Speaking as goyim only (despite the first name) it's unimpeachable on this score so whatever responses people give are likely on them.

👍

This was really good. I thought the academic nature suited the subject matter. You touched on a few things I kinda wish you went into more. E.g. you mentioned that WWII era films positioned the war as a good v evil fight, but you didn't mention that this was the view n society at the time (and basically still is today). In reality, Churchill was a fascist sympathiser who used napalm to murder anti-fascist partisans in Greece and re-install the pro-fascist royal family, and the US government knew Japan had already lost the war and only bombed Hiroshima to show Stalin that they had the bomb - not exactly 'good'. You also touched on whether simply making fascism look stupid can defeat it, and I was hoping you would look further in to what exactly fascism is. Kind of related, I love this quote from Trotsky (himself a Jew) from his 1933 essay What is National Socialism? regarding Hitler's rise to power: "At the start of his political career, Hitler stood out only because of his big temperament, a voice much louder than others, and an intellectual mediocrity much more self-assured." (The essay can be found here <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1933/330610.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1933/330610.htm</a> ).

I think it looks good. It won't speak to those not inclined to listen, for exactly the reasons you lay out in the second part. Perhaps it might be useful to make the point at the beginning that it is okay not like something. It is fine to stop watching Blazing Saddles (or Django Unchained, or both, or just one) half way through and say 'The n* word makes me uncomfortable'. There is no obligation to find things funny, or to accept that their is a canon of appropriate satire which is protected and above criticism. You get some of this nuance at the end but it felt like you it was missing in the opening.

Brilliant video! There's nothing that I feel should be cut out but I'd like to agree with what people have said about adding in more about modern-day edgelord culture and the success of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Like, whatever thing that puppet was from, I hadn't seen it before. The ending part was very affecting especially.

So good as always. Can't wait for this to go public so I can start sharing it.

Mel Vitta

patreon has eaten my response to this literally three times! suffice to say the original two responses were intellectual af and incorporated this comment... I did originally have some stuff that was critical of trump but I cut it in the interest of reaching a broader audience... I know that for the most part that is hopeless but I know a LOT of youngs will see this, and so here we are

Lindsay Ellis

Excellent as others have noted. A mention of The Three Stooges parody of Hitler seems to be missing. Was that for time or other reasons?

Mister CPU

Very insightful as always. I think maybe if you were to make any changes, it should be to give some more examples of things like this in today's culture, especially as it pertains to president Trump, on SNL and otherwise. Even just yesterday with Kathy Griffin's severed head photo. You're always so great at digging deep and explaining your ideas clearly and intelligently. Whatever you decide to change, if anything, I'm sure it'd be great. Just an idea, especially since this video has gone up THE DAY after that Kathy Griffin photo.

Max Laycock

re: IG, I'm glad you brought it up (someone also did on the YT comments) and we were literally talking about modifications to the VO this morning, and it just got lost in the shuffle because we were so caught up with tracking down HD copies of "Jews in Space" and making sure the lower 3rds were all the same fonts and the citations were correct, whee! Staff of two!

Lindsay Ellis

It's a touchy topic, there's no getting around that, but I think you handled it in a very classy way. It does drift away from Mel Brooks quite a bit, as someone else noted, but I believe it's actually providing very important context for not only Mel Brooks's humor but your entire point as a whole. For some Americans some of it can be considered kind of obvious, but not for all of them. And the non-American viewers can definitely benefit from better appreciating how American culture has viewed and currently does view these issues. To a certain extent you will always be preaching to the choir due to the audience you've cultivated, but I think it's informative to someone outside of the choir who is willing to listen. You wisely refrained from insults or accusations, which helps immensely if your goal is to change a few minds along the way.

Stephan Krosecz

I really loved it. I especially found it helpful to have the satire paradox applied directly to a beloved cult now-appreciated movie as opposed to short form like South Park or Brit Com. So I believe the amount of time devoted to both the subject (Hitler) and the piece of work (The Producers) is necessary. Subject, storyteller, intended audience and time in history are all of the utmost importance. But long form satire rarely gets a proper read because of timing. Which is why most of them become cult films and why a video like this should really highlight how long it took for Hitler's atrocities to hit American consciousness &amp; cinema and how long it took for viewers to embrace The Producers (despite the Oscar; Oscars were different then). Like sure Kael loved Strangelove and we all agree now that it's the tits but I'm pretty sure Canby or whoever was at the Times called it a "sick joke". Or what about the blowback Kubrick got on A Clockwork Orange when ultraviolence as a real thing started popping up after the release? And this is the other problem with satire in film: high profile film critics are mostly from the same demographic (male, white, over 45/50). So unless those white 50ish dudes "get the joke" and enjoy "the joke", so critically a satire film or film with satirical elements gets an initial read from only one demographic. And EVEN if that IS the intended demographic films can STILL get unfairly lambasted (Fight Club) so they don't look complicit or wildly self-congratulatory (Wolf of Wall Street) so they can pat themselves on the back for knowing that obvious shit. Like HEY maybe don't rob people. Time. That's really the only thing that properly judges satire. And you took the perfect amount of it to judge this one. Also. Fucking Life is Beautiful. Quick question: why not touch on Inglorious Basterds? How problematic is that shit? Sorry if someone brought this up in other comments. I'm too lazy to read other people.

Leslye Headland

My hope is more for non-edgelords, and as for the edgelords - my hope is it might plant a seed of thought. I've seen less concerted efforts work before, and besides, most of the edgelords are 14 - they will grow out of it.

Lindsay Ellis

Good video. Not sure if it will reach edgelords but bless you for trying. For anyone interested in this subject, there was a documentary on PBS recently called The Last Laugh which talks to various comedians about how they approach Hitler jokes.

Reuben

real talk - I love Blazing Saddles so fucking much. My editor/co-writer Angelina and I actually talked about our fear that our (possible) future children won't think Blazing Saddles is funny.

Lindsay Ellis

I’ve thought it ironic that Brooks’ title song for “Blazing Saddles” is a better song and more memorable than the title song for “True Grit” (1969) which is a conventional western. Brooks has said that he didn’t tell Frankie Laine that “Blazing Saddles” was a parody because he wanted complete sincerity from Laine which the song has in abundance. The song stays with you.

I can't speak for everyone, but I did catch myself wishing that there was a bit more time to digest some of the weightier quotes.

That was an incredible analysis that I would absolutely share with my friends...if I had any who had the attention span to watch long form critiques like this.

Neon Pipe Tobacco

That was very well thought out and effective. Great stuff.

LupinThe8th

Thank you for that note about how satire needs to have a purpose. It may be preaching to the choir, but it's a very good point that I think has gotten tarnished over time.

Brenton Clark

I've had mixed feelings about Mel Brooks over the years, and his portrayal of Judaism has generally felt awkward for me. That said, I found your video to be well done and informative, as usual. I'm looking forward to sharing it with my friends. I'm afraid I don't have any real criticism to offer. I'm confident that whatever decisions you make about it will be correct.

Everything about this is excellent.

You talked about how the gentile audience takes jewish satire and throws it against jewish people and it reminded me of how some of Chris Rock's bits about black people are often used against us by white people. Black people find that sketch funny because it's relatable, but white people think it's an indictment of their racist assumptions of us. It's the same reason why Chris Rock also stopped doing his famous "N----- vs. Black People" bit.

This David wants to second the other David.

I have some thoughts about satire but I wanted to share something that this video reminded me of. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-chris-rock-video-sterling-20160707-snap-htmlstory.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-chris-rock-video-sterling-20160707-snap-htmlstory.html</a>

I did have some Jewish consultants who brought up the folklore angle, and I considered going in deeper on that, but ultimately decided this was about post-WWII media. Though even researching this was enlightening in that regard, especially considering why Brooks is the way he is.

Lindsay Ellis

Really great work. As a (possibly thin-skinned) Jew, nothing about this rang false or seemed to overstep. Going into this, I was expecting a deeper examination of Jewish humor traditions, but I guess you'd need some Hebrews on staff to do that subject justice.

Let's just say, while I don't always agree with the man, I share Mr. Brooks' opinion on Life is Beautiful. ;)

Lindsay Ellis

I may have to release as an extra all the direct references I cut out - Nick Spencer being one, but the video originally began with a thinly veiled pewdiepie allegory (still seen in some clips in puppet form) that I worried might put off people who defended pewdiepie on perhaps... naive bases? While we're here, yes, I know, he doesn't "hate the jews" but it was a bad joke, even in the video he seems to know he shouldn't have posted it, what the hell was he thinking?

Lindsay Ellis

I feel like people are going to make comments no matter what kind of video you do. I think the video is really well-written and approaches the subject sensitively, and let's be real, this particular subject is hard to work with. I think it's good the way it is. But that's just me.

Some Strange Circus

As a member of The Tribe, I really enjoyed this video. Growing up, my sister and I watched Mel Brooks films- and especially"The Producers"- on an almost continuous loop. Looking back, they were some of the few movies in which I felt like I was "in" on the jokes, where I laughed at things my non-Jewish friends didn't. You hit on one of the most critical parts of satire- it really, really matters who is making it and why. "The Producers" wouldn't work now because it would probably be rewritten and/or directed and/or produced by white male Christians who had never come into contact with World War II or the Holocaust (coughnickspencercough). tl;dr as a Jewish woman who grew up on Mel Brooks, I give this video two thumbs up

The section prior to chapter 5, discussing the history of how Hitler has been treated in film, felt like it was a bit out of place. It would be great as a supplementary loose canon, but I sort of lost the Mel Brooks thread during those 10 minutes.

I heard an "ugh" at the mention of Life is Beautiful, which I thought was a fantastic film representation of the realities of the Holocaust. Was I mishearing, or do you dislike the movie? Otherwise (as not-a-Jew) I thought the video was a very nuanced take which I found watchable and good? It did not come off as too academic, nor insensitive.

Daniel Haas

Alright! Let's put these nazis in their place!

Callen

I had several takes where I said "Jewish", but I have several friends who say wink-wink nudge-nudge "The Tribe." That may be a New York thing - I should probably switch to one of the clearer takes since this is unambiguously about jewish identity and trying (if in my tiny youtube way) to combat anti-semitism.

Lindsay Ellis

Also, is "Jewish" no good anymore? I'd never encountered the phrase "the tribe" before. It seems ambiguous out of context, there are many tribes.

At 5:40, you say that Blazing Saddles was made in 1973, while your annotation is saying 1974.

I should also mention that my other concern (rather than putting off young edgelords) is that it might be too academic, and the language might need to be, er, rewritten or shortened.

Lindsay Ellis

I don't know that I have anything great to add, but I really admire the effort you put in to make your work sensitive, kind, and helpful &lt;3