By Anne Brodie
Disney+ has imposed strict embargos on plot points and guest stars in Mel Brooks’ comedy series History of the World, Part II, available Monday. That’s 40 years after his original film was released in theatres. Awesome then, awesome now! Sketches illustrating key moments in human history get that Brookes Touch, outrageous, gently searing (?), satirical, timely, and kinda blue. The mostly all-star cast takes to the original soul of Brooks’ oeuvre with tremendous zeal, and if I wasn’t careful, I would have surely taken a tumble off the couch laughing as hard as I did. Fun had from WWII, Abraham Lincoln, Kama Soupra, the Russian revolution, Princess Anastasia Romanoff, Shakespeare’s writers’ room, the Civil War, Jesus’ Netfish special, Shirley Chisholm, Sigmund Freud and more. Hilarity, unbound. Here’s a peek.