Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks!

Today is Mel Brooks' 86th birthday. I find it interesting that the London Telegraph should give more attention to this event than, say, The New York Times. Nevertheless, Emily Bootle's survey did not really catch many of the high point for me. (She also seems to have missed out on the fact that the "French Mistake" scene from Blazing Saddles was originally intended to be a big song-and-dance routine based on "The Varsity Drag," with the obvious visual pun being heavily emphasized. Apparently, this was too much for the suits, which is really saying something given that they did not seem to object to the farting-around-the-campfire scene!)

Still, if the Telegraph wants to play the most-memorable-moments game, I have to put in my own entry. It comes from Spaceballs and is based on the scene in which Colonel Sandurz and Lord Dark Helmet are watching themselves on a monitor showing the video release of the movie in which they are performing. Things start to go off the rails when the Colonel suggests that they fast-forward the video. What ensues is as a discussion of tense worthy of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. This culminates in the following exchange:

When will now be then?

Soon! 

 The delivery of those lines always leaves me rolling on the floor.