I hate Mel Brooks movies. But I like this one.
Humor is completely subjective.
If this thread had occurred six months ago, your observation would not be true, as I was living in Oakland.
Funny, I watched this movie this afternoon, too. It was a tradition in my family to watch it every Halloween, so I don’t laugh as much as I did once upon a time… though the scene when Madeleine Kahn arrives at the castle, and Marty Feldman snarls and bites her fox fur **still ** makes me burst out laughing every time. Comedy gold!
Speaking of which…come on, Madeleine Kahn! Who couldn’t be in love with her after seeing this? She’s so cute!
Kiwi vote her for funny, funny, funny.
Sorry you didn’t get the laughs Otto - for what ever reason.
Maureen beat me to my favourite (what hump?) but I also love the whole hermit scene (let me light that for you) and the don’t let me out/let me out! exchange.
Classic stuff.
The thing is Otto, is that although you have managed to not see YF all these years, you probably have seen the movies that were built upon this film. For example: Airplane!
So seeing the imitations of, and the improvements upon YF, has spoiled it for you.
I recently watched YF after not having seen it in quite a few years, and I noticed that now, the pacing seems to be so much slower than I remember it to be. As I was watching, I got the feeling that Mel was trying to make sure that the audience got all of the bits.
It’s still got some of the funniest lines ever written.
“Walk this way.”
“…this way…”
Another vote for funny!
Another vote for the “walk this way” bit!
mm
Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite Comedies.
Otto, what comedies do you like?
Does Airplane!, Blues Brothers, Ghost Busters, Animal House do anything for you?
A riot is an ugly thing…and I think its about time we had one!
Just for the record, I got every joke told in the movie. There is a difference between not getting a joke and not finding the joke funny. It’s not like the jokes are on some elevated plane that mere plodding mortals are unable to comprehend. So y’all can pretty well stuff the condescension, if that’s all you’re here for.
Also for the record, I like Blazing Saddles, To Be or Not To Be and most of History of the World, Part I. I was mostly amused by High Anxiety. I didn’t like what I saw of Spaceballs and I’m still angry that I actually paid to see Dracula: Dead and Loving It! in a theatre. It’s not like I’m missing the “Mel Brooks can be funny” gene.
Nope, this was Fox Movie Channel. Uncut (AFAIK), unedited and uninterrupted. Just unfunny.
Airplane and Animal House I like. Blues Brothers is OK, I’m not as enamored of it as others are. Ghostbusters I used to like but I’ve seen it too many times. Bill Murray’s schtick was funnier when I was younger, now not so much.
I have the Monty Python TV series on DVD, The Young Ones, most of the MST3Ks that have been released and tapes of others, Strangers With Candy, Family Guy, Wonderfalls, most of Buffy and Angel. I loved the wave of smart dumb comedies that came out a few years ago, like Bring it On, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Sugar and Spice, Dodgeball, stuff like that. The Thin Man series is one of my favorite. And I think Blue Velvet is one of the finest comedies ever made.
So yeah, wide range of comedic tastes.
I know a couple people have already said this but if you watched it on a station with commercials then it was horribly and viciously cut up to allow for those commercials. I have seen it several times on commercial TV and each time it’s chopped up worse. They cut out a lot of the good stuff.
Like the horses neighing (even at a distance) every time Frau Blucher’s name was said.
I was watching an old rerun of Malcom in the Middle earlier today. Cloris Leachman (Frau Blucher) played the grandmother speaking in almost the same accent she uses in YF, she shows up at Lois’s house univited and says she’s moving in because her condo burned down, the oldest son (Francis) made a comment that the villagers must have burned the place down. I figured it was an homage to Young Frankenstein.
Igor, help me with the bags.
Okay, you take the blonde and I’ll take the one in the turban.
“Damn your eyes!”
“Too late.”
I saw Young Frankenstein twice during its original release, and both times it had the theater crowd roaring. Even my taciturn father was laughing.
I had the grand fun of taking my former college roommate to see this for his first time a few years back. He is American, but… well, let’s just say that compared to him I’m a guru of pop culture. He didn’t get many of the visual jokes building on scenes from the original Frankenstein movies, but he still loved it.
However, there’s something about the atmosphere in a packed theatre with everyone laughing that can make a meh scene fun.
Otto, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the film. It’s one of my favorites. But humor is, I think, the most subjective of tastes.
Gene Wilder is a comedy god. His understated expressions, his delivery…sheer genius, the lot. I love that man.
“Put…the candle…back!”
“Are you making yummy noises?”
Hey handsome!
“Was”. Gene Wilder “Was” a comedy god, before Charles Grodin and a coked out Richard Pryor took it all away in the 80’s.
I never thought it was possible, but you’re either a Brooks fan or you’re not. I honestly thought that his schtick amused almost everyone, but after introducing my girlfriend to Young Frankenstein, History of the World, and Blazing Saddles I see that not everyone likes his humor, but you have to admit that without him, the comedy spectrum would be missing more than a few colors.
This is the kind of movie that determines whether or not I could be friends with someone.
Otto, I am not your friend. Pistols at sunset (I’ll be standing on the west side of the field).
I think Mel Brooks movies suffer from the Star Wars syndrome. That is, to a kid they are comedy gold and sci-fi gold.
Just like showing the original Star Wars to an adult today and saying “Watch this, it’s an awesome classic” just because you were enthralled when you were 10, in reality it’s just “meh”.
Same goes for Mel Brooks. When I was 12 I saw these and thought “hilarious, fart jokes, play on word jokes, slapstick, and they even talk dirty and use the n-word.” What more could a 12 year-old want.
But you grow up a bit and see them for what they are and they really do appeal to the kids and are a bit “meh” nowdays.
I think those that are so fond of them are just reliving old memories convincing themselves that they are still hilarious.
Sure, I still love them but if I saw one for the first time today like Otto I’d be underwhelmed.
I like Mel Brooks; being raised in the NY Metro area, that sort of humor is endemic.
Humor certainly can be regional; for instance I find nothing humorous in any of the so-called “redneck” comedians, like Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy.
To each his own.