Реферат: Mel Brooks As Jewish Comedian Essay Research

gets the entire crowd to join him. He even tells the slave trader to call Sammus

Davis Jr. (after calling the temple and the rabbi). Eventually, the trader looks

down his pants, to prove he is not Jewish (History of the World, Part I).

Empress Nympho, Caesar’s wife, is a strange cross between a J.A.P. and a sex

maniac. She has a classic Jewish mother accent and uses Yiddish

occasionally-"We’ll shlep him along," for example. Towards the end of

the movie, Brooks calls a courtier of Louis XVI a "petite putz"

(History of the World, Part I). This is obviously a strange place to hear

Yiddish, unless the intent is comic effect. Finally, though, the "most

outrageous scene, and the one that some Jews have found quite

objectionable" is the one about the Spanish Inquisition. It should be noted

that Brooks’s portrayal of the Inquisition as being directed against Jews is

historically inaccurate. It was really directed against heretical Christians.

Because of this inaccuracy, it is safe to assume that Brooks wanted to put this

scene in as a Jewish note into his film, as he did with the other films

discussed. The Inquisition scene is filmed in a medieval dungeon. It starts by

introducing the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada (Mel Brooks) with "Torquemada-do

not implore him for compassion. Torquemada-do not beg him for

forgiveness?.Let’s face it, you can’t Torquemada [talk him outta]

anything," then the music starts. One of the lines in the song is "A

fact you’re ignoring, it’s better to lose your skullcap with your skull,"

which is emphasized by two old Jewish men in stocks singing "oy oy gevalt."

After a few descriptions of the actual torture which individual Jews suffered,

he points out that "nothing is working, send in the nuns." The nuns

perform a synchronized swimming routine in which Jews are sent down a chute into

a pool to be dragged under by nuns. At the end of the scene, seven nuns are

standing on a menorah with sparklers on their heads, while the chorus, led by

Torquemada, sings, "Come on you Moslems and you Jews. We’ve got big news

for all of youse. You’d better change your points of views today. Cause the