For as irreverent as History of the World, Part II might be, there was one person for whom everyone involved had great reverence: Mel Brooks, the man behind the original film being lovingly continued for the new Hulu sketch series.
“I think for many people in this project, our world centers around Mel Brooks,” guest star
Pamela Adlon tells Consequence. “I grew up with Mel Brooks as part of my DNA, he’s in my bones with Free to Be… You and Me. I learned how to do voices by imitating him and Marlo Thomas being babies. And then ‘The 2000 Year Old Man’ with Carl Reiner, Young Frankenstein, and History of the World, Part 1 — I don’t remember the first time I saw it, I just remember it being in my body. That’s what a huge Jesus Mel Brooks is to me and Nick [Kroll] and everybody else.”
Brooks might be 96 years young, but he still actively contributed to the new project as an executive producer, writer, and narrator, with executive producers Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, and Wanda Sykes spearheading the project. According to showrunner/executive producer David Stassen, “We were just thrilled right away to meet with Mel. He already had jokes he’d been waiting 40 years to tell for the sequel.”
“It’s the most joyful thing, knowing that Mel is able to see this at this point in his life and we’re able to give him flowers. But it’s not passive, he’s actively involved. It’s a kind of a harmonic convergence, a perfect moment,” Adlon says.
While Brooks was present, the series represents a huge amount of collaboration between today’s funniest comedy voices, with nearly 100 credited guest stars from all spheres of entertainment. Some of those guest stars also contributed behind the scenes, because as Kroll explains in the full video interview above, key to making the series feel like something made today, but still true to the Brooks ethos, was the writing.
“How do you pay respect to what Mel’s work always was, which was funny and on the cutting edge and risky and silly and fun, and then bring that into a 2023 context? It really started with our writers’ room,” he says. “We tried to bring together all different kinds of folk, all under the guise of just bringing as many funny voices in as possible.”
This included writers who were present for the entire run, as well as guest writers like Los Espookys co-creator Ana Fabrego and Abbott Elementary star Janelle James. The room also included Community alum (and Shirley Chisholm expert) Adam Countee, The Mindy Project writer and Bros star Guy Branum, and Hacks co-executive producer Joe Mande.
Adlon says that she came on board the project after getting a text from Kroll, a longtime acquaintance with whom she works on the Netflix shows Human Resources and Big Mouth. “He says, ‘You wanna play my wife in History of the World, Part II?’ And I text back, ‘Voice or face parts?’ and he texts me back ‘Face parts,’ and I’m like, Ugh. And then I’m like, duh. Like, what do you say to Nick Kroll about anything? ‘Will you come clean my toilet?’ ‘Yes.’ You say yes to Nick Kroll. And so that’s how it began. Usually I never get to be part of anything cool unless it’s my thing. I feel still like I’m pinching myself.”
Adds Adlon, “These guys are genuine mensches — we gotta stay in the Yiddish. They have sechel. These are mensches with sechel and they get you right in the kishkes.”
The season features plenty of one-off sketches, but there are also several recurring storylines, centered around each one of the executive producers, as Kroll explains: “I did a story around the Russian Revolution and Ike did a story around the Civil War and Wanda did a story around Shirley Chisholm and her presidential campaign.”
While multiple directors contributed to the series, the tentpoles were directed by Alice Mathias, a veteran of sketch shows including Portlandia, I Think You Should Leave, and That Damn Michael Che. “Alice was top of everyone’s list because of her experience,” Stassen says. “And she said yes, and then reconsidered, but it was too late because she’d signed the contract and we made her do it.”
“Not true,” Mathias laughs, “But yeah, it was incredible. I mean, it’s such a great team — just meeting on the show was so exciting and to get the job was unbelievably cool. Then immediately thereafter I was like, really? I’m gonna do Mel Brooks? I’m carrying the canon of Mel Brooks into the second installment? What am I doing here? But it ended up being great.”
History of the World, Part II (Hulu)
