The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection Of Unhinged Comedy

Nearly two decades before Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Mel Brooks made his first stab at spoofing the Robin Hood legend with his 1975 sitcom When Things Were Rotten, a show that lived for barely half a season on ABC before it was consigned to being mostly a half-remembered, incredibly goofy dream (plus a handful of VHS releases). But now, thanks to the cult video archivists at Shout!, the show lives again on The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection Of Unhinged Comedy, a DVD set that—in addition to several extraneous adjectives—amasses a huge reel of documentaries, short films, interviews, TV appearances, and assorted Brooks arcana, including clips like the above, from the When Things Were Rotten episode "The French Dis-connection." This particular chapter, handpicked by Brooks as his favorite, features Brooks' mentor Sid Caesar, Rotten regulars Dick Van Patten, Bernie Kopell, and Dick Gaultier, and lots of slapstick, Mel Brooks-ian silliness.