This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish comedian Mel Brooks.
Mel Brooks
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Culture Neil Simon, A Yiddish-Influenced Wisecracker
In his heyday, the playwright Neil Simon, who died on August 26 at age 91, produced a series of long-running plays, some of them winners of significant awards, that tickled audiences as the height of the wisecrack genre. “Brighton Beach Memoirs” (1983), “Biloxi Blues” (1985), “Broadway Bound” (1986), and “Lost in Yonkers” (1991) capped a…
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Film & TV The Old Schtick Still Works For Mel Brooks
At 92, Mel Brooks is a lot of things: A Kennedy Center award recipient, a titan of both stage and screen even a vampire grandfather in the recently-released “Hotel Transylvania 3,” but for all these distinctions he reduces himself to one thing. “I’m just a Jew comic,” he tells David Denby in a new profile…
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Culture As Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine Folds, Remembering Some Of Its Best Work
Andy Warhol gave the world many things, among them that iconic Campbell’s soup can, those even more iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe, an eight-hour film of the Empire State Building from a single perspective and Interview Magazine. As of Monday, that last item, which Warhol founded in 1969, is no more. Employees of the magazine…
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The Schmooze WATCH: Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Iris Apfel Are Living Ferociously At 90+
Is there a secret to living well into your 90’s? Iris Apfel, 95, Mel Brooks, 90, and Carl Reiner, 95, don’t quite have the answer for you — but they’re sure having a hell of a time doing it. The three stars join on-screen legends Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Kirk Douglas and Norman Lear,…
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Culture Why Carl Reiner Was The Dreamiest Boss I Ever Had
At 26, after taking dictation and guff from assorted people in show business with egos ranging from inflated to absurdly inflated, I met Carl Reiner. On talk shows he’d seemed like an incredible mensch, so when I heard from a friend that his secretary was leaving, I desperately wanted her job. Reiner would be respectful…
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Fast Forward Mel Brooks Cuts Robocall for Grand-Nephew Running for New York State Senate
— If you live on Long Island and your phone rings, answer it — it might be Mel Brooks. The legendary comedian recorded a robocall for his great-nephew, Todd Kaminsky, who is running for State Senate in New York’s 9th District, on the South Shore of Long Island. Kaminsky is a Democrat running for re-election; he won…
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Fast Forward Mel Brooks Warned by President Obama: Don’t Sell Arts Medal on eBay
President Barack Obama awarded 24 American giants of the arts and humanities with medals on Thursday, lauding their accomplishments – and sharing some laughs. Comedian Mel Brooks, who Obama has said he admires for his over-the-top Western satire “Blazing Saddles,” dropped to one knee as if receiving a knighthood after he was given his official…
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The Schmooze Mel Brooks Shares Sweetest Memories of Gene Wilder
(JTA) — Mel Brooks and the late Gene Wilder — who collaborated in films such as “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein” — had a famously decades-long friendship. When Wilder passed away on Monday, Brooks was one of the first celebrities to offer a Twitter eulogy, “one of the truly great talents of our time.” Brooks got…
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Opinion How I got AI to create fake Nazi memos — and what that means for the future of antisemitism
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Fast Forward How the Jewish commandment to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ could help a woman challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban in court
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: יוטוב־פּערזענלעכקייט רעדט אויף ייִדיש וועגן אַ משפּחה־טראַגעדיעVIDEO: Youtube personality speaks in Yiddish about a tragedy in the family
מאַטי מענדלאָוויטשעס ברודער, וואָס האָט יאָרן לאַנג געליטן פֿון דעפּרעסיע, האָט הײַיאָר זיך גענומען דאָס לעבן. .
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