![\"Mel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mel-Brooks-The-99-Year-Old-Man-Judd-Apatow-Michael-Bonfiglio-2026-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ HBO Max<\/p>\n
Sun 28 June 2026 22:30, UK <\/p>\n
As the brains behind some of the most indelible, iconic, and hilarious scenes in the history of Hollywood comedy, trying to get Mel Brooks<\/a> to single one of them out as the single most thrilling should be as difficult as asking him to name a favourite child.<\/p>\n After all, for everything that he\u2019s achieved in the industry, which is more than most, he\u2019s often been guilty of getting high on his own supply. Brooks adores Some Like It Hot, but he\u2019ll always have an axe to grind<\/a> with Billy Wilder\u2019s masterpiece because the American Film Institute called it funnier than Blazing Saddles.<\/p>\n His 1974 classic is the EGOT-winning veteran\u2019s choice for the most rib-tickling motion picture ever made, but since he wrote and directed it, he would say that. On the other hand, he\u2019s Mel Brooks, and if he wants to say that he\u2019s crafted a more gut-busting flick than anybody else, he\u2019s entitled to do just that, since he\u2019s hung around long enough to become the genre\u2019s definitive living legend, no offence to Dick Van Dyke<\/a>.<\/p>\n He also showed himself to be one of the most loyal collaborators in the business, with Brooks\u2019 heyday as a writer, director, producer, and actor assembling an inner circle who\u2019d become recurring fixtures in his work, with Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, and Dom DeLuise among them, never mind his legendary, decades-spanning friendship<\/a> with Carl Reiner.<\/p>\n With that in mind, it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that another member of his repertory was responsible for a scene that will forever be seared into Brooks\u2019 memory as \u201cthe most soaring, thrilling moment\u201d that he\u2019s ever been lucky enough to witness on set, which he took some of the credit for, naturally.<\/p>\n \u201cMadeline Kahn as Lili von Shtupp singing \u2018I\u2019m Tired\u2019, a song I wrote the music and lyrics for, with her ad-libs and her near-harmonies,\u201d the star marvelled. \u201cShe was amazing in that. I think she was the best actress\/comedienne\/singer who ever lived. She was a born coloratura. She could have sang in the Met. She was the best. I was stunned by her incredible music talent and her comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n Kahn\u2019s Academy Award-nominated performance in Blazing Saddles embodied everything that Brooks loved about her<\/a>: she got to act, she got to sing, and she got to do comedy, with von Shtupp created as a parody of Marlene Dietrich, who became a memorable character in her own right, all thanks to the combination of razor-sharp writing and Kahn\u2019s unwavering commitment to going all-in.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/strong><\/p>\n It may not be the most iconic sequence in his oeuvre, and there\u2019s hardly any shame in that when there are so many to choose from, but for all the laughs and yuks he\u2019s been able to wring out of audiences from the string of bawdy capers that saw the filmmaker usher in a new age for mainstream comedy in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Kahn belting out \u2018I\u2019m Tired\u2019 thrilled him the most.<\/p>\n It\u2019s arguably not even the most memorable sequence in the picture, which says more about Blazing Saddles<\/a> than it does about Kahn\u2019s contributions, but as far as Brooks is concerned, it\u2019s the one that\u2019s stuck with him the most.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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