Fun fact. The line "Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent" it didn't work with other languages when the movie was translated, so the joke was adapted for each language. "Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I don't dance with wolves." "Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I don't cost 10 million dollars" "Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I accept to wear tights." Each one was a dig at Kevin Costner
and an addition to that from someone who grew up with the (amazingly funny) German dub: Ours is the 10 million version and they even went one step further. Because "cost" (kosten in German) sounds very similar to Costner. So they put it like "because unlike som other Robin Hoods, I don't COSTNER the studio 10 million dollars". which works really well in German and is just such a direct stab. Overall they were super creative with the jokes in every language as far as I can tell. Seems like all translators and dialogue authors were really keen to do Mel Brooks justice ^^
@@Bobbias Alright, translation student here, hear me out: In Germany, for a few decades we had our own specific sub-type of dub called "Schnoddersynchron" which translates roughly to something like...snotty dub. It was created by two authors of dubbing scripts over at one of the major television stations. They were supposed to do the dub on The Persuaders with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Then the station went like "oh we're broadcasting it a week earlier than planned, but you can still do that right?" and they sarcastically went "yeah, SURE" and went ahead and just wrote complete nonsense jokes for every scene, often times completely detached from the original script. The executive on the case died of laughter when he saw the end result and then went "but seriously where's the real dub?" and they had nothing else so they just broadcast the impro dub instead. Audiences LOVED it (to the point where The Persuaders was like three times more popular in Germany than it was in England) so it became a brand. A lot of comedies got snotty dub makeovers for the German market, such as the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films. We had teams that exclusively worked on writing just super funny dubs. It's not really a thing any more which makes me SO sad because I think it's a great strategy for comedies which are often super hard or impossible to translate anyways. And we could have really used a team like that for Ted Lasso - I'm currently working on a presentation on the translation of humour in audiovisual media and one of my big conclusions is that you just HAVE to have professional comedians at the ready to substitute jokes. Often times that just doesn't happen due to budget and time constraints and "but we've always given it to person xy, they can do it". But it surely would make for much better dubs.
@@sophiaro4593 there's an anime called Ghost Stories which got a dub like that in English. There's a lot of inappropriate jokes, non-sequiturs and just insane things. It took a bland failure of an anime in Japan and made it cult status in English. The show wasn't originally a comedy, but it failed so hard in Japan that nobody cared what the hell anyone did with the dub. But yeah, I typically watch things subtitled because on the off chance I understand some of the language, I can catch things that don't translate (or lose nuance through the limitations of dub/subtitles). I'm not capable of watching anime in Japanese, but I know enough that I can catch a lot of things that don't translate well.
True! Also, the whole joyful smiling aspect of it was in my opinion a direct reference to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood performance, as well as all the other heroes he portrayed.
@@gwenivercall I am glad I am not the only one who thought the movie made references to that classic too, like the bright colors of the attire, to the men wearing tights.
A few fun facts: Asneeze was played by Isaac Hayes (Chef from South Park). The boy screaming and running was supposed to be a spoof on Home Alone. The scene with Robin crashing the party by himself was a homage to the original Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn. The guy playing Will Scarlett wound up playing Robin Hood in a Hercules/Sindbad style TV show in the late 90s. (one of my favorite Robin Hood portrayals ever) The Clint Eastwood lookalike was a play on Dirty Harry (Dirty Etziel) The hangman is the same one from Blazing Saddles 20+ years prior.
The "Patriot Arrow" is a play on the "Patriot Missile". It was used to shoot down Iraqi "SCUD Missiles" in the first Gulf War which happened shortly before this movie was made. King John was played by Richard Lewis who newer audiences may recognize from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with Larry David. Tracey Ulman played the character "Latrine". Older audiences will remember her from her 80's show "The Tracey Ulman Show". Besides being a funny sketch comedy program it is probably more famous for being the show that introduced the world to "The Simpsons". The "Godfather" character was played by the famous Dom DeLuise. He was a very funny comedic actor who had parts in such hits as "Cannonball Run, Smokey and The Bandit, a host of Mel Brooks movies, as well as lending his voice to a slew of cartoon movies like An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Oliver and Company". Lastly, as an extension on "The Hangman" fun fact. He was played by the actor Robert Ridgley who some may recognize as the creepy film backer who's into young girls in "Boogie Nights", the mayor in "Beverly Cop 2" and he lent his voice to many cartoons of the 70's and 80's as well as did many promos for major networks during that time.
The scene during the training montage where Achoo was handing out eggs filled with hose is a reference to a brand of pantyhose introduced in 1969 called L'eggs, which came in an egg-shaped plastic container. In the Godfather scene the part of Don Giovanni was played by the late, great, Dom DeLuise, who also played Emperor Nero in History of the World Part 1, Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles, Dom Bell in Silent Movie, and was the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, and those are just his appearances in Mel's movies.
One thing I've realised about Mel Brooks, he's just an American Monty Python. They're extremely similar in terms of their comedy and everything they've done is a classic.
Fun Fact: This was Dave Chapelle's first movie role. Also the Dirty Ezio character isn't a reference to Sonny, but to two of Clint Eastwood's most iconic characters Dirty Harry and the Man with no Name from the Sergio Leone Spaghetti westerns.
First, I can't believe this movie is 30 years old now. Second, can we appreciate how gorgeous Amy Yasbeck is in this movie? The hair! The swooning! The chastity belt! Iconic.
Mel Brooks is a master of breaking the 4th wall. He does it in such creative ways. My favorite is still the space balls scene of them watching the VHS before the movie is done filming.
Oh, and the hangman in this movie is the same actor who was the hangman in Blazing Saddles, and the actor who played the priest who was going to marry Marian to the Sheriff played the leader of Druidia in Spaceballs. One more thing, Mel's line when Patrick Stewart kissed the bride, "It's good to be the king", was also a line in History of the World Part 1.
The King kissing the bride was a reference to the fact when a Lord married his wife, the King got to sleep with the new bride (basically "first dibs"), or something like this. I forget the exact law. Its actually not a true law of England and was a anti-English Monarch lie that for many years people believed. No one knows who started the lie/rumour about our Monarch (I'm English myself), but there is a record of every law ever written since 1066 in England and not once was it ever stated that a King had the right to sleep with a Lord's new bride. And when I saw we have everything recorded, bare in mind the English have always been 100% obessed with record keeping, to the point historically we have some of the best overall record keeping in Europe. The only things missing are things lost in odd accidents like a single part of a family tree may be missing because of a fire in the parish records or something level. Absolutely we recorded some real silly levels of details at times compared to everyone else's records in Europe on things no one else bothered. If this rule had ever been true, it would have been recorded.
The thing I love most about Mel Brooks is, there is so MUCH humor packed into his films that even the dated references dont matter because there are hundreds of general jokes like achoo and ahsneeze to make you laugh.
And even some of the more referential jokes still manage to land because they're just that silly. I mean, even if you don't get that the screaming kid was referencing Macaulay Culkin's character from Home Alone, that last scream as he runs off still works.
Great reaction as always guys. The Patriot arrow gag was a reference to the Patriot missile, which was in the news at the time. The kid who ran up and screamed straight into the camera was a Home Alone reference. Y'all may have caught this, but several jokes here, including the mole moving back and forth and the "walk this way" gag, are Young Frankenstein references.
Yep - it was a big part of the first Iraq War - Iraq attempted to draw Israel into the war by firing SCUD missiles at it, which America's Patriot missiles were shooting down (apparently at a very low rate - but it was a propoganda victory nonetheless)
I love how the fox joke didn't even land with you guys LOL. That was a British accent joke about fax machines, which were still in pretty wide use back when that movie came out.
Important point - Latrine is played by Tracy Ullman. In the late 80's, she had a brief show on HBO and during that show they played short animated clips. One of the shorts was by a fellow named Matt Groening called 'Good Night', shown in 1987, starring The Simpsons.
Fun fact. Kevin Costner actually wanted to reprise his role as Robin Hood in this movie, but they fell out over the contract. So instead Cary Elwes got the role. Also, "Because unlike some other Robin Hoods, i can speak with an English accent" Brilliant :D (and actually it was mostly a dig at the original Robin Hood actor, Errol Flynn)
Also a lot of references to Errol Flynn's robing hood: the smile in every fight scene, the shadow fight, most of the feast scene... And Cary Elwes looks so much like Errol.
26:11 The reason Cary Elwes is always smiling in the fight scene is because his character is based on Errol Flynn's classic portrayal of Robin Hood, where Flynn can be seen constantly grinning.
I too freaked out seeing Sir Patrick Stewart cameo as Richard the Lionheart when I first saw this movie, that was EPIC! A very underrated slapstick spoof from Mel Brooks!
He had played Shakespeare's Richard III, so that was a way of adding one more hint at other movies/plays/cultural pieces that were well known of at the time of the making of the film.
While they did parody the 1991 Robin Hood, it was just as much, if not more, a parody of the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. The movie is beyond iconic, and much of the film, including costumes, fight sequences and dialogue are all references to that classic film.
Basil Rathbone, who played sir Guy of Gisborne in the Errol Flynn Robin Hood, was a champion fencer. Not good at just stage fighting, he could woop ass.woth a sword IRL.
7:30 The screaming boy is a reference to Kevin from the movie "Home Alone." 12:39 This line is very interesting, because in other countries, it was synchronized differently. In the German synchronization he says "Because, unlike another Robin Hood, I don't cost the producer 5 million". 😁
That's true, and in French it was "that's for unlike others, I do not dance with wolves", a film in which Kevin Costner had the leading role and thus a way of hinting at his Robin Hood performance.
The dining hall scene with the wild boar was actually a reference to "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn made waaaay back when! It's such a gorgeous movie and well shot, I hope you get to watch it sometime!
The screaming kid was a callback to the (then recent) first Home Alone where Kevin puts on aftershave and then slaps his hands to his face and screams.
I've seen this movie so many times over the past 30 years. It was great seeing yall react to it and catch the references. Its still crazy for me to sit back and think that Cary Elwes, Dave Chappelle, Dom DeLuise and Patrick Stewart were all in a movie together.
Fun fact: the bowyer at the Maryland Renaissance Festival has a cease and desist letter hanging up from Mel Brooks' people. He had a picture of himself shooting six arrows like from this movie, and they said it was too similar to the poster (which was the point, he was trying to make it look like the poster). He decided to put the letter up in place of the picture that he couldn't display
When they said that they would 'fox' the villagers, it was a reference to an ancient technology called 'fax'. In which one might magically send a note to another place via printers.
I’ve seen this movie so many times, it’s so quotable! One thing I learned about this recently is that in the foreign dubs of the film, the “I can speak with an English accent” line was changed to a bunch of other jokes depending on the country - but they were all taking the piss out of Prince of Thieves as well 😂
just know that for lots of us over the age of 40, these were the movies of our teens/20s - sarcasm, inappropriateness, dark humor.....made us the people we are today 😂
Can't wait for the next Mel Brooks film! I'm personally hoping for History of the World Part 1, especially since History of the World Part 2 came out this year.
@@NiceDudeMovieNight Please also look at "High Anxiety" the parody of Hitchcock movies, and "The Twelve Chairs" which is not a parody at all, but still a good comedy.
Mel Brooks is a master at word play as well as comedy. The son of Asneeze is not only named Achoo in spelling of his name alphabetically, but the word itself is actually referring to "at you" as in the 90's slang of "at chu" in the old fashioned quote, "Here's lookin at chu kid" meant as a southern cowboy accent. Listen closely to *AND* watch Dave Chapelle's pronunciation *AND* hand gestures when he say's his character's name and you'll notice he is saying, "at chu" in reference to "at you" instead of the sound a sneeze makes of "achoo." Mel Brooks is the Weird Al Yankovic of film.
The Patriot Arrow is in reference to the first Gulf War, 1990-1991. Patriot Missles were used to knock out Iraqi Scud missles. Around 41 Scud missles were shot down or knocked off course.
I always loved Will's introduction. Will Scarlet O'Hara. Yanked Will's name out of the Costner movie, and plopped O'Hara at the end for the "Gone With the Wind" reference. It always made me laugh. :)
I love that, in the final duel with rottingham, the "Parry, Parry, Thrust, Thrust, GOOD!" was an off the cuff impersonation of their choreographer (who also choreographed Elwes in Princess Bride!)
I love how a lot of things are shared between Mel Brook’s movies, like certain jokes and actors. For example, That executioner is the very same one we saw in Blazing Saddles. 24:45 That wedding bishop was the King of the Druids in Spaceballs.
Fun Fact: The joke about being able to do an english accent is slightly different in other dubbings of the movie. For instance, one dubbing says something along the lines of "...for I do not dance with wolves" XD
"there's just this joy in the film making.." - This nails it.. I love movies where you can tell the cast and crew were just having some much fun being creative, funny, especially silly (making fun of themselves, hollywood, society, etc.)
They used all practical effects in this movie. It was awesome watching the behind the scenes that HBO used to do on shows. They showed them choreographing the dance scene, and setting up the armor for the domino scene lol. It was awesome.
The screaming and running kid isn't just a parody of Home Alone, but it's also a joke about the work of a town crier. So he just literally runs around crying delivering news.
"Why are they serving them in Easter eggs?" At the time, there was a brand of pantyhose called "L'eggs" which came packaged in a plastic egg. So, tights in a somewhat larger plastic egg. Mel Brooks wanted to get Sean Connery to play King Richard, but he couldn't, so he got Patrick Stewart, and he played Richard *as* Sean Connery.
the Mel Brooks line "it's good to be the king" is a call back to a 1981 Mel Brooks movie called *History of the World* another classic to check out with the same kind of humor
Definitely can’t wait for more Mel Brooks in the future! Like Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of The World part 1, To Be Or Not To Be, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It
As a few people mentioned the 1930's Robin Hood was referred to a few times in this film, I think most notably with the entrance in the castle hall with Robin Carrying the animal over his shoulders, although in the original, it was a deer instead of a boar but they changed it for the joke. Also, in the beginning of the film when you see the...camel racing competitors, it is in reference to a ratial slur for people of Middle Eastern backgrounds.
You didn't show it, but did you happen to catch the Lifesaver bit? When Latrine offers the sheriff a magic pill to heal him, it's a Lifesaver candy. That's one of my favorite little jokes that a lot of people seem to miss. Great reaction to one of my favorite movies!
I am just glad you guys saw the Kevin Kostner Robin hood first. The "I can talk with an English accent" joke is one of my faves and so many people miss why it's funny. 😊
Bonus fun: Go back and watch the bridge scene again. When Dave Chappelle is jumping from side to side pointing out the river is not a real impediment Cary Elwes breaks character and has to stifle busting out laughing. It’s clear as day if you look for it. 🎉😂
One thing I notice a lot of people seem to miss is at the end where Latrine gives the Sherif the pill to save his life; It's an actual Life Saver mint. That and so many other tiny jokes makes Mel Brook's movies so rewatchable. Try to catch all the tiny details is a game on it's own.
Out of all the Mel Brooks Movies, who HAVE TO see History Of The World. There are so many jokes in there and an amazing cast as always. It is my favorite out of all the moives.
Fuck yeah! Another timeless classic!! Thank you guys for watching these I’ve seen most of the ones you do but you always show me some new bangers! Could I suggest watching The Party? It’s an older movie with Peter Sellers
I love this film. It did such a great lampooning of the whole Robin Hood story. I don’t think Mel Brooks had another really funny one like this until Dracula: Dead and Loving It, starring Leslie Nielsen as Dracula. Fun fact: the armor dominoes scene only had armor where you could see it. When they went up behind the wall, that was just timed by the actors. Mel Brooks literally called out the timing for the guys on the other side to start falling over.
The Sheriff of Rottingham is played by Roger Reese who, for a long time, was known for Shakespeare and serious drama at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He played the lead in their adaptation of "Nicholas Nickleby", then came to the U.S and appeared on shows like "Cheers" and "The West Wing". 🥰
I think you guys would like "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye. It's another parody of Robin Hood films from all the way back in 1955. Some of the humor is a little cheesy, but I think it's one of the funniest films ever made. So well-written, and Danny Kaye was one of the greatest comic actors in history.
@@JoeMama410 Yes, there's, I think ONE person in all of RUclips who has reacted to it. Also, Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs is in desperate need of some attention.
@@JoeMama410 Jill Bearup just recently did a fight review of the climatic fight in The Court Jester so it might inspire some people to react to it. If your looking to see it it is titled "Get it? Got it. Good!"
One of my all time fav Mel Brooks films. I was 5 when this came out lol Cary Elwes tapped into his Errol Flynn so hard in this one and I love it so, so much
Given the kind of stuff you like, one that you might want to check out is "Undercover Brother", starring Eddie Griffin in a role that was absolutely perfect for him. It's both a great spoof of blaxploitation films and a witty and perceptive take on race relations, with a great cast. Watching you watch Men in Tights was fun, yet at the same time made me feel so old, from which jokes you weren't catching. The screaming kid being the kid from Home Alone, the eggs for the panty hose being a reference to L'Eggs panty hose, that came in (somewhat smaller) plastic eggs, the patriot arrow/patriot missile, the Western music for the Clint Eastwood lookalike, and so on. I'm glad you'd seen Prince of Thieves, since so much of the movie was a direct spoof of it. I'm sure someone else has mentioned it by now, but "It's good to be the king" is a line from Mel Brooks' movie "History of the World Part 1", which is also loads of fun and worth reacting to if you haven't seen it yet.
--You got part of the Clint Eastwood character references. The cigar is his for his character from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. --The old man disguise Robin wore is like the classic Disney Animation.
I've lost track of how many times I've seen this movie, and I still laughed to the point of my eyes starting to get wet in the corners just watching along!
As always, a great reaction. I love this movie and I'm glad you loved it too. I'm not sure if you caught it, but the hangman in this is a reference to ( and is played by the same actor) as the hangman in Blazing Saddles. I agree you should do History of the World, Part 1. I also recommend Mel Brooks' "Dracula Dead and loving it." It is not as popular, but I love it and you get Leslie Nielsen as Dracula.
Fun fact. The line "Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent" it didn't work with other languages when the movie was translated, so the joke was adapted for each language.
"Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I don't dance with wolves."
"Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I don't cost 10 million dollars"
"Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I accept to wear tights."
Each one was a dig at Kevin Costner
and an addition to that from someone who grew up with the (amazingly funny) German dub: Ours is the 10 million version and they even went one step further. Because "cost" (kosten in German) sounds very similar to Costner. So they put it like "because unlike som other Robin Hoods, I don't COSTNER the studio 10 million dollars". which works really well in German and is just such a direct stab. Overall they were super creative with the jokes in every language as far as I can tell. Seems like all translators and dialogue authors were really keen to do Mel Brooks justice ^^
@@sophiaro4593holy shit, that's amazing. Usually when an untranslatable joke happens it just gets butchered.
@@Bobbias Alright, translation student here, hear me out: In Germany, for a few decades we had our own specific sub-type of dub called "Schnoddersynchron" which translates roughly to something like...snotty dub. It was created by two authors of dubbing scripts over at one of the major television stations. They were supposed to do the dub on The Persuaders with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Then the station went like "oh we're broadcasting it a week earlier than planned, but you can still do that right?" and they sarcastically went "yeah, SURE" and went ahead and just wrote complete nonsense jokes for every scene, often times completely detached from the original script. The executive on the case died of laughter when he saw the end result and then went "but seriously where's the real dub?" and they had nothing else so they just broadcast the impro dub instead. Audiences LOVED it (to the point where The Persuaders was like three times more popular in Germany than it was in England) so it became a brand. A lot of comedies got snotty dub makeovers for the German market, such as the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films. We had teams that exclusively worked on writing just super funny dubs. It's not really a thing any more which makes me SO sad because I think it's a great strategy for comedies which are often super hard or impossible to translate anyways. And we could have really used a team like that for Ted Lasso - I'm currently working on a presentation on the translation of humour in audiovisual media and one of my big conclusions is that you just HAVE to have professional comedians at the ready to substitute jokes. Often times that just doesn't happen due to budget and time constraints and "but we've always given it to person xy, they can do it". But it surely would make for much better dubs.
@@sophiaro4593 there's an anime called Ghost Stories which got a dub like that in English. There's a lot of inappropriate jokes, non-sequiturs and just insane things. It took a bland failure of an anime in Japan and made it cult status in English. The show wasn't originally a comedy, but it failed so hard in Japan that nobody cared what the hell anyone did with the dub.
But yeah, I typically watch things subtitled because on the off chance I understand some of the language, I can catch things that don't translate (or lose nuance through the limitations of dub/subtitles). I'm not capable of watching anime in Japanese, but I know enough that I can catch a lot of things that don't translate well.
@@sophiaro4593 that's such cool extra info, thank you very much for that! And I do too miss the good old funny german dubs of that era.
Rest in peace, Roger Rees (Sheriff of Rottingham). A brilliant actor ❤😊
I totally thought that was Rowen Atkinson. Now I know
Ironic how Cary Elwes embodies Robin Hood way better in a parody film than Kevin Costner does in a serious film
He does have a British accent
True! Also, the whole joyful smiling aspect of it was in my opinion a direct reference to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood performance, as well as all the other heroes he portrayed.
Cuz Cary Elwes a goat actor
@@gwenivercall I am glad I am not the only one who thought the movie made references to that classic too, like the bright colors of the attire, to the men wearing tights.
@@gwenivercall I mean, taking inspiration for a performance from Errol Flynn was nothing new to the Dread Pirate Roberts...
The metal glove slap is one of favorite jokes on movie history. So simple, yet extremely effective, and it does look like a hard hit.
Gotta get that Looney Tunes tribute in every Mel Brooks films.
I like that he holds the wrong side of his face after he gets hit.
it was something I thought of as a kid and always wanted to see
And he holds the WRONG SIDE OF THE FACE.
And classic
Mel Brooks just doesn't make bad movies, also Cary Elwes is just amazing in this movie. His comedic sense is on another level
It's a perfect blend of competent filmmaking and storytelling and incredibly silly humor. No one like him!
Unlike other Robin Hoods...he can do a British accent.
Well, there was Solarbabies in which he was the producer.
@@NiceDudeMovieNight if you guys haven't yet PLEASE watch History of the world part 1......... probably Mel Brooks best movie
High Anxiety... not so good. Other than that and that new thing, yeah, a great track record.
A few fun facts:
Asneeze was played by Isaac Hayes (Chef from South Park).
The boy screaming and running was supposed to be a spoof on Home Alone.
The scene with Robin crashing the party by himself was a homage to the original Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn.
The guy playing Will Scarlett wound up playing Robin Hood in a Hercules/Sindbad style TV show in the late 90s. (one of my favorite Robin Hood portrayals ever)
The Clint Eastwood lookalike was a play on Dirty Harry (Dirty Etziel)
The hangman is the same one from Blazing Saddles 20+ years prior.
When they got the tights out of the eggs. There used to be a company called L'eggs that sold nylons in an egg shaped container.
@@timbuktu8069 I came here to say this. Glad someone else caught that..
dave chapelle first big movie
The "Patriot Arrow" is a play on the "Patriot Missile". It was used to shoot down Iraqi "SCUD Missiles" in the first Gulf War which happened shortly before this movie was made.
King John was played by Richard Lewis who newer audiences may recognize from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with Larry David.
Tracey Ulman played the character "Latrine". Older audiences will remember her from her 80's show "The Tracey Ulman Show". Besides being a funny sketch comedy program it is probably more famous for being the show that introduced the world to "The Simpsons".
The "Godfather" character was played by the famous Dom DeLuise. He was a very funny comedic actor who had parts in such hits as "Cannonball Run, Smokey and The Bandit, a host of Mel Brooks movies, as well as lending his voice to a slew of cartoon movies like An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Oliver and Company".
Lastly, as an extension on "The Hangman" fun fact. He was played by the actor Robert Ridgley who some may recognize as the creepy film backer who's into young girls in "Boogie Nights", the mayor in "Beverly Cop 2" and he lent his voice to many cartoons of the 70's and 80's as well as did many promos for major networks during that time.
@@beantowner76 Dom's son David DeLuise is also in the movie as one of the "Merry Men"
The scene during the training montage where Achoo was handing out eggs filled with hose is a reference to a brand of pantyhose introduced in 1969 called L'eggs, which came in an egg-shaped plastic container. In the Godfather scene the part of Don Giovanni was played by the late, great, Dom DeLuise, who also played Emperor Nero in History of the World Part 1, Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles, Dom Bell in Silent Movie, and was the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, and those are just his appearances in Mel's movies.
And, of course, "Don Giovanni" was an opera by Mozart.
Oh good lord I’d forgotten all about those. Wore my fair share.
I ❤️ Dom Deluise in the Cannonball Run movies.
His funniest role was in The End, alongside Burt Reynolds.
I remember those in commercials now that you mentioned it
One thing I've realised about Mel Brooks, he's just an American Monty Python. They're extremely similar in terms of their comedy and everything they've done is a classic.
You mean Jewish Monty Python
Monty Python mixed with a good deal of Looney Tunes.
Fun Fact: This was Dave Chapelle's first movie role.
Also the Dirty Ezio character isn't a reference to Sonny, but to two of Clint Eastwood's most iconic characters Dirty Harry and the Man with no Name from the Sergio Leone Spaghetti westerns.
Didn't Luca in the Godfather talk the way Ezio did (and would rehearse his lines). One of the Godfather's henchmen spoke that way.
........... David Chappelle was in this movie?.........
DAVID CHAPPELLE IS IN THIS MOVIE!
That is awesome. I never realized it until you said that.
First, I can't believe this movie is 30 years old now. Second, can we appreciate how gorgeous Amy Yasbeck is in this movie? The hair! The swooning! The chastity belt! Iconic.
She also did a great job in Dracula dead and loving it.
So old that the pantyhose in eggs joke isn't understood anymore! That's how one of the dominant brands in the 80s sold hose!
@@Skittl1321 Leggs! :D
I remember watching this opening weekend up in Seattle when I was serving in the NAVY!!! Time freaking flies!
Mel Brooks is a master of breaking the 4th wall. He does it in such creative ways. My favorite is still the space balls scene of them watching the VHS before the movie is done filming.
Mel Brooks is the master of “Wouldn’t it be funny if this happened” sense of humor in movies
Oh, and the hangman in this movie is the same actor who was the hangman in Blazing Saddles, and the actor who played the priest who was going to marry Marian to the Sheriff played the leader of Druidia in Spaceballs. One more thing, Mel's line when Patrick Stewart kissed the bride, "It's good to be the king", was also a line in History of the World Part 1.
Thank you for covering all this! I was waiting for it
The King kissing the bride was a reference to the fact when a Lord married his wife, the King got to sleep with the new bride (basically "first dibs"), or something like this. I forget the exact law.
Its actually not a true law of England and was a anti-English Monarch lie that for many years people believed. No one knows who started the lie/rumour about our Monarch (I'm English myself), but there is a record of every law ever written since 1066 in England and not once was it ever stated that a King had the right to sleep with a Lord's new bride.
And when I saw we have everything recorded, bare in mind the English have always been 100% obessed with record keeping, to the point historically we have some of the best overall record keeping in Europe. The only things missing are things lost in odd accidents like a single part of a family tree may be missing because of a fire in the parish records or something level. Absolutely we recorded some real silly levels of details at times compared to everyone else's records in Europe on things no one else bothered. If this rule had ever been true, it would have been recorded.
The thing I love most about Mel Brooks is, there is so MUCH humor packed into his films that even the dated references dont matter because there are hundreds of general jokes like achoo and ahsneeze to make you laugh.
And even some of the more referential jokes still manage to land because they're just that silly. I mean, even if you don't get that the screaming kid was referencing Macaulay Culkin's character from Home Alone, that last scream as he runs off still works.
dated? nahhh.
Great reaction as always guys.
The Patriot arrow gag was a reference to the Patriot missile, which was in the news at the time.
The kid who ran up and screamed straight into the camera was a Home Alone reference.
Y'all may have caught this, but several jokes here, including the mole moving back and forth and the "walk this way" gag, are Young Frankenstein references.
"I gotta go home alone now" is his actual line, plus the kid looks like a Wish Macauley culkin
You also need to watch the 1938 "Adventures of Robin Hood" to get some of the references, like the shadows during the sword fight.
The hangman is from Blazing Saddles and the first priest is from Spaceballs
and the hangman was the same as Blazing Saddles
Yep - it was a big part of the first Iraq War - Iraq attempted to draw Israel into the war by firing SCUD missiles at it, which America's Patriot missiles were shooting down (apparently at a very low rate - but it was a propoganda victory nonetheless)
A movie to add to your next poll is the Clue movie, which has a number of big names, including Tim Curry and Christopher Lloyd.
Love that film, gonna have to watch it later now you reminded me of it lol
Oh yes!!!!! You have to!!!!
I love how the fox joke didn't even land with you guys LOL. That was a British accent joke about fax machines, which were still in pretty wide use back when that movie came out.
My favourite gag is Blinkin falling from the tree and brushing himself down, realising he can see, walking into the tree and realising he still can't
Important point - Latrine is played by Tracy Ullman. In the late 80's, she had a brief show on HBO and during that show they played short animated clips. One of the shorts was by a fellow named Matt Groening called 'Good Night', shown in 1987, starring The Simpsons.
Yep, The Simpsons got their start on the Tracey Ullman show. A lot of people don't know that nowadays.
@@mr.battle20 It's been a minute, for sure. :)
Wasn't it FOX, not HBO?
@@eskreskao Yeah, it was on Fox from 1987-1990.
Wait, so if Tracy didn't get cast as Latrine, we wouldn't have the Simpsons? Or vice versa?
Fun fact. Kevin Costner actually wanted to reprise his role as Robin Hood in this movie, but they fell out over the contract. So instead Cary Elwes got the role.
Also, "Because unlike some other Robin Hoods, i can speak with an English accent" Brilliant :D (and actually it was mostly a dig at the original Robin Hood actor, Errol Flynn)
Also a lot of references to Errol Flynn's robing hood: the smile in every fight scene, the shadow fight, most of the feast scene... And Cary Elwes looks so much like Errol.
Errol Flynn had a sort of Atlantic accent, didn't he? A mix between East Coast US and London that a lot of old movies used?
@@nomukun1138 Errol Flynn was actually from Tazmania, so, basically an Australian accent.
The "Patriot Arrow" was a play on the Patriot Missile. Since it was a guided missile system the arrow turns mid air and finds it's target. 🎯
It is also a play on the fact that a fired arrow is considered to be a "missile."
26:11 The reason Cary Elwes is always smiling in the fight scene is because his character is based on Errol Flynn's classic portrayal of Robin Hood, where Flynn can be seen constantly grinning.
I too freaked out seeing Sir Patrick Stewart cameo as Richard the Lionheart when I first saw this movie, that was EPIC! A very underrated slapstick spoof from Mel Brooks!
At the time he was most knows for being a Shakespearean actor. And of course Star Trek TNG.
He had played Shakespeare's Richard III, so that was a way of adding one more hint at other movies/plays/cultural pieces that were well known of at the time of the making of the film.
Leon Degrange from Excalibur and gunny from Dune as well
27:17
*King Richard enters the scene*
“Who’s that?”
*removes helmet and shows he’s bald*
“Patrick Stewart!?”
While they did parody the 1991 Robin Hood, it was just as much, if not more, a parody of the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. The movie is beyond iconic, and much of the film, including costumes, fight sequences and dialogue are all references to that classic film.
Cary Elwes was definitely cast as a parody of Errol Flynn’s iconic look and the way he smiles when fighting was very Errol 1930s style
If I remember correctly, the fight scenes with Errol Flynn are considered extremely good even today, the actors actually knew what they were doing.
Basil Rathbone, who played sir Guy of Gisborne in the Errol Flynn Robin Hood, was a champion fencer. Not good at just stage fighting, he could woop ass.woth a sword IRL.
Especially the fight with Little John on the bridge, and they end up with toothpicks, lol😂
7:30 The screaming boy is a reference to Kevin from the movie "Home Alone."
12:39 This line is very interesting, because in other countries, it was synchronized differently. In the German synchronization he says "Because, unlike another Robin Hood, I don't cost the producer 5 million". 😁
that's because of course we can't hear that they speak in proper british english accent.
That's true, and in French it was "that's for unlike others, I do not dance with wolves", a film in which Kevin Costner had the leading role and thus a way of hinting at his Robin Hood performance.
@@auChevalierRed thats so good tbh
I loved how they reacted to thr idea of a black sheriff.
Dave Chappelle says, "Don't act so surprised. I mean, they did in Blazing Saddles." Lol!!
“You can’t have unprovoked musical sequences “….Mel Brooks~”hold my beer”
The dining hall scene with the wild boar was actually a reference to "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn made waaaay back when! It's such a gorgeous movie and well shot, I hope you get to watch it sometime!
It's a fantastic movie.
The tights from the big eggs are a reference to a real product called "Leggs" which were sold in egg containers.
The screaming kid was a callback to the (then recent) first Home Alone where Kevin puts on aftershave and then slaps his hands to his face and screams.
I've seen this movie so many times over the past 30 years. It was great seeing yall react to it and catch the references. Its still crazy for me to sit back and think that Cary Elwes, Dave Chappelle, Dom DeLuise and Patrick Stewart were all in a movie together.
Fun fact: the bowyer at the Maryland Renaissance Festival has a cease and desist letter hanging up from Mel Brooks' people. He had a picture of himself shooting six arrows like from this movie, and they said it was too similar to the poster (which was the point, he was trying to make it look like the poster). He decided to put the letter up in place of the picture that he couldn't display
When they said that they would 'fox' the villagers, it was a reference to an ancient technology called 'fax'. In which one might magically send a note to another place via printers.
I’ve seen this movie so many times, it’s so quotable!
One thing I learned about this recently is that in the foreign dubs of the film, the “I can speak with an English accent” line was changed to a bunch of other jokes depending on the country - but they were all taking the piss out of Prince of Thieves as well 😂
"Because compared to other Robin Hoods, I do not cost the producer 5 million Dollars" (not the best translation but it's the version in Germany)
Wow, you guys gave me a childhood memory. Panty Hose used to come in plastic, egg shaped containers in the 80s and early 90s
just know that for lots of us over the age of 40, these were the movies of our teens/20s - sarcasm, inappropriateness, dark humor.....made us the people we are today 😂
The Patriot Arrow was based on the Patriot Missiles from Desert Storm ('91 Gulf War). They were advertised that they never missed their target.
Can't wait for the next Mel Brooks film! I'm personally hoping for History of the World Part 1, especially since History of the World Part 2 came out this year.
„Only a miracle can save him!“ 🐴
History of the World is definitely in our sights! 😏
I 2nd "History of the World"!
@@NiceDudeMovieNight Please also look at "High Anxiety" the parody of Hitchcock movies, and "The Twelve Chairs" which is not a parody at all, but still a good comedy.
Why is it Part 2?
One it's a series, two it would be funnier to call it Part 99 or something.
Mel Brooks is a master at word play as well as comedy. The son of Asneeze is not only named Achoo in spelling of his name alphabetically, but the word itself is actually referring to "at you" as in the 90's slang of "at chu" in the old fashioned quote, "Here's lookin at chu kid" meant as a southern cowboy accent.
Listen closely to *AND* watch Dave Chapelle's pronunciation *AND* hand gestures when he say's his character's name and you'll notice he is saying, "at chu" in reference to "at you" instead of the sound a sneeze makes of "achoo."
Mel Brooks is the Weird Al Yankovic of film.
The Patriot Arrow is in reference to the first Gulf War, 1990-1991. Patriot Missles were used to knock out Iraqi Scud missles. Around 41 Scud missles were shot down or knocked off course.
Wow! 41?
I always loved Will's introduction.
Will Scarlet O'Hara.
Yanked Will's name out of the Costner movie, and plopped O'Hara at the end for the "Gone With the Wind" reference.
It always made me laugh. :)
Will Scarlet is in the quasi-historical Robin Hood legends, he's not an original character for the Costner movie.
I love that, in the final duel with rottingham, the "Parry, Parry, Thrust, Thrust, GOOD!" was an off the cuff impersonation of their choreographer (who also choreographed Elwes in Princess Bride!)
The wandering mole is reference to an older Brooks' film Young Frankenstein.
Patriot Arrow is a reference to Patriot missiles.
I love how a lot of things are shared between Mel Brook’s movies, like certain jokes and actors. For example, That executioner is the very same one we saw in Blazing Saddles.
24:45 That wedding bishop was the King of the Druids in Spaceballs.
The bishop is Dick Van Patton.
I've always thought that Mel Brooks planned on making this his final movie, and so referenced all his other movies in this one
Fun Fact: The joke about being able to do an english accent is slightly different in other dubbings of the movie. For instance, one dubbing says something along the lines of "...for I do not dance with wolves" XD
That's awesome. As long as the dub takes a dig at Kevin Costner, it's good XD
This is still one of my favorite movies. It’s so funny and still holds up all these years later. Great commentary as usual!😊
"there's just this joy in the film making.." - This nails it.. I love movies where you can tell the cast and crew were just having some much fun being creative, funny, especially silly (making fun of themselves, hollywood, society, etc.)
My brother and i used to be able to recite the whole movie from memory. This and Spaceballs are my top favorite movies by Mel Brooks.
They used all practical effects in this movie. It was awesome watching the behind the scenes that HBO used to do on shows. They showed them choreographing the dance scene, and setting up the armor for the domino scene lol. It was awesome.
It doesn’t matter how much I watch this, it never gets old and I still cry from laughing so hard. 😂
The screaming and running kid isn't just a parody of Home Alone, but it's also a joke about the work of a town crier. So he just literally runs around crying delivering news.
"Why are they serving them in Easter eggs?" At the time, there was a brand of pantyhose called "L'eggs" which came packaged in a plastic egg. So, tights in a somewhat larger plastic egg.
Mel Brooks wanted to get Sean Connery to play King Richard, but he couldn't, so he got Patrick Stewart, and he played Richard *as* Sean Connery.
the Mel Brooks line "it's good to be the king" is a call back to a 1981 Mel Brooks movie called *History of the World*
another classic to check out with the same kind of humor
This is definitely in my top 5 favorite movies. Seen it so many times that I sometimes just sit and recite scenes with no provocation at all.
The constant smiling while fighting is a direct reference to the Errol Flynn swashbuckling movies, which included a pretty great Robin Hood movie!
Definitely can’t wait for more Mel Brooks in the future! Like Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of The World part 1, To Be Or Not To Be, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It
As a few people mentioned the 1930's Robin Hood was referred to a few times in this film, I think most notably with the entrance in the castle hall with Robin Carrying the animal over his shoulders, although in the original, it was a deer instead of a boar but they changed it for the joke. Also, in the beginning of the film when you see the...camel racing competitors, it is in reference to a ratial slur for people of Middle Eastern backgrounds.
I don't know if you guys remember but that hangman is the exact same hangman from Blazing Saddles.
That's crazy! We didn't catch that in the moment 😂
"Everyone is Equal in my Eye!"
A normal comedy you only see one time. But with Mel you need to see multiple times to enjoy all the jokes.
You didn't show it, but did you happen to catch the Lifesaver bit? When Latrine offers the sheriff a magic pill to heal him, it's a Lifesaver candy. That's one of my favorite little jokes that a lot of people seem to miss. Great reaction to one of my favorite movies!
This movie's one of the all-time comedy greats. Everyone commits so much, and that's what makes it work.
20:12 The best part of this is that the song is in E major, which is like the literal opposite of Bb (B flat)
Ha, that's a great subtle music joke!
It's always to fun watching reactions to first time watchers of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I love this movie so much, and I never get tired of it.
I am just glad you guys saw the Kevin Kostner Robin hood first. The "I can talk with an English accent" joke is one of my faves and so many people miss why it's funny. 😊
I love the way the sherif has a chain of old west sheriff stars over his shoulders.
Bonus fun: Go back and watch the bridge scene again. When Dave Chappelle is jumping from side to side pointing out the river is not a real impediment Cary Elwes breaks character and has to stifle busting out laughing. It’s clear as day if you look for it. 🎉😂
I love when that happens in comedy movies 😂 thanks for sharing!
@@NiceDudeMovieNight Mel Brooks bloopers are the best!! This one just happened to make it into the film.
One thing I notice a lot of people seem to miss is at the end where Latrine gives the Sherif the pill to save his life; It's an actual Life Saver mint. That and so many other tiny jokes makes Mel Brook's movies so rewatchable. Try to catch all the tiny details is a game on it's own.
YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE. GOTTA LOVE MEL BROOKS.
Out of all the Mel Brooks Movies, who HAVE TO see History Of The World. There are so many jokes in there and an amazing cast as always. It is my favorite out of all the moives.
I love this movie and I love Mel Brooks thank you
Thank YOU for watching!
The hangman played by Robert Ridgely in "Men in Tights". He was the hangman in "Blazing Saddles" as well.
Fuck yeah! Another timeless classic!! Thank you guys for watching these I’ve seen most of the ones you do but you always show me some new bangers! Could I suggest watching The Party? It’s an older movie with Peter Sellers
Thanks for the rec, and we're glad you're enjoying! We appreciate it a ton!
Another great movie, thank you. What about UHF from Weird Al Yankowic?
Thank you for recommending that movie. It's the very definition of forgotten and criminally underrated.
The screaming kid when Robin returned home was supposed to be from Home Alone.
Finally!!! I was hoping to see this eventually, it's my absolute favorite movie when I was a kid! Keep it up guys these are great!
Latrine - "I've got a magic pill..." holds up a Lifesaver candy
Cary Elwes, when doing fight scenes, is definitely channeling the Errol Flynn "Robin Hood"....
in the french dub after the sherif falls into Latrine's room, she exclaims "Now that's service!" 😂
The mole that keeps moving from prince John's face 😂
The scene where Blinkin gave Robin the key necklace, it pops open when Robin puts it on and then he casually closes it lol
This was my first Mel Brooks movie. Loved it so much.
I love this film. It did such a great lampooning of the whole Robin Hood story. I don’t think Mel Brooks had another really funny one like this until Dracula: Dead and Loving It, starring Leslie Nielsen as Dracula.
Fun fact: the armor dominoes scene only had armor where you could see it. When they went up behind the wall, that was just timed by the actors. Mel Brooks literally called out the timing for the guys on the other side to start falling over.
The actress who played Maid Marian is Amy Yasbeck, who is the widow of John Ritter.
The Sheriff of Rottingham is played by Roger Reese who, for a long time, was known for Shakespeare and serious drama at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He played the lead in their adaptation of "Nicholas Nickleby", then came to the U.S and appeared on shows like "Cheers" and "The West Wing". 🥰
I think you guys would like "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye. It's another parody of Robin Hood films from all the way back in 1955. Some of the humor is a little cheesy, but I think it's one of the funniest films ever made. So well-written, and Danny Kaye was one of the greatest comic actors in history.
I wish that movie would make the rounds in the RUclips reaction sphere!
@@JoeMama410 Yes, there's, I think ONE person in all of RUclips who has reacted to it. Also, Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs is in desperate need of some attention.
@@JoeMama410 Jill Bearup just recently did a fight review of the climatic fight in The Court Jester so it might inspire some people to react to it. If your looking to see it it is titled "Get it? Got it. Good!"
@@kelaEQ2 Oh, I have indeed seen it!
One of my all time fav Mel Brooks films. I was 5 when this came out lol Cary Elwes tapped into his Errol Flynn so hard in this one and I love it so, so much
RIP Richard Lewis who plays Prince John. Such a funny character.
Check please!
Man these guys are so genuine!!!!
Probably one of my favorite movies of all time. I could never stop laughing all the way through
The unified "Woah" at Will Scarlet shredding the arrow!🤣
Given the kind of stuff you like, one that you might want to check out is "Undercover Brother", starring Eddie Griffin in a role that was absolutely perfect for him. It's both a great spoof of blaxploitation films and a witty and perceptive take on race relations, with a great cast.
Watching you watch Men in Tights was fun, yet at the same time made me feel so old, from which jokes you weren't catching. The screaming kid being the kid from Home Alone, the eggs for the panty hose being a reference to L'Eggs panty hose, that came in (somewhat smaller) plastic eggs, the patriot arrow/patriot missile, the Western music for the Clint Eastwood lookalike, and so on. I'm glad you'd seen Prince of Thieves, since so much of the movie was a direct spoof of it. I'm sure someone else has mentioned it by now, but "It's good to be the king" is a line from Mel Brooks' movie "History of the World Part 1", which is also loads of fun and worth reacting to if you haven't seen it yet.
man did they kill this movie, s much nods back and forth. Cary Elwes ooozing that charisma from Princess Bride is the cherry on top
Richard Lewis was amazing in this movie! So sorry to hear of his Parkinson's diagnosis.
--You got part of the Clint Eastwood character references. The cigar is his for his character from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
--The old man disguise Robin wore is like the classic Disney Animation.
This movie made my childhood. I watched it so much I wore through the film and broke the vhs.
I've lost track of how many times I've seen this movie, and I still laughed to the point of my eyes starting to get wet in the corners just watching along!
As always, a great reaction. I love this movie and I'm glad you loved it too. I'm not sure if you caught it, but the hangman in this is a reference to ( and is played by the same actor) as the hangman in Blazing Saddles.
I agree you should do History of the World, Part 1. I also recommend Mel Brooks' "Dracula Dead and loving it." It is not as popular, but I love it and you get Leslie Nielsen as Dracula.
The line "It's good to be the king!" is a call back to another Mel Brooks film, "History of the World, Part I".
This is my favorite childhood movie haha and the songs are great!
My favourite scene is always when he finds blinkin as lookout and he says "guessing....I guess nobody is coming"