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Mel Brooks was born in 1926, prior to the advent of talkies and television. He grew up worshiping the vaudevillian likes of Groucho Marx, Al Jolson, and George Jessel. Given the anarchic, anything-for-a-laugh quality of his best movies, you'd think Brooks' allegiances would be tightly aligned with Groucho. But while he's on the record with his affection for the Marx Brothers' work, he was especially enamored of Eddie Cantor.

For most people in this day and age, Cantor is a name more than a personality. The worst that can be said about him is that he was a song-and-dance man who, like Jolson, mimicked African-American entertainers in blackface to bolster his appeal. But Cantor was a born, trailblazing Jewish entertainer, and his comedic rambunctiousness kicked down the door for people like Brooks, who lacked the patience to craft a meticulously structured screwball masterpiece like Ernst Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise" or...

If you've never watched the 1981 Mel Brooks film "The History of the World, Part I," now is the time to do it. All these years later, a sequel series, "The History of the World, Part II," is hitting Hulu in March. Even if you haven't seen it, you've definitely heard people quote it, from the Torquemada musical number in The Spanish Inquisition segment to lines like, "It's good to be the king," and the "No, no, yes" song from Madeline Kahn. I feel pretty confident when I say that it's one of the funniest movies of all time, and I'm hardly alone in that sentiment.

"History of the World, Part I" is irreverent and absolutely stupid in the most wonderful way, and even after dozens of viewings, I still giggle to myself about parts of it whenever they cross my mind. Not only did Brooks write, direct, and star as Moses,...