The one and only award Mel Brooks is adamant he never deserved: “I don’t know why I won”
When anyone spends as long in the industry as Mel Brooks, they’re guaranteed to win at least one trophy cabinet’s worth of awards, if not more. Of course, it all depends on whether what they’re making is worthy of the adulation, and in his case, a lot of it most definitely is.
After all, he created The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, three classic comedies that are deservedly remembered as a trio of the genre’s all-time greats, and two of them went on to spawn massively successful stage productions, increasing Brooks’ chances of adding to his awards collection.
That’s without even mentioning cult classics like Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, his role as the silent producer of David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg’s The Fly, or the multitude of small-screen favourites he lent his name to as a performer, writer, or producer, including Get Smart and Your Show of Shows.
Brooks became only the eighth person in history to earn EGOT status, and he was also the first comedian to achieve it. In his case, it was an EOGT, though, with the Broadway version of The Producers completing the clean sweep when it won a trio of Tonys for ‘Best Musical’, ‘Best Book of a Musical’, and ‘Best Original Score’ in 2001.
All told, in addition to his three Tonys, he’s also got one competitive Academy Award and an honorary gong, four Primetime Emmys, three Grammys, an Olivier Award, a Writers Guild of America award, an AFI Life Achievement Award, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Brooks is happy to bask in those glories, but there was one performance he didn’t think deserved the statues it received.
The veteran appeared in four episodes of the Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt-led sitcom, Mad About You, as Uncle Phil, which was enough to win him three consecutive Emmys for ‘Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series’ in 1997, 1998, and 1999. And yet, he suspected there were ulterior motives in play.
“I don’t know why I won Emmys for them,” he admitted to The AV Club. “I have no idea.” He wasn’t asked to do much more than play Mel Brooks, and while there’s obviously nobody better than that at Mel Brooks, he had a theory as to why the ceremony was so eager to shower him in near-constant praise.
“You know what I think maybe happened, psychologically? I’m Mel Brooks,” he said, entirely accurately. “‘Oh my god, I want to thank him for The Producers, or Blazing Saddles, or High Anxiety. I want to thank him; I don’t know how. He’s up for an Emmy? Give it to him!’ That’s why I think I got the Emmy. I don’t think I got it for my performances. I’ve won more awards than anybody alive. And I think it’s because they enjoy my movies.”
It was surprisingly self-deprecating and modest from a filmmaker who said the funniest movie in cinema history was one that he wrote, produced, and directed, but maybe he was onto something, not that it stopped him from accepting the awards.
