History of the World Part II Review (Spoiler Free!)

Yo Ho, WeRCatz here!

At last, the sequel of the 1981 Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I has come upon us!

Brooks is back with the Hulu exclusive History of the World, Part II. Instead of a film, Brooks decided to turn it into an eight-episode series filled with twisted history throughout time. With a huge cast of stars, you can see the parodies involving the Civil War, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the Russian Revolution, the story of Shirley Chisholm, and so forth.

Just like History of the World, Part I there are hits and misses:

The misses kind of disappointed me because there was either more potential comedy from the themes or maybe the jokes were better made for other topics of history. For example, the segments that Jesus and his disciple ready themselves for the Sermon at the Mount a la the Beatles’ famous rooftop concert was a particular miss. Even at some point, the segment made fun of the fact that it is a miss. On the other hand, some segments deserve more focus. Maybe some more Kublai Khan or Harriet Tubman in her own segment.

The hits were there and I enjoyed them. The Civil War, the Russian Revolution, the Shirley Chisholm show (which was informative as it was funny), Mel Brooks mentioning NO REPEATS of the first film despite the existence of some elements of Part I being present (e.g. the Roman marching song). The biggest hits were the Jackass crew pulling a parody on what Rasputin suffered before being murdered in “jackrasp,” Shirley Chisholm, and Ulysses S. Grant going on a deadly mission for booze in… West Virginia.

Honorable mentions include the revisiting of Hitler On Ice and (unfortunately short without the song) Jews In Space segments; the bad side is that there was no Viking Funeral as promised in the original film.

History of the World, Part II as a whole is ok. It rounds out as a goofy, fun series. If you’re a fan of Mel Brooks and his style of comedy, then enjoy this series. Of course, you’ll have to see the ending for some more of Brooks’ messages…