The series uniforms Jason Alexander as a Union Army notary public, books Hannah Einbinder’s Amelia Earhart on a Bermuda Triangle getaway, and tasks David Duchovny with giving the least convincing impression of Howard Cosell he can muster. Seth Rogen gives a dry performance as a well-meaning Noah, who draws the line at cleaning up after animals. Hot off his teaching stint on Abbott Elementary, Tyler James Williams gives musical lessons on northern hospitality, and how inventing the bathtub pales in comparison to the accomplishments of Harriet Tubman.
The songs, as is consistent throughout Brooks’ works, are spectacular. Sometimes caustic, always melodic, they can turn tyranny into an evening at Fiddler on the Roof. They also offer amazingly prescient teachable moments. “Someday the world won’t judge us for who we are inside, they’ll only see our surface beauty, and every heart will open wide,” Dove Cameron sings as Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, a social media sensation during the Russian Revolution.
The biggest lesson to be learned from History of the World, Part II is comedy can be politically incorrect while remaining staunchly progressive politically. This is not to say that all sides are not flayed, but the vitriol is poured much more judiciously on the people who wound up on the wrong side of the History of the World, either part.
In the film, Brooks played King Louis XVI of France. He squeezes, teases, and seizes whatever happens to grab his fancy, by royal decree, pleasing himself and taunting the audience, directly, because “It’s good to be the king.” He does nothing to humanize the aristocracy. In the series’ segment on the fall of the Russian empire, Stalin had a plan B. He is only overachieving to make up for a lifetime of humiliation. At the heart of every monster is a regular person who is irregularly monstrous.
Some of the jokes are universal, others contemporary in-jokes. At this point in time, Rasputin (Johnny Knoxville) is everybody’s favorite ‘Putin. The humor occasionally pretends to be subtle, but in the most obvious ways, like the phallic symbols Sigmund Freud’s (Taika Waititi) office. The father of psychiatry misspeaks as many references to sex as actual sentences. Though the biggest Freudian slips come in the ancient first edition of the “Kama Soup-tra.” The author loves soup and sex. If he’s not slurping, he’s eating soup. The sequence is a true culinary delight.
History of the World, Part 1 moved chronologically through time, starting with cavemen, and telling two million years in under about two hours. History is funny, but some jokes get old with the benefit of hindsight, others suffer for coming “too soon.” Brooks is not afraid to prematurely insinuate. Most history is written by the winners. Mel and his staff of writers take their historical knowledge primarily from the gossip-mongers. Those who whisper about the inbreeding of the Hapsburgs or brag about the many concubines of Kublai Khan (Ronny Chieng).
