Writing comedy is hard, man. I mean, it must be; I can’t do it. I’m told I can write some decent and humorous dialogue, but writing funny scenes and trying to make people laugh on purpose? Forget it! I also can not write intrigue or mysteries. Or action. Or horror. It’s all very hard, I guess. 

But I PARTICULARLY can’t write humor, and maybe that’s why I appreciate comedies so much when it comes to movies. Kind of like a “those who can’t, laugh” kind of thing. I really love comedic films and TV shows, and perhaps that’s because I’m so bad at writing it on my own. So I leave it up to some of the funny masterminds of the ages to scratch that funnybone itch I just can’t seem to reach.

Mel Brooks‘ Spaceballs is a 1987 send-up of the Star Wars trilogy, a beloved film franchise that was, frankly, ripe for heckling by the late 80’s. Brooks, of course, was already well and truly beloved by the time he started working on Spaceballs, as he was the mad genius behind works like Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and others. He was considered one of the greatest minds in comedy, so his tackling of the legendary space opera made perfect sense.

Luckily, Brooks knew better than to do a one-to-one mockery of George Lucas’ epic, so he was pretty efficient about what he cut and what he kept. First of all, he cut the Luke Skywalker character entirely! Imagine doing a take-off of Star Wars and cutting Luke! But Brooks had the balls to do it, as he envisioned his parody of Han Solo (Lone Star) as the singular hero of his story. 

Lone Star (and his sidekick, the Mawg named Barf) are tasked with saving the kidnapped Princess Vespa from the clutches of Dark Helmet, leader of the Spaceballs. Helmet plans to ransom Vespa in exchange for the breathable atmosphere from her home world, Planet Druidia. 

It’s a loose plot, really, designed around the jokes that Brooks thought up to fill the runtime with. When you’ve got his sense of humor, who needs the fine details?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ It’s a Mel Brooks movie, so let’s face it: there are a lot of quotable lines and funny sight gags here. Brooks knows how to write moments that really stick with you. So whether it’s combing the desert, a brilliant mockery of Star Wars‘ own obsession with merchandising, or “I see your Schwartz is as big as mine”, there are scenes throughout Spaceballs that will tickle your funny bone.

I will confess to not being the world’s BIGGEST Brooks fan, but I always think he makes, at worst, good movies. And Spaceballs is very typical of his output. No matter how much I may or may not have laughed at any given punchline, several of them are going to stick with me. And that’s all you ask of flicks like this. 

+ Rick Moranis is a particular treasure here, and he is given the most fun character to work with: the villainous Dark Helmet. Even in a role designed to elicit laughter, Moranis still excels. He is the star of the show here. His exasperated delivery in the face of incompetent minions–“I knew it; I’m surrounded by Assholes!”–is matched only by his own complete naivete and ineffectualism.

The rest of the cast is great, don’t get me wrong. Seeing Brooks cast himself (he plays a dual role in Spaceballs) is always fun, John Candy is a legend, and Bill Pullman is quality as the heroic lead. But Moranis sets himself apart from everyone else.

– Unlike some of Brooks’ other outings–stuff like Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein where there are plenty of jokes, but a lot of character development between them–Spaceballs is a joke-per-minute express lane of humorous takes. And not all of them land. 

Bits around Princess Vespa’s enormous hair dryer or the sleepy Prince Valium or Candy’s Barf getting his foot flattened are fine, but they just seem dull compared to the bits that actually get you chortling. It leaves you wishing that Mel had spent a little more time fleshing out the world and the characters… and a little less time trying to cram in every single joke he thought of. 

– Spaceballs is a parody of Star Wars, sure, but there are several bits from across the width and breadth of science fiction and fantasy from which Brooks pulls. There are jabs at Star Trek, Prince Valiant, Planet of the Apes, and Alien. It ends up being a mini-game of Spot The Reference.

The problem with that? Well, it’s neither Brooks’ nor Spaceballs‘ own fault, really, but never forget that movies like this spawned the Parody Comedy era that got so lazy and so unfunny in the mid-2000’s that it all but killed Comedy as a solo movie genre. Without Spaceballs, there is arguably no Meet The Spartans. And I can think of few legacies worse than that!

OVERALL

Spaceballs is a little unfocused, and the humor cycles through being quotable and memorable with being groan-worthy at, well, ludicrous speed. It’s not the strongest of Brooks’ work, but it’s far from his weakest, too. It just kind of sits in the middle of his resume. When it works, it really works… you just kind of wish a bigger percent of the jokes landed than what does.

3.5 out of 5