"Brooks casts his comedic eye at humanity's past and... seems to view our story as one of big guys keeping little guys down. To quote the film's most famous line: "It's good to be the king." ...King Louis XVI (Brooks) goes clay pigeon shooting with peasants, where a man is thrown in prison for saying the lower classes "ain't so bad" and where the Roman Senate angrily shouts "F**k the poor!" Brooks doesn't merely lampoon economic injustices. Sexism, racism, anti-Semitism and human cruelty in general are all satirized... If there is a running theme in Brooks' view of major historical events..., it is that people with money and power have great lives. For people without those things — or who belong to marginalized groups in general — life stinks. ..the genius of "History of the World" is that it manages to subtly convey Brooks' social critiques in the packaging of a zany Borscht Belt comedy. If climate change and pollution destroy the human race, and an alien civilization was to find just one work of art to understand the human condition, I can't think of anything better than "History of the World." This is not being said in jest. "History of the World" captures one of the greatest joys of human existence — the ability to laugh — even as it recounts some of the most important events in our collective story. Perhaps most significantly, it chronicles the stupidity and selfishness that will have led to our downfall."

"Mel Brook's History of the World - Part I shows its stripes right from the opening scene. In this Dawn of Man episode, apelike creatures rise up from the mud, learning to stand erect and reaching nobly toward the heavens. Then they begin bumping, grinding, rutting, gyrating and otherwise slipping back to the slime from whence they came. The movie, like these primitives, delights in being lowdown. Even by prehistoric standards, Mr. Brooks's latest comedy is especially crude... There are loads of familiarly funny gags in the film... But the movie is so sour that its humor is often undermined, because so many of the jokes are either mean-spirited or scatological, or both. Women are either explicitly predatory or stupidly decorative, and homosexuals are made fun of regularly. Bathroom jokes are everywhere. Flamboyantly bad taste, which Mr. Brooks raised to the level of supreme wit in his Springtime for Hitler number in The Producers, is this time just bad. A musical number about the Spanish Inquisition, with Mr. Brooks playing a torturer who merrily abuses Jews, is about as crashingly unfunny as a musical number can be...In Rome, we... watch a gladiator on an unemployment line, being asked... Did you kill last week? Did you try to kill last week?... As a waiter at the Last Supper, Mr. Brooks is seen asking the apostles whether they'd like separate checks. As Moses, addressed by the Lord, he mutters: Yes, I hear you, I hear you. A deaf man could hear you!"

"IN MEL WE TRVST"

"Ten million years in the making. The truth, the whole truth, and everything, but the truth!"

"A little something to offend everyone..."

"Andrew Sachs - Gerard"

"John Hurt - Jesus Christ"

"Charlie Callas - Soothsayer"

"Barry Levinson - Column Salesman"

"Hugh Hefner - Roman outside Temple of Eros"

"Paul Mazursky - Roman officer"

"Mary-Margaret Humes - Miriam"

"Bea Arthur - Dole office clerk"

"Are you or are you not the Black Angel of Death?"

"Timothy Carhart - Roger Kovary"

"Tim Matheson - Al Donnelly"

"David Spade - Steve Dodds"

"Chris Farley - Mike Donnelly"

"[trying to pronounce "roads"] Row-ads. Roods."

"[on Drake Sabitch] This guy is like Leatherface, Chucky, and Jan Brady all rolled into one."

"[holding onto a small plant on a steep hill] Oh, thank you, little roots! Please stay strong [Root quickly gives and Mike falls to the foot of the mountain] What in the hell was that all about!?"

"Boy, I could sure use some cupcakes or peanut butter cups right now."

"We've all been screwed by Governor Tracy, and now, I'm going to screw her!"

"And so he says, "Rectum? Damn near killed'em!""

"[on stage making a fool of himself] That's one small step for man! One giant... I have a dream!"

"[on stage making a fool of himself] Voting kicks ass right! Cause, uh, if voting kicks ass, and Al Donnelly kicks ass, and you put them both together and you got yourself some kick ass shit!"

"There's no access for you in this quadrant."

"[talking on the phone] Hi there, this is Mike Donnelly. I work over here at the recreational center. To be honest with you I pretty much run the place ha, ha, ha. Is this ah Pat Gyles? Good, Good. Hey, hope everything's going great in your fine town of er Avery? Atwood! Ha, ha, ha. Say, the reason I'm calling is I wanted to tell you a little bit about the candidacy of Al Donnelly. Al Donnelly's a guy with a dream. His dream is to become governor of this great state of Washington. Hell, every guy's got his dream, am I right? Between you, me and the wall here, I had a doozy myself last night. Ha ha, ha, ha. Get this: A corn-fed harvest mouse, a hooker, a nun, a Flemish peasant woman, whips, chains, whistles, yo-yo's, a circus midget. My grandmother riding by on a bicycle giving me the finger, and a duck! Now, I don't know ha, ha, ha. Are you crying? Oh my lord. I am sorry, honey, please don't! Could you get your daddy on the phone. No, don't hang up please I..."

"Zexy, Zany, Zensational !"

"Frank Welker - Narrator (voice)"