In 1944, a teenage Mel Brooks was drafted by the U.S. Army and sent off to fight in World War II. The future comedian served as both a combat engineer and a corporal, and even participated in the Battle of the Bulge, during which time he was tasked with defusing enemy land mines to clear the way for Allied forces. Reflecting on his experiences years later, Brooks said, “I was a combat engineer. Isn’t that ridiculous? The two things I hate most in the world are combat and engineering.”
As the war raged on, Brooks and his fellow troops made their way through bombed-out villages, the streets of which were lined with dead casualties. Skirmishes with German soldiers persisted along the way, with many attacks coming from the air. They were also fired upon by civilians, old men as well as children who’d been left to fend for themselves. One time, Brooks found himself hiding under a desk in a kindergarten as air battles raged above him.
Yet somehow, through all the chaos and brutality Brooks encountered, his trademark sense of humor remained intact. He was no longer able to keep his inner zaniness at bay when one evening, in the midst of a game of cat-and-mouse with the Germans, the Nazis started pumping out propaganda through their bullhorns, urging the Allies to surrender and assuring them that they couldn’t possibly win. It was at that moment that Brooks decided to give the enemies a taste of their own medicine. After locating a bullhorn himself, Brooks proceeded to belt out a rendition of the famous Jewish singer Al Jolson’s hit 1922 song “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’ Bye!)” for all to hear:
And so began Brooks’s lifelong job of making the world laugh at Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. “You have to bring him down with ridicule,” Brooks told 60 Minutes host Mike Wallace when asked how one could get even with a man who put Jews in concentration camps. “Because if you stand on a soapbox and you match him with rhetoric, you’re just as bad as he is,” Brooks continued, “but if you can make people laugh at him, then you’re one up on him.”
Following his honorary discharge from the Army in 1946, Brooks’s work would take aim at the Nazi leader for many years to come. On occasion, he would do so in song form, much like in his military days; the most notable example being “Springtime for Hitler” from his classic 1967 film The Producers:
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least give a shout-out to his 1983 Hitler-themed rap song from the To Be or Not to Be soundtrack, the music video to which can be viewed below.
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