I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Davins. And this is the Big Picture

A Conversation Show about Mel Brooks. On today's episode, we are celebrating Mel Brooks, who turns 100 years young this month.

Brooks is one of the signature voices in American movie comedy, and we can feel his influence all the way to the top of the box office today with Scary Movie.

We will talk about Brooks, his great works, his influence, Yassi Salick and Adam Naiman.

But first, let's talk about some movie news and scary movie right after this.

Okay, Dobbins, this is like five weekends in a row. I'm like, have you seen the box office at the top of an episode?

Can I just, can I have the privilege of doing what so many people who listen to this podcast want to do, which is respond in real time to the last episode, which was you and Griffin Newman? Yeah. Talking about He-Man. Yeah. And I got to be honest, I'm still working my way through the He-Man portion of it. Also, just so you both know, if you listen to the podcast and don't watch it, then all of the banter about the He-Man sword, which is not named, starts to get like a little suggestive. The sword of power. The sword of power, sure, but you were holding things up and measuring things. And there were no proper nouns. I was hanging out with my boy. And it was a little strange. That's okay.

I made it through.

You guys were very excited about the box office. It's very cute. Two men who just love the box office. And I know. It was like Henry and ET, like touching fingers. It was nice. So I recommend people listen to that. We were kind of born to have that conversation. Yes. and I am not as excited as Griffin about it,

but I'm excited. People are going to the movies.

Yeah. into that. We were kind of born to have that conversation. Yes. And I, I'm not as excited as Griffin about it,

but I'm excited. People are going to the movies. Yeah, four movies this weekend, over $25 million. This just kind of feels like when we first started the show what things were like, where you were just like, oh, this is just how it is. Movies are just successful. You know, they're maybe not as successful as they were in 1975, but they're really a huge part of American culture. And I went to the movie theater again

on Friday to go see Scary You know, they're maybe not as successful as they were in 1975, but they're really a huge part of American culture.

And I went to the movie theater again on Friday to go see a scary movie and it was packed, packed, packed in the middle of the day.

Mine was not packed in the middle of the day, but that's okay.

There were people there, which is unusual.

And none of them were really laughing, but that's okay.

We'll get to that in a minute. No, but I, I feel like parents at preschool and just the conversations that I'm having in the wild, people are like, hey, what do you think about this movie? What, you know, what's up with obsession? Should I see backrooms? Like, well, you know, it does seem back in the center of conversation just in time for, like, a new Game of Thrones show to start again. But whatever, I'm enjoying it.

Yeah, I don't think that this is going to abate, though. You know, what we can't guarantee is something like the amazing digital circus, a YouTube-born animated series that had a film adaptation, kind of continuation of its story, making $12 million at the box office.

Like, that's something that like Iron Lung, to some extent, like backrooms, that's the new

thing, right?

Right.

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