Spaceballs 2 Ruins The Original’s Best Joke
“God willing, we’ll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money!” With that Line, Mel Brooks perfectly skewered the idea of not just the Star Wars sequels but franchises with endless sequels in general. Now, because we truly live in the worst timeline, Brooks is making a Spaceballs 2 for real and becoming the butt of his own joke in the process.
The Original Spaceballs Was Unprecedented
I’m old enough to have seen Spaceballs in the theater as a kid, and let me tell you, it was an experience. While I was only six at the time, I was already obsessed with Star Wars and couldn’t wait to see Mel Brooks roast the franchise. If anyone should be excited for Spaceballs 2 it should be me.
And yet, I can’t think of a worse idea for a sequel. OK, that’s not entirely true. Robin Hood: Men In Tights 2 would objectively be a thousand times worse. Still, that doesn’t make Spaceballs 2 a good idea.
Becoming What It Made Fun Of
The whole point of the scene in Spaceballs where Yogurt shows Lone Starr all of the ridiculous Spaceballs merch was to poke fun at the greed inherent in big Hollywood franchises. When Yogurt brings out “Spaceballs the Flamethrower,” it’s to highlight how George Lucas was starting to slap the Star Wars brand on everything—whether it made sense or not.
To make a Spaceballs 2 defeats the purpose of the whole scene. You can’t make fun of a greedy Hollywood franchise and then emulate it. Or rather you can if you don’t mind looking like a hypocrite.
I know Mel Brooks making a Spaceballs 2 for Amazon almost 40 years after the original isn’t exactly the same thing as the Star Wars sequels, but it still ruins the joke. Now, when Yogurt mentions Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money, it’s no longer a joke; it’s foreshadowing.
Undermines Its Own Humor
It’s almost as disheartening as History of the World, Part II. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand why Mel Brooks called it History of the World, Part I. It wasn’t like there was a Part II… not then, anyway. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized what a brilliant joke it was.
It’s Part I because history isn’t over yet. But then History of the World, Part II came along and completely ruined the joke. Now, it’s not Part I because the world is still going—it’s just to denote what volume you’re watching.
Spaceballs 2 similarly undermines its own joke.
Feels Like A Cash Grab
Now, the original joke about meeting for Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money isn’t funny. How could it be when now it’s just a line telling you what’s going to happen? It’s like if you told someone the old “How do you keep an idiot in suspense?” joke and then immediately answered with, “by not answering properly so the idiot in question is forced to wait for the punchline.”
It’s not very funny, is it? Meanwhile, the worst part is that this sequel does actually feel like a cash grab. Yes, Mel Brooks had expressed interest in the past about making a sequel—perhaps he doesn’t get his own joke—but now, at 98, I can’t imagine he had a burning desire to make Spaceballs 2 before he died.
The Search For More Money
What makes it worse is that Spaceballs was Mel Brooks’s last good movie—I said what I said. If Spaceballs 2 comes out and sucks—which considering Josh Gad is the driving force behind the sequel, is a distinct possibility—it will only tarnish the image of Mel Brooks’s final masterpiece.
They better at least call it The Search For More Money.
