Credit: Far Out / HBO Max
Mon 11 May 2026 18:45, UK
It doesn’t matter how much a comedy movie makes people laugh; if it doesn’t send the audience home with a smile on their face after the final gag, then the filmmakers have failed to stick the landing, which is something that Mel Brooks has always been aware of.
It’s the case with any film, really, regardless of genre. Countless near-perfect pictures have dropped the ball in the final moments, while some otherwise forgettable flicks have at least redeemed themselves a little by concluding on a note that’s got everyone talking once the credits start rolling.
As a lifelong devotee of rib-tickling, Brooks went out of his way to try to end his movies on a high, from The Producers‘ showing that even prison can’t stop Zero Mostel from trying to scheme his way to success to Blazing Saddles finishing with its leads abandoning horseback to travel by limousine instead, the EGOT winner always tries to leave enough gas in the tank for one final flourish.
Even in his lesser films, Dracula: Dead and Loving It suggests that Leslie Nielsen’s title character has survived being turned into a pile of ashes, while Life Stinks shows that Brooks’ heartless Goddard Bolt has learned his lesson. They aren’t a patch on his previous heights, but it still showed his determination to add an exclamation mark before the lights came up.
As the writer and director of Young Frankenstein, the laugh-a-minute classic that he called the single funniest motion picture to have ever existed, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Mel Brooks’ pick for the greatest final scene in comedy movie history would hail from something written and directed by Mel Brooks.
However, he wasn’t willing to pat himself on the back to that extent, as much as he’d no doubt love to, because as far as he’s concerned, no finale in the genre’s history can come close to the quip that concludes Billy Wilder’s seminal 1959 caper, Some Like It Hot.
Reflecting on the final scene to end all final scenes in his arena of choice, the veteran didn’t hesitate. “Jack Lemmon, when he says, ‘I’m not a girl, I’m a guy,’” Brooks explained. “He confesses, and Joe E Brown says, ‘Nobody’s perfect.’ He’s still going to marry him!”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
With 11 Academy Award nominations for screenwriting and three wins, it goes without saying that Wilder had a way with words. Some Like It Hot‘s last moment was the cherry on top of a timeless cake, and in a film full of iconic moments and iconic performances, the ‘Golden Age’ crime comedy maintains those levels through to the very end.
“I think Billy Wilder is a genius and came up with the perfect brief comic ending,” Brooks concluded. “That’s really skilful comedy writing: that’s Billy Wilder.” He’s no slouch in the grand finale department himself, but even a decorated legend knows he can’t hold a candle to an ending like that.
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