mel brooks is in a league of his own. welcome to "the stream." >> it is a pleasure to be here. >> we are honored to have you here. any slice of your career is great, the hits continue to come, old west to outer space and cyber space, it seems everything you touch turns to told. what is in is secret sauce? >> well, just enlarge and multiply what people are doing and thinking and actually being, just multiply that and you have a funny movie. >> that's so not true. i think if that was as simple as that, everybody would have a funny movie. there is something special you do. think about the movies, my dad who is 74 or i talk to a friend of mine in the 20s, everybody snows blazed saddles and blazing saddles and history of the world, something you do that endured, what is it, what did you tap into? >> you know, that's a remarkably good question, but i don't know. i suppose you need talent or gifted or you have to take observations and put them through some kind of brain change and come out with a plan for, you know, for presenti

we are joined by mel brooks, reflecting on 60 years of pushing the envelope in show bis. >> we are here bringing your

. >> my favorite moses is less charlton heston and more mel brooks.a good moses. >> put that on top of the top five movies from last year i need to watch. thank you all for watching this edition of "bloomberg west." we will see you next time. ♪ >> this week on clinical capital -- john mccain talks about putin and the usa. on thetroversial ruling obamacare contraceptive ruling and we debate a snowden pardon and chris christie. we begin the program with arizona senator john mccain. it is good to have you here. was the president's trip to europe a failure? failureot sure it was a because it depends on your expectations.

it's something like mel brooks did, sid caesar did. and that's how i was trained at "the office." and tina fey puts a huge value on the hard joke. and i wanted that to be in my show. >> rose: what's a hard joke? >> i'm tell you what it's not fthat's okay. there's a lot of shows that are on, like, attitude. and it's irreverent attitude-- which by the way is very interesting and fashion and poses. a hard joke to me, first of all, makes you laugh out loud, and a lot of comedies they watch-- by the way, i'm not saying my show necessarily would make you laugh out loud. i think it's funny. but a show that sounds like there was a-- like a crafted joke and it has, like -- >> it shows craftsmanship. >> yes. >> rose: exactly. well written. people know it's been finally tuned. seinfeld has said to me and others, it's not easy. he finally stopped the "seinfeld" show because it was so hard and they wanted to load up the truck and drop money on him. he said, "no, i was writing on christmas eve last year. i don't want to be doing that this year. it's hard." >> it's hard, especially with someone

among them, audrey hepburn, mike nichols, mel brooks, and whoopi goldberg. >> i asked about that song12. they've been singing it to their kids for 18 months, they said. >> and the whole movie changed after they wrote the song. incredible. >> but all he got was a macaroni necklace? that's it? >> i think that is just the beginning. >> vintage. vintage. >> i love that. >>> and finally, d.l., on a night where nobody gets sleep, let's be honest. not that anybody is complaining, such a fun evening. i thought it was the perfect morning to celebrate the yawn. or rather the screaming yawn. here you go. [ screaming ] >> people yawning. and these are not real, george. unlike cody, the screaming dog, these are -- voiceover screams. [ screaming ] >> that little kid. >> what is the ostrich pillow like? >> oh, the videos are online to promote the ostrich pillow light, george. it's a pillow that you can wear so it's a -- it's like a veritable stick your head in the sand. so you can sleep while you're sitting up. sounds just about right. >> those are people who didn't get the part? >> and that is "pop

are some textbooks, you know, evelyn brooks hikingen both that many and john hope franklin from slavery is freedom can has been done by professor higgingbotham, melthat looks at african-american visual arts, so there are some. but in terms of our high school, what my students who come in as freshmen understand about black history, they've gotten virtually no black history at predominantly sub you are wan white -- suburban white high schools. so even though the '60s presented us with a real challenge and black studies became institutionalized at predominantly white universities, that didn't really happen at the high school level all across the united states. i think right now the city of philadelphia does require all high school students to have an african-american studies curriculum, and i know one of my friends from grad school, dr. greg carr can who's at howard university, he was one of the people e behind that curriculum. and so philadelphia sort of stands out in a positive way. but what we need in all urban cities, but suburbs, midwest, out west into the west coast would be units on african-american history because it's really american histor

top ten of interviews and mel brooks was on it, i saw all of his movies. produzers and blazing saddles and life stinks and we have a community that loves him. saying that... mel brooks uniting families, saying that if you don't love young frankenstein you can't be our family. my grand mother's favorite movie is history of the world... it is good to be queen. today it is good to be host. >> it is indeed. in the past 60 years mel brooks doing his share to shake things up on the silver screen, and breaking barriers as a director, actor and writer. in his film his of the world part one putting a spin on historical and religious events like the revolution and the last supper. >> does everybody want soup? >> please, we must talk, this could be our last supper. this is my last order. are you all together or separate checks? >> his humor is known for testing the boundies of what is politically correct to expose the issues through satire and blazing saddles catching the heat for some of the scenes. who can forget the black sheriff in the frontier town in 1874. >> t