History of the World: Part I

History of the World: Part I (1981) is Mel Brooks' anarchic comedy that you can watch online on iFILM. Brooks writes, directs and plays half the parts himself, ripping through thousands of years of human history and turning the whole thing into a glorious mess.

From the Stone Age to the glory of Rome, the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution, Brooks leaps between eras hunting for a joke in every historical atrocity. He stages the Inquisition as a full song-and-dance number, casting himself as Torquemada, while torture and executions play out to cheerful show tunes. The humor swings wildly — sharp one moment, gleefully crude the next, with a clear debt to Monty Python.

The sprawling cast includes Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman, with Orson Welles supplying the grand narration. Don't fall for the fake trailer for a "Part II" at the end — it's a gag, and plenty of viewers have gone hunting for a sequel that never existed. Stream History of the World: Part I (1981) online on iFILM.