Picture a 99-year-old EGOT winner and comedy god. Now erase that and picture a small, sickly, bullied kid in 1920s Brooklyn running for his life down the street to avoid a beating. He learned to clothe his anger in comedy to spare himself a punch in the face, and never stopped.

This episode explores the life of Melvin Kaminsky, better known as Mel Brooks, and why he spent seven decades mocking authoritarians and pushing boundaries. From clearing Nazi landmines to making Hitler a singing buffoon, it’s a story about transforming trauma into an engine for joy.

• The pool stunt at 14: jumping in fully clothed with suitcases of rocks, screaming “business is terrible”
• Clearing landmines in the Battle of the Bulge and singing Al Jolson back at Nazi propaganda loudspeakers
• The brutal Your Show of Shows writers’ room and how the 2,000 Year Old Man saved his stalled career
• Why he made The Producers and his line that Blazing Saddles was really about “mending a broken heart”
• How he kept his name off The Elephant Man and Young Frankenstein, plus his 41-year marriage to Anne Bancroft