Brooksian

English

Etymology

Brooks +‎ -ian

Adjective

Brooksian (comparative more Brooksian, superlative most Brooksian)

1. Of or relating to the American comedian Mel Brooks, known for his farcical cinematic parodies.
   • 1991 August 9, “Summer Comedies”, in Entertainment Weekly:

     Instead of a crazed Brooksian farce about life on the bottom rung, Life Stinks turns out to be a surprisingly low-key Chaplinesque fable.

   • 2000, May 28. Kevin Filipski, "Even more Mel Brooks Than Before", The New York Times.

     Mr. Wilder's subtler comic instincts keep the humor reined in, and so when the broader, more vulgar Brooksian bits pop up, they're kept in check.

   • 2014, October 27. Shane Harris, "The Hottest Party You've Never Heard Of", Foreignpolicy.com.

     The film portrays Wild Bill as a hotheaded womanizer who, in a scene that borders on Brooksian farce, stabs his secretary, an apparent Nazi sleeper agent wearing dominatrix garb and wielding a riding crop, and has her bloody corpse trundled out of his office rolled up in a carpet.

2. Of or relating to the American film producer James L. Brooks, known for co-creating the television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons.
   • 2005, March 18. Ann Hornaday, "Dumbness Is the Downside in 'The Upside of Anger', The Washington Post.

     "The Upside of Anger", written and directed by Mike Binder, clearly aspires to be a Brooksian comedy of manners, but instead it feels like a retread of several better movies, with a nastier, more bitter edge.

   • 2014, Gina Masullo, “How 'Seinfeld' and 'The Simpsons' Changed TV Forever”, in The Wilson Quarterly:

     That freedom allowed the show to marry the Brooksian heartfelt moments with the subversive influence of series creator Matt Groening, and the Harvard Lampoon-induced writing and irreverence of much of its early writing staff.

3. Of or relating to Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000), American poet.