The large ensemble cast also features Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines (in his film debut), Charlie Callas; and Brooks regulars Ron Carey, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Andreas Voutsinas, and Spike Milligan.

The film also has cameo appearances by Royce D. Applegate, Bea Arthur, Nigel Hawthorne, Hugh Hefner, John Hurt, Phil Leeds, Barry Levinson, Jackie Mason, Paul Mazursky, Andrew Sachs and Henny Youngman, among others.

Cavemen (including Sid Caesar) depict the invention of fire, the first artist (which in turn gives rise to the first critic), the first marriages (heterosexual and then homosexual), primitive weapons (particularly spears), and the first funerals.

Moses (Mel Brooks) comes down from Mount Sinai carrying three stone tablets, having received the Law from God (the voice of an uncredited Carl Reiner).

They escape in a cart pulled by a horse named Miracle, lighting a huge marijuana joint to put the pursuing soldiers into a stupor.

Leonardo da Vinci (Art Metrano) arrives to paint the group's portrait, directing them to all sit on the same side of the table, with Comicus behind Jesus, where his raised platter looks like a halo.

[7] The Spanish Inquisition segment parodies a grandiose Busby Berkeley-style production, consisting of an extended song-and-dance number featuring Brooks as the infamous Torquemada.

A beautiful woman, Mademoiselle Rimbaud (Pamela Stephenson), asks King Louis to free her father, who has been imprisoned in the Bastille for 10 years, which he agrees to only if she will have sex with him that night.

That night, Rimbaud visits Jacques – believing him to be Louis – to consummate the deal to free her father, but he pardons him without requiring sexual favors.

After Rimbaud and her senile father (Spike Milligan) return from the prison, peasants burst into the room and take "King" Jacques to the guillotine.

The trailer is narrated by Brooks, and shows clips of segments "Hitler on Ice", "A Viking Funeral", and "Jews in Space" (a parody of Star Wars).

Brooks recalled that the inspiration for the film came about from an incident in 1979: "I was walking across the parking lot at 20th-Century Fox on my way to my office when one of the grips who had worked on High Anxiety shouted to me from the back of a moving truck.

"[13] Gene Siskel, however, gave it three stars out of four and said that even though the film "borrows heavily from [Brooks'] previous work," it "contains a bunch of solid laughs.

"[16] Variety called it "a disappointingly uneven farce which serves up a fair share of hearty laughs during its first half, but sputters out long before the close.

"[17] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Presumably everyone was so busy doing shtick and reacting off each other that there was no one left to mind the story and to say, 'Not funny.'

"[18] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an entertaining mishmash of skits which finds Mel Brooks back in lively form, for better and for worse ... To a considerable extent the funny stuff works in a laughing-in-spite-of-yourself way.

"[19] Leonard Maltin's film guide gave the movie one-and-a-half out of a possible four stars and stated that the gags "range from hilarious to hideous.