Fans Don’t Understand Why Mel Brooks Isn’t Selling ‘Spaceballs’ Shirts
Yesterday, Mel Brooks formally announced that we’re finally getting a follow-up to Spaceballs, and this time it’s a feature film and not a janky cartoon that seemed to parody everything but Star Wars.
In the teaser video for the belated sequel, Brooks himself appeared on screen, boasting that the movie is real and will hit theaters in 2027. While the update about the project was no doubt exciting for fans, a lot of people were mostly focused on the soon-to-be 99-year-old’s outfit.
Brooks was seen wearing a “Spaceballs: The Sweatshirt” sweatshirt, which is obviously a reference to the original film’s iconic merchandising scene. “We put the picture’s name on everything,” the wise and powerful Yogurt proclaimed, before showing off lucrative products such as Spaceballs: the T-shirt, Spaceballs: the Lunch Box, Spaceballs: the Coloring Book and even Spaceballs: The Flamethrower, which is specifically designated as “a children’s toy.”
A number of folks on social media praised Brooks’ sweatshirt, and inquired about where they can purchase one for themselves.
Unfortunately, in real life, there is currently no officially-licensed Spaceballs merch. This is because, famously, Brooks sought out George Lucas’ blessing before making the Star Wars spoof. And while Lucas didn’t mind his sci-fi franchise being lampooned, the one condition he had for Brooks was that the comedian refrain from selling any tie-in products, lest consumers confuse Star Wars toys with ones from a movie co-starring “Pizza the Hut.” Brooks agreed, meaning that no kids got their very own Spaceballs-branded flamethrower that Christmas.
But this hasn’t stopped fans from selling not-so-official Spaceballs merch over the years, including T-shirts, toilet paper and custom action figures. And now, some websites are even selling copies of Brooks’ Spaceballs sweatshirt from the recent video.
That being said, with the new movie on the horizon, we may be getting an influx of Spaceballs merch. During an appearance at the TCM film festival last year, well before the sequel was first announced, Brooks suggested that he might soon renege on the nearly four decade-old agreement with Lucas. “To this day, I haven’t (broken the Lucas deal),” Brooks told Ben Mankiewicz. “But in case there’s another Spaceballs, who knows? I think that’s an old contract, you know?”
Of course, Lucas famously sold his company to Disney back in 2012, and has no vested interest in maintaining the deal. Plus, if he really did try to sue the beloved nonagenarian Brooks, it would probably be the worst thing he’s ever done, aside from “Holiday Special” check in 1978.
