Mel Brooks. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Comedic icon and Brooklyn native Mel Brooks said it’s wrong to generalize his humor by describing it as “Jewish” in an interview with The New Yorker published on Sunday.

The Jewish comedian, actor, and screenwriter, 95, first made the assertion in his new memoir “All About Me!” where he wrote, “My wit is often characterized as being Jewish comedy. Occasionally, that’s true. But for the most part to characterize my humor as being purely Jewish humor is not accurate. It’s really New York humor.”

The “Blazing Saddles” star further explained to The New Yorker the difference between the two genres.

“Yiddish comedy, or Jewish comedy, has to do with Jewish folklore. Sholem Aleichem, that kind of stuff,” he noted. “The mistakenly called ‘Jewish comedy’ of the great comics — it was really New York. It was the streets of New York: the wiseguy, the sharpness that New York gives you that you can’t get anywhere else, but you can get it on the streets of Brooklyn. Jewish comedy was softer and sweeter. New York comedy was tougher and more explosive.”

The “Spaceballs” actor and director added that “New York humor” includes a “cruelty” not found in “Yiddish humor.” He said, “In New York, you make fun of somebody who walks funny. You never find that in Sholem Aleichem. You’d feel pity. There’s no pity in New York. There’s reality and a brushstroke of brutality in it.”

Brooks revealed later in the interview that he was hesitant to release “The 2,000 Year Old Man” to the general public, because he was worried that it promoted Jewish stereotypes, and divulged memories shared with famous friends, including the late Jewish actors Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn. He also reflected on his service in World War II, including acting as master of ceremonies for variety shows put on for soldiers in the Special Services division, which featured German civilians performing alongside American G.I.s.

Brooks, who directed and wrote the screenplay for “The Producers,” discussed poking fun at Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the 1967 film, a decision which stirred controversy. When asked by The New Yorker if he had any hesitations, as a Jew, over making “Hitler comedy” acceptable, Brooks admitted, “that was a fight within me, a big struggle. Of course, I didn’t want to pay any homage in any way to the Third Reich … I knew I was on thin ice.”

However, he said, “If you can reduce the enemy to an object of ridicule and laughter, you’ve won. And that’s why, when ‘The Producers’ played throughout Europe, it was very successful.”

He wrote in his new autobiography that after receiving letters from outraged fans following the release of “The Producers,” he had written back, “The way you bring down Hitler and his ideology is not by getting on a soap box with him, but if you can reduce him to something laughable, you win.”

Brooks is currently working on a Hulu series titled “The History of the World, Part II” — a sequel to his 1981 film “History of the World Part I.”