--- title: Mel Brooks Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants description: Director Mel Brooks appeared to prank President Barack Obama by pretending to pull down the commander-in-chief’s pants at the White House. canonical: https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-22T22:04:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:11:46.531Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mel Brooks Might Have Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants og:description: After receiving an award from Obama "for a lifetime of making the world laugh" og:url: https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9df63d28853c923c/6988a7400a4a225dbe9cb62d/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=992&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 992 og:image:height: 558 og:image:alt: obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mel Brooks Might Have Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants twitter:description: After receiving an award from Obama "for a lifetime of making the world laugh" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9df63d28853c923c/6988a7400a4a225dbe9cb62d/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=992&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mel Brooks Might Have Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 22, 2016 10:04 PM UTC   by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Sep 22, 2016 10:04 PM UTC Director Mel Brooks [appeared to prank President Barack Obama](http://abc7ny.com/news/mel-brooks-pranks-president-obama/1522491/) by pretending to pull down the commander-in-chief’s pants after receiving a national award in the White House on Thursday. After Obama presented Brooks with the 2015 National Medal of Arts award and hung a medal around his neck, the 90-year-old [comedian](http://time.com/4473891/mel-brooks-gene-wilder-tonight-show/) gestured as if he were about to pants the President, ABC 7 reports. However, some social media users and national media outlets speculated that Brooks could have been [pretending to fall over](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/22/mel-brooks-gets-top-billing-white-house-awards/90836592/) by the weight of the medal. > [](https://twitter.com/DanLinden/status/778989184455471104) Either way, the brief moment, which was captured on video, prompted smiles from Obama and laughter from the audience. Brooks was awarded “for a lifetime of making the world laugh,” the White House said in a statement. At the end of the ceremony, Obama said Brooks “kind of set the tone for this thing,” adding that is has normally “been a much more staid affair,” according to ABC. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/"},"headline":"Mel Brooks Might Have Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants","datePublished":"2016-09-22T22:04:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:11:46.531Z","description":"After receiving an award from Obama \"for a lifetime of making the world laugh\"","url":"https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9df63d28853c923c/6988a7400a4a225dbe9cb62d/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9df63d28853c923c/6988a7400a4a225dbe9cb62d/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"obama","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4505233/mel-brooks-obama-prank-pants/","name":"Mel Brooks Might Have Just Tried to Pull Down President Obama’s Pants"}}]}] ```