Mel Brooks to Receive AFI Life Achievement Award

Filmmaker and funnyman to be honored for his body of work

This is no joke.

Funnyman Mel Brooks has been selected by the American Film Institute to receive the 41st Life Achievement Award, the organization's highest honor for a career in film.

And the 86-year-old writer/director/producer/actor has certainly given us our fair share of belly laughs by way of several beloved movies including The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

"Mel Brooks is America's long-reigning king of comedy—and as he taught us long ago, it's good to be the king," Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI's board of trustees, said in a statement. "He's a master of an art form that rarely gets the respect it deserves, and it is AFI's honor to shine a bright light on laughter by presenting Mel Brooks the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award."

Previous recipients include Morgan Freeman, Steven Spielberg, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Jack Nicholson, Orson Welles and the most recent honoree, Shirley MacLaine.

The award will be presented to Brooks at a tribute dinner on June 6, 2013 in Los Angeles. It will air later that month on TNT.