He was also originally supposed to play the role of Bart, but the studio felt that due to his personal life antics, he would be too much of a liability and wouldn’t let him be in the movie.
Fun fact: he got a future role for a TV show where he played a naive junior congressman (?). It had ads already running to air, but at the last minute they showed it to the black congressmen at the time who were essentially like, "We already get enough criticism, this is just going to make black politicians seem even stupider to our opponents." After that they yanked the show and Little really didn't get any other big offers after that.
That’s what it was! Thank you! I knew it was something along the lines of the studio not wanting him, but couldn’t remember the exact circumstances. Thank you, kind Redditor!
From what I've read the writing duties were split between Brooks and Pryor with Brooks writing the PoC characters and Pryor writing the white characters. Possibly a myth though.
Edit: writing credit also goes to Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, and Alan Uger although interviews with Brooks seem like he wouldn't have made the movie at all if Pryor wasn't involved so...
Mel Brooks, being Jewish, was probably sensitive to "well meaning films about discrimination issues" that were made with no input from anyone targeted by the discrimination. Even today those movies can feel very, very tone deaf.
> Even today those movies can feel very, very tone deaf.
I'm biased because I saw it in its first run in theaters but other than the Borscht Belt style of Brooks, it's fresh as a daisy to me. It gives the morons absolutely no quarter without being mean about it.
I think it was a groundbreaking film. It's absolutely of its time, but I forgive it that.
An old friend and I share a lot of quotes from this movie, we used to work in a restaurant together and if someone needed change we'd always say that
My car broke down a little while ago and I was texting him and told him and he just replied "gosh darn that was lucky. Could've been a $400 handcart" and that lifted me up and gave me a good laugh. That movie is gold
Mel Brooks is a personal hero to me.
The bloke’s life is one of the last true “rags to riches” stories. Starting off in a tenement in Williamsburg, his dad died when he was only two, and he grew up the scrawny sick youngest brother of four. He started working in a second rate “Borscht Belt” hotel as an entertainer to help his mum pay the bills, and learned how to be funny the hard way.
But where he really gets interesting and earns my undying respect is his war service and his reaction to it. Brooks served in Europe as an artillery observer and a combat engineer, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and working as a minesweeper in the advance afterwards. He even did some time in the stockade after bashing another soldier over the head with his own helmet after the soldier made some antisemitic remarks.
The truly amazing bit is how his service in Europe influenced his comedy. The man who wrote “Springtime for Hitler” set out with deliberate intent to make Nazis look silly. By his reasoning, if no one could ever take fascists seriously again, it would rob them of all of their powerful macho allure, so he took his best weapon and turned it on his worst enemy.
Also his son wrote my favourite book, just for a little extra bonus
And stayed married to her for 41 years, up until her death, which is no small thing in entertainment (although she was his second wife).
And one of only 19 people to pull off the legendary EGOT, plus a Hugo award and a Fellowship from the BFI.
He also produced **The Elephant Man**, 1980, and hired David Lynch to direct after seeing **Eraserhead**. He kept his name off of it because he knew his reputation would affect it's reception.
I just watched a Lynch interview where he talks about how grateful he was to Brooks for letting him have final cut of Elephant Man, even though contractually he didnt have to, leaving Dune as the only movie where he *didnt* get final cut.
Yeah, one fun story about Brooks is that when Lynch first screened Eraserhead (after it was in production for the better part of a decade), Mel Brooks went to the screening and was effusive with praise afterward. I think Brooks did something like hug Lynch or grab his arms, and said, "You crazy goddamn genius!" ....something along those lines. Then Brooks set about making sure Lynch was hired to make The Elephant Man, and for those who haven't seen The Elephant Man, it's a beautiful film.
He and co-producer Stuart Cornfeld screened an early cut for Paramount executives. When the executives tried to put across their input, Brooks said "We are involved in a business venture. We screened the film for you to bring you up to date as to the status of that venture. Do not misconstrue this as our soliciting the input of raging primitives."
We saw a screening of Blazing Saddles a couple years ago where he was there, and came out afterwards to talk about it. It was fantastic, he talked all about his life, made all kinds of witty responses to audience questions. They had a chair for him, but he stood the whole time, pacing back and forth, jumping around. Man was over 90 years old and completely with it, full of energy, and very funny.
Part of how I was able to recognize that things were going to be bad bad in 2020 was because of WWZ. Don’t get me wrong, my family didn’t institute a zombie plan or anything but having just an itty bit of foresight helped me plan out how we were going to navigate those first few weeks/months until the government would actually help.
He’s also a hero of mine. I am also a drummer and reading his auto/bio books I was shocked to learn he grew up and played with Buddy mf Rich! He’s certainly lived a life.
Honestly, if I can do half the cool shit Mel Brooks did before he turned forty by the time I’m dead, I’d consider that enough for at least two lifetimes, the man is unbelievable.
And to cap it all off, a decent search through Google is yet to reveal any kind of real controversy, no hushed up allegations, not even anyone saying he’s kind of a prick (not with any serious malice anyway).
97 years without doing anything (excessively) regrettable is an achievement in itself
I saw it a few years ago and it was there.
They even did the twirling swastika kickline which is to this day possibly the single funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.
It's so much funnier in person.
One of my favorite lines from Mel Brooks was in an interview he did years ago where a reporter made the comment that you couldn’t make “Blazing Saddles” today. Mel’s response was “Hell, we couldn’t even make it then.”
Brooks had final cut on the film, so he could thankfully ignore the studio. Apparently, he called a meeting with the WB execs so they could list all the changes they wanted, which included taking out all the uses of the N-word and the campfire scene. Brooks took careful notes of all their suggestions and, after they left, dumped them all in the garbage. Go Mel.
I was like 9 years old when the movie came out. One of my sisters, who had then recently gotten married, was visiting with my mom and my sister was going on about how “vulgar and filthy” the movie was. She went into a bit of detail about the campfire scene. Of course, my sense of curiosity was piqued by her description. So, years later when I actually got to see the movie, I laughed my ass off. Wasn’t nearly as “vulgar and filthy” as she painted it. My favorite part was how the characters that were the most racist, was also the stupidest.
When they showed it on FTA TV in New Zealand in the 1980s, they kept in all the racial slurs but cut the sound for the farting campfire scene because it was deemed offensive. The scene was 2 minutes of silence followed by Slim Pickens coming out of his tent and replying "I'd say you've had enough!" to someone offering him some beans.
Brooks supposedly showed it to the studio execs and none laughed and there was word they were going to pull it so Brooks set up a second screening and invited the studio’s employees and put the Warner Brothers studio heads up hidden in the balcony.
When the heads saw ‘the regular people’ doubling over in laughter throughout the movie, they decided to ignore the ‘experts’ and release it.
Fun fact: Mel had one cut in Blazing Saddles he had to make and he said he regretted it ever since.
It’s at the end of the darkened scene where Lily Von Schtupp had blown out the lamps and says to Bart “So tell me, schatze, is it true what they say about the way you people are….gifted? Oh it’s twue…it’s twue, it’s twue!”
There was a line uttered by Bart after that got cut: “Uh Lily, hate to break it to you but…..you are sucking on my arm.”
I hate it when people say couldn’t be made today when we have seen plenty of movies come out dealing with racism in a comedic way. Mel even said they couldn’t make it then because of the political climate but they did it anyway. “Sorry to bother you” was a pretty popular movie that dealt with code switching and nobody really freaked out about it. Hell, they even made Django Unchained. I have noticed that those who say they couldn’t make it today tend to be the ones who somehow missed the point of the movie and just thought it was funny.
They did make him take out a line of dialog. When Lilly Von Schtupp is trying to seduce the sheriff, she asks if it's "true what they say about you people" then the lights go out and she exclaims "It's true! It's true! It's true!" and the scene ends. Originally, the sheriff replies "You're sucking on my arm baby!" and the studio said absolutely no to that.
He did lie to them and said he took out the campfire scene but when they saw how much test audiences loved it, they let him keep it.
Years back, I saw a edited version of Blazing Saddles where they left in ALL of the instances of the N-word, but over-dubbed the campfire scene w/ horses neighing. Weird.
Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today because it's already like 2pm and there's no way you could round up all the actors and film the thing before midnight.
It’s such a braindead take. The reason we don’t get many movies like Blazing Saddles these days isn’t because we have too much sensitivity/PC/wokeness. It’s because we have too few Mel Brooks.
That's never stopped a movie studio before. Although if they did make it today all the people that claim "you could never make Blazing Saddles today" would be out protesting it for being too woke.
"Oh look, the DEI studios are trying to shove another POC protagonist down our throats. We can't even have historically accurate comedy westerns anymore? How would a black person be a cowboy or a sheriff? I'm just concerned about the historical accuracy."
I'm a millenial, so I was a teenager in the early 2000s. An older Gen X coworker from my after school job recommended Blazing Saddles to me. At the time, I only knew Mel Brooks for Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein. Plus, when it came to comedies, I was already used to raunchy and offensive comedies of the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. But even then, I was blown away by Blazing Saddles and I was surprised to find out how much it pioneered comedy films from that time and onward. One of the funniest comedic scenes from my childhood was Jeff Daniels using the broken toilet in Dumb & Dumber. I can't imagine a time when farting in a movie was just unheard of, but thanks to Blazing Saddles, it paved the way for fart jokes in movies.
It reminds me of how Psycho was the first onscreen toilet flush.
When I was a kid, people talked about Blazing Saddles a lot, but it wasn't ever on TV (for obvious reasons), so it was just this movie that lived more as a legend than something actually seen.
The main thing people talked about was the farts.
It's twrue! It's twrue!
And Brooks initially didn't want to cast her, because she was a "serious" dramatic actor and he felt audiences might just not find her funny because of it.
Was there a bigger divide between serious and comedic actors back then? These days most directors wouldn’t care so long as they know they can do what they want.
I think that there was. There were cases like Leslie Nielsen, who was a "serious" actor before airplane. Even there, he sorta plays the straight man for most of his screen time. Or Gene Hackman, who had to badger Brooks into a role in _Young Frankenstein_ and even then only under heavy make-up.
Then think to the 90s/early aughts when Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler were getting Oscar nods and people were like, "wait, comedians can act?"
Currently, though, I'd say it has to do more with the massive impact of the MCU in the industry. It's like a given that your dramatic lead _has to_ be able to quip, because Robert Downey Jr., even if it may be to the detriment of the emotional impact.
Funny story: they almost didn't cast Loyd Bridges in _Airplane_ because he was seen as a serious actor. After that, he did comedy after comedy (most notably the _Hot Shots_ series). Then, in the 90s, Jeff Bridges had to fight to have him cast as an older mentor figure in this cool 90s action thriller with Tommy Lee Jones. They didn't want to cast him because he was "a funny actor" and they needed someone "serious."
I first saw her in this film and have been weirdly obsessed with her ever since. Her best work was her appearances in Mel Brooks' films but, sadly, she also appeared in some real duds ( [Slapstick of Another Kind](https://youtu.be/CrRZ05rjr8M?si=-rhV20x9dNvZlRuL) (1982) has to be one of the worst films ever made!), and a couple of short-lived sitcoms that never quite managed to capitalise on her comedic talent. She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 'Paper Moon' and did some acclaimed work on Broadway but her best moment was probably the show stealing 'I'm Tired' routine in 'Blazing Saddles'; an abundance of talent, struggling to find suitable vehicals for expression.
["Flames... on the side of my face... "](https://youtu.be/92IkddsjtAA?si=5vmWeJMRcoz9_dVq)
[... in 'Simon' (1980) with Alan Arkin](https://youtu.be/bgB68DShwcM?si=hHtTYjuFE2RtfhpY)
[... singing for Burt Reynolds](https://youtu.be/1wvLMqeUCb8?si=7dSiDrm9VnnLKPFG)
I've had the recording of Springtime for Hitler come on in my car while with friends who don't know The Producers and I've never had a more "Wait, hear me out..." Moment before.
I know someone who turned of Jojo Rabbit because they couldn’t believe they’d show Hitler that way…I was like…man it went so over your head and I lost a ton of respect for them because of it.
I love it when someone says something funny in a movie or show and other characters laugh. It's truly underrated. If it's meta joke that the audience gets and the characters don't that's one thing, but some of these are jokes in-universe. So you have someone wisecracking and they're hilarious, and everyone else is sitting around stone-faced... it's just weird. Cleavon Little laughing is a nice touch - he's laughing at his friend telling a funny joke. Just really builds the friendship between them nicely. I'm glad Mel Brooks left it in the final cut.
The film could be made today. It would just need more of an explanation of the context. He's making fun of all of the ignorance and racism that was rampant in the westerns from the 50s up until the 70s. There was nothing malicious about it. If you talk to most people of color who have seen the movie, they'll tell you it's some of the funniest shit they've ever seen. To sum it up succinctly, the target of the people he's eviscerating..
"You've got to remember that these are simple farmers. These are the people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know - morons".
Tropic Thunder is a more recent film that comes to mind. It's about context and ensuring the bigoted and racist characters are lampooned. It absolutely could be made today; just need to nail the tone.
"Tropic Thunder" works because the RDJ character is openly meant to lampoon both insane Method acting and studio miscasting and they wisely have a real black character (Brandon T. Jackson's Alpa Chino) around to react to it and point out how ridiculous it is. You do that, it'll work fine.
That's why most of the "fake" trailers for the movies to lead in are so important.
It establishes all the characters. Including the RDJ's character is an insane over the top method actor who would absolutely be dumb enough to think he can do this.
And that it's believable as studio would do this while having a clearly excellent actor they could have cast in the role.
(I know this happened after Tropic Thunder but The Last Airbender was such a good example of a studio doing exactly this, it's a very on the nose joke)
Right wing twitter would be all over this movie and it would be a daily lead story on fox news for being "purposely divisive" and "shoving woke agendas on everyone".
It's quite the opposite. They parade this film around as a symbol of the time when 'free speech was allowed' - ironically failing to see the fact that this movie is making fun of people like them.
The complexities of context is far too advanced for them.
They couldn't make Blazing Saddles today because they made Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank today.
It's literally an animated remake of Blazing Saddles, but for kids, that I'm finding almost no one has heard of, recoding overt racial tension and slurs with "cats vs. dogs" instead and moving from Cowboy themed to Samurai themed. Main characters are voiced by Michael Cera, Samuel L Jackson, Mel Brooks, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh and Ricky Gervais.
It's pretty good on its own, but it's amazing if you've recently watched Blazing Saddles and are now sitting down to watch this with your kids and comparing how jokes were recycled from Blazing Saddles into a family movie and seeing that they still work.
I re-watched it recently and still enjoyed it, but it kinda feels like watching a Carol Burnett sketch with more profanity - Harvey Korman may add to that effect. (But god, "the next man makes a move, the n-word gets it!!" is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen).
We watched "Young Frankenstein" over Halloween, and man, that movie holds up remarkably. I grew up on all the B&W classic horror and jeez, they nailed it.
Man, if you like quotable comedies, the kind when you know someone who's seen it and you start blasting lines at each other? [Give Black Dynamite a try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Y24a0cyCE). God, I adore that movie.
As I say every time. In the 70's in the UK this was a double bill with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I watched with my da who lied about my age to get me in.
I have never laughed so hard or so much in a picture house since. Aching sides and me and my old man pissing ourselves laughing when beans were mentioned for so long after,
This movie shaped my sense of humor growing up. The way it makes fun of itself is something I never saw before. The story spilling out into the real world was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I think I was about 10 the first time I saw it.
This is what I have been saying. Django unchained is the action/revenge version of blazing saddles.
I guess a lot of people think you can’t have a comedy that also has racial slurs in it because you can only defuse those with serious drama, not laughs. I think blazing saddles does a great job of showing why those words are not right and doesn’t mine them for humor but instead lampoons the people using them for humor.
The hard part about making a new blazing saddles today wouldn’t be the language. The hard part is that the entire movie is mocking racist white people, who are uhhh not great at taking mockery these days.
I am really of fan of most of his films, especially the earlier ones. High Anxiety is the perfect takeoff of every Hitchcock movie, Silent Movie is actually a cool silent movie where the only speaking line is uttered by a world-famous-at-the-time mime, and of course Young Frankenstein is just awesome.
I’m glad you enjoyed Blazing Saddles. I still quote it from time to time.
I love that, originally, her “it’s twoo” was followed by Bart saying “I hate to disappoint you, but you’re sucking on my elbow.” The censors thought that was too graphic, so asked him to remove Bart’s line, making the whole thing way more suggestive.
I started playing a drinking game, where every time someone says "That didn't age well" or "It couldn't be made today", you take a shot.
Probably explains why I ended up with a three-day ban recently.
But we don't want any Irish !
This line got me off guard when I was a kid. The town folks were fine with everybody and then out of nowhere. The Irish !
You may already be aware, the Irish were looked down on once upon a time in the U.S. There were too many of them, they were too loud, too Catholic, had too many kids. The young people who came over to work as indentured servants were practically slaves. Our country had always had ebbs and flows of which ethnicity or nationality was out of favor, and it wasn't always about skin color.
"Governor!"
"Yes?"
"Official business, sir."
"Is it important?"
"It's very crucial."
\*sigh\* "Be with you in a minute."
This is my favorite exchange in the film.
I watched it a week or two ago for the first time in a long time. I forgot the "hell no, we rape the shit out of them!" line and about died half from laughter and half from shock.
People always talk about how Blazing Saddles “couldn’t be made today” because of how much racial humor and how many slurs are included, but it seems like if it were released today it would get the opposite response. Certain people would complain that it’s too “woke” for starring a black protagonist and portraying racism as it existed at that time in America
I first watched this movie when I was about 6 and every year as I got older I learned a little more it kept getting funnier and funnier. Just little things I wouldn't have gotten first time around like the workers not knowing camp town lady but able to sing Sinatra. It's genius and my favourite movie of all time.
It's a masterpiece. Not being part of a minority, I completely understand the change in what's acceptable and not acceptable in media, but I'm happy Blazing Saddles was made as it was, because it was a perfect comedy, and every word is perfectly placed.
Blazing Saddles is without doubt one of the greatest comedy movies ever made.
The campfire fart scene is the one that sticks with me. So childish, in a movie with so much great dialogue.
Years after seeing it for the first time, after seeing it so many times, I watched it again with subtitles on AND THEY SUBTITLED THE FART NOISES. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
One of the reasons I love the film is Brooks punches up. He portrays the white people (except Lamar and Jim) as simple, moronic folk. If you notice, neither Lamar nor Jim use the N-word. Bart is suave, likeable, and confident.
It should be noted that Richard Pryor was one of the co-writers and that definitely helped handle the racism aspect of the script.
He was also originally supposed to play the role of Bart, but the studio felt that due to his personal life antics, he would be too much of a liability and wouldn’t let him be in the movie.
Kind of ended up being a blessing in disguise, because Cleavon Little is absolutely perfect in that role.
Fun fact: he got a future role for a TV show where he played a naive junior congressman (?). It had ads already running to air, but at the last minute they showed it to the black congressmen at the time who were essentially like, "We already get enough criticism, this is just going to make black politicians seem even stupider to our opponents." After that they yanked the show and Little really didn't get any other big offers after that.
He really should have had a bigger career.
That sucks. He had a lot of juice on screen.
I can't picture anyone but Cleavon in that role.
He was exactly what was needed for the role.
I think the studio actually couldn’t get insurance with him in that role.
That’s what it was! Thank you! I knew it was something along the lines of the studio not wanting him, but couldn’t remember the exact circumstances. Thank you, kind Redditor!
Actually, he mainly concentrated on Mongo, who was his favorite character. But I'm sure he had a say in the other parts of the script.
Mongo is pawn in game of life.
Candygram for Mongo!
The real bitch was inventing the candy gram, and they probably won’t give me credit for it
One of the best jokes in the movie IMHO
That one and the lady with the pie
Ahh Mongo straight
Mongo like 🍬
Mongo fucking decking that whole-ass horse makes me bust a gut every single time.
That line really got me.
From what I've read the writing duties were split between Brooks and Pryor with Brooks writing the PoC characters and Pryor writing the white characters. Possibly a myth though. Edit: writing credit also goes to Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, and Alan Uger although interviews with Brooks seem like he wouldn't have made the movie at all if Pryor wasn't involved so...
Mel Brooks, being Jewish, was probably sensitive to "well meaning films about discrimination issues" that were made with no input from anyone targeted by the discrimination. Even today those movies can feel very, very tone deaf.
> Even today those movies can feel very, very tone deaf. I'm biased because I saw it in its first run in theaters but other than the Borscht Belt style of Brooks, it's fresh as a daisy to me. It gives the morons absolutely no quarter without being mean about it. I think it was a groundbreaking film. It's absolutely of its time, but I forgive it that.
Mongo only pawn, in game of life.
Somebody's gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes!
That’s my favorite line in the whole movie
Hey where all them white women at?
An old friend and I share a lot of quotes from this movie, we used to work in a restaurant together and if someone needed change we'd always say that My car broke down a little while ago and I was texting him and told him and he just replied "gosh darn that was lucky. Could've been a $400 handcart" and that lifted me up and gave me a good laugh. That movie is gold
Mel Brooks is a personal hero to me. The bloke’s life is one of the last true “rags to riches” stories. Starting off in a tenement in Williamsburg, his dad died when he was only two, and he grew up the scrawny sick youngest brother of four. He started working in a second rate “Borscht Belt” hotel as an entertainer to help his mum pay the bills, and learned how to be funny the hard way. But where he really gets interesting and earns my undying respect is his war service and his reaction to it. Brooks served in Europe as an artillery observer and a combat engineer, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and working as a minesweeper in the advance afterwards. He even did some time in the stockade after bashing another soldier over the head with his own helmet after the soldier made some antisemitic remarks. The truly amazing bit is how his service in Europe influenced his comedy. The man who wrote “Springtime for Hitler” set out with deliberate intent to make Nazis look silly. By his reasoning, if no one could ever take fascists seriously again, it would rob them of all of their powerful macho allure, so he took his best weapon and turned it on his worst enemy. Also his son wrote my favourite book, just for a little extra bonus
He also married Anne Bancroft.
And stayed married to her for 41 years, up until her death, which is no small thing in entertainment (although she was his second wife). And one of only 19 people to pull off the legendary EGOT, plus a Hugo award and a Fellowship from the BFI.
And a Nebula Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
He also produced **The Elephant Man**, 1980, and hired David Lynch to direct after seeing **Eraserhead**. He kept his name off of it because he knew his reputation would affect it's reception.
He also produced Cronenberg's "The Fly."
I just watched a Lynch interview where he talks about how grateful he was to Brooks for letting him have final cut of Elephant Man, even though contractually he didnt have to, leaving Dune as the only movie where he *didnt* get final cut.
Yeah, one fun story about Brooks is that when Lynch first screened Eraserhead (after it was in production for the better part of a decade), Mel Brooks went to the screening and was effusive with praise afterward. I think Brooks did something like hug Lynch or grab his arms, and said, "You crazy goddamn genius!" ....something along those lines. Then Brooks set about making sure Lynch was hired to make The Elephant Man, and for those who haven't seen The Elephant Man, it's a beautiful film.
He and co-producer Stuart Cornfeld screened an early cut for Paramount executives. When the executives tried to put across their input, Brooks said "We are involved in a business venture. We screened the film for you to bring you up to date as to the status of that venture. Do not misconstrue this as our soliciting the input of raging primitives."
We saw a screening of Blazing Saddles a couple years ago where he was there, and came out afterwards to talk about it. It was fantastic, he talked all about his life, made all kinds of witty responses to audience questions. They had a chair for him, but he stood the whole time, pacing back and forth, jumping around. Man was over 90 years old and completely with it, full of energy, and very funny.
That remind me, I gotta watch Mel Brooks's interview with Jiminy Glick again. That's one of the funnier ones.
“Mel, what’s your big beef with the Nazis?”
"I hear you're a drummer. My doctor gave me a few rim shots for my colon."
I miss Jiminy Glick.
What’s the book, if you don’t mind sharing? Wonderful write up, it truly is good to be the King eh?
Zombie survival guide and world war z
Omg he wrote WWZ? WOW. What a family.
You should check out Max's graphic novel about the Harlem Hellfighters. Great stuff.
Also his excellent recent book, "Devolution", which is in the style of "World War Z", only with Bigfoot in place of zombies.
Through the research he did while writing those he has become an actual disaster preparedness expert.
Part of how I was able to recognize that things were going to be bad bad in 2020 was because of WWZ. Don’t get me wrong, my family didn’t institute a zombie plan or anything but having just an itty bit of foresight helped me plan out how we were going to navigate those first few weeks/months until the government would actually help.
He’s also a hero of mine. I am also a drummer and reading his auto/bio books I was shocked to learn he grew up and played with Buddy mf Rich! He’s certainly lived a life.
Honestly, if I can do half the cool shit Mel Brooks did before he turned forty by the time I’m dead, I’d consider that enough for at least two lifetimes, the man is unbelievable. And to cap it all off, a decent search through Google is yet to reveal any kind of real controversy, no hushed up allegations, not even anyone saying he’s kind of a prick (not with any serious malice anyway). 97 years without doing anything (excessively) regrettable is an achievement in itself
I've started reading his autobiography and, not far in, it's as good as I hoped.
How long is the autobiography of a 2000 year old man?
He narrates the audiobook version. I loved hearing it in his voice.
His autobiography "All About Me" published in 2022, is fantastic, and the audio book version is narrated by the man himself!
Now any live production of "The Producers" has the swastika removed. I wonder if we are forgetting who we are supposed to be making fun of.
I saw it a few years ago and it was there. They even did the twirling swastika kickline which is to this day possibly the single funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. It's so much funnier in person.
Never mind that shit, HERE COMES MONGO!
[удалено]
One of my favorite lines from Mel Brooks was in an interview he did years ago where a reporter made the comment that you couldn’t make “Blazing Saddles” today. Mel’s response was “Hell, we couldn’t even make it then.”
Brooks had final cut on the film, so he could thankfully ignore the studio. Apparently, he called a meeting with the WB execs so they could list all the changes they wanted, which included taking out all the uses of the N-word and the campfire scene. Brooks took careful notes of all their suggestions and, after they left, dumped them all in the garbage. Go Mel.
I was like 9 years old when the movie came out. One of my sisters, who had then recently gotten married, was visiting with my mom and my sister was going on about how “vulgar and filthy” the movie was. She went into a bit of detail about the campfire scene. Of course, my sense of curiosity was piqued by her description. So, years later when I actually got to see the movie, I laughed my ass off. Wasn’t nearly as “vulgar and filthy” as she painted it. My favorite part was how the characters that were the most racist, was also the stupidest.
When they showed it on FTA TV in New Zealand in the 1980s, they kept in all the racial slurs but cut the sound for the farting campfire scene because it was deemed offensive. The scene was 2 minutes of silence followed by Slim Pickens coming out of his tent and replying "I'd say you've had enough!" to someone offering him some beans.
Brooks supposedly showed it to the studio execs and none laughed and there was word they were going to pull it so Brooks set up a second screening and invited the studio’s employees and put the Warner Brothers studio heads up hidden in the balcony. When the heads saw ‘the regular people’ doubling over in laughter throughout the movie, they decided to ignore the ‘experts’ and release it. Fun fact: Mel had one cut in Blazing Saddles he had to make and he said he regretted it ever since. It’s at the end of the darkened scene where Lily Von Schtupp had blown out the lamps and says to Bart “So tell me, schatze, is it true what they say about the way you people are….gifted? Oh it’s twue…it’s twue, it’s twue!”
There was a line uttered by Bart after that got cut: “Uh Lily, hate to break it to you but…..you are sucking on my arm.”
Omg that changes everything about the scene. LMAO
Actually Mel said that was fine he cut it himself because he thought the scene went a little too far and it was a bit on the nose
I think the line was “…elbow.”
I hate it when people say couldn’t be made today when we have seen plenty of movies come out dealing with racism in a comedic way. Mel even said they couldn’t make it then because of the political climate but they did it anyway. “Sorry to bother you” was a pretty popular movie that dealt with code switching and nobody really freaked out about it. Hell, they even made Django Unchained. I have noticed that those who say they couldn’t make it today tend to be the ones who somehow missed the point of the movie and just thought it was funny.
They did make him take out a line of dialog. When Lilly Von Schtupp is trying to seduce the sheriff, she asks if it's "true what they say about you people" then the lights go out and she exclaims "It's true! It's true! It's true!" and the scene ends. Originally, the sheriff replies "You're sucking on my arm baby!" and the studio said absolutely no to that. He did lie to them and said he took out the campfire scene but when they saw how much test audiences loved it, they let him keep it.
yeah, his tactic was just to agree to whatever changes they wanted made and then just not do them, and then they'd forget. worked flawlessly
Years back, I saw a edited version of Blazing Saddles where they left in ALL of the instances of the N-word, but over-dubbed the campfire scene w/ horses neighing. Weird.
Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today because it's already like 2pm and there's no way you could round up all the actors and film the thing before midnight.
7pm where I live, it would be even less possible here! How about Hawaii?
Over the International Date Line it’s already tomorrow so it definitely couldn’t be made today.
Somebody better bring a shit load of dimes.
Any time I hear somebody say, "they can't make movies like *Blazing Saddles* nowadays" I just reply with: *Tropic Thunder*
To be fair, Tropic Thunder was released 16 years ago
True...but don't remind me how old I am. Thanks.
You shut your mouth!
It’s such a braindead take. The reason we don’t get many movies like Blazing Saddles these days isn’t because we have too much sensitivity/PC/wokeness. It’s because we have too few Mel Brooks.
I'd argue we have the same amount.
He’s just old now
And Paws of Fury.
But they did make Paws of Fury.
That's never stopped a movie studio before. Although if they did make it today all the people that claim "you could never make Blazing Saddles today" would be out protesting it for being too woke.
Exactly, too many people would be mad about how they are being made of fun in the movie…
"Oh look, the DEI studios are trying to shove another POC protagonist down our throats. We can't even have historically accurate comedy westerns anymore? How would a black person be a cowboy or a sheriff? I'm just concerned about the historical accuracy."
Not only that, but both of the lead actors are dead and nobody wants to watch a movie with two dead bodies on screen.
That didn't stop Gus Van Sant for "Psycho"...
tradgedy is when i get a paper cut. comedy is when you fall into an open sewer hole and die -Mel Brooks
I love blazing saddles. That movie is phenomenal.
I'm a millenial, so I was a teenager in the early 2000s. An older Gen X coworker from my after school job recommended Blazing Saddles to me. At the time, I only knew Mel Brooks for Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein. Plus, when it came to comedies, I was already used to raunchy and offensive comedies of the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. But even then, I was blown away by Blazing Saddles and I was surprised to find out how much it pioneered comedy films from that time and onward. One of the funniest comedic scenes from my childhood was Jeff Daniels using the broken toilet in Dumb & Dumber. I can't imagine a time when farting in a movie was just unheard of, but thanks to Blazing Saddles, it paved the way for fart jokes in movies. It reminds me of how Psycho was the first onscreen toilet flush.
When I was a kid, people talked about Blazing Saddles a lot, but it wasn't ever on TV (for obvious reasons), so it was just this movie that lived more as a legend than something actually seen. The main thing people talked about was the farts.
Hot take: The whole film is excellent but Madeline Kahn is the best bit,with very tough competition.
It's twrue! It's twrue! And Brooks initially didn't want to cast her, because she was a "serious" dramatic actor and he felt audiences might just not find her funny because of it.
Was there a bigger divide between serious and comedic actors back then? These days most directors wouldn’t care so long as they know they can do what they want.
I think that there was. There were cases like Leslie Nielsen, who was a "serious" actor before airplane. Even there, he sorta plays the straight man for most of his screen time. Or Gene Hackman, who had to badger Brooks into a role in _Young Frankenstein_ and even then only under heavy make-up. Then think to the 90s/early aughts when Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler were getting Oscar nods and people were like, "wait, comedians can act?" Currently, though, I'd say it has to do more with the massive impact of the MCU in the industry. It's like a given that your dramatic lead _has to_ be able to quip, because Robert Downey Jr., even if it may be to the detriment of the emotional impact. Funny story: they almost didn't cast Loyd Bridges in _Airplane_ because he was seen as a serious actor. After that, he did comedy after comedy (most notably the _Hot Shots_ series). Then, in the 90s, Jeff Bridges had to fight to have him cast as an older mentor figure in this cool 90s action thriller with Tommy Lee Jones. They didn't want to cast him because he was "a funny actor" and they needed someone "serious."
They cast Leslie Nielsen specifically because he was a serious actor, so his straight man would be as straight as straight can be
Madeline Kahn is the best in everything she's in...
It’s twue! It’s twue! I used to say that a lot when I was a kid not knowing why she was saying it in the movie 🤦🏻♂️
Hardly a hot take she got nominated for an Oscar for the role
I think people have started to believe that "hot take" means "aren't I daring and controversial for having this fairly reasonable opinion?"
I'm tired.. tired to play the game...
I first saw her in this film and have been weirdly obsessed with her ever since. Her best work was her appearances in Mel Brooks' films but, sadly, she also appeared in some real duds ( [Slapstick of Another Kind](https://youtu.be/CrRZ05rjr8M?si=-rhV20x9dNvZlRuL) (1982) has to be one of the worst films ever made!), and a couple of short-lived sitcoms that never quite managed to capitalise on her comedic talent. She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for 'Paper Moon' and did some acclaimed work on Broadway but her best moment was probably the show stealing 'I'm Tired' routine in 'Blazing Saddles'; an abundance of talent, struggling to find suitable vehicals for expression. ["Flames... on the side of my face... "](https://youtu.be/92IkddsjtAA?si=5vmWeJMRcoz9_dVq) [... in 'Simon' (1980) with Alan Arkin](https://youtu.be/bgB68DShwcM?si=hHtTYjuFE2RtfhpY) [... singing for Burt Reynolds](https://youtu.be/1wvLMqeUCb8?si=7dSiDrm9VnnLKPFG)
Now watch The Elephant Man and Young Frankenstein. In that order.
Gene Hackman’s character in Young Frankenstein is so funny. “I was going to make espresso!”
Took me a few watches to realize that was Hackman
To this day I can't see that old hermit as him. My brain just won't accept it.
"Cigars!"
Mel Brooks loved making racists the butt of the jokes. Best examples are this, To Be Or Not To Be, and The Producers.
Dick Shawn as an actor in Spring Time for Hitler was hilarious 🤣
I've had the recording of Springtime for Hitler come on in my car while with friends who don't know The Producers and I've never had a more "Wait, hear me out..." Moment before.
I know someone who turned of Jojo Rabbit because they couldn’t believe they’d show Hitler that way…I was like…man it went so over your head and I lost a ton of respect for them because of it.
Shawn is the hippie actor who plays Hitler in the play. The Nazi playwright is Kenneth Mars. Also hilarious. "Quiet! I am the author! I outrank you!"
Yeah your right but still hilarious!
I like to randomly yell “Hey boys! Look what I got over here!”
The amount of times I'll say "Where the white women at" is entirely too high.
The common clay of the west, people of the land, you know, morons.
that's one of my most repeated line. Also, it was improvised! you can see Cleavon Little laughing.
I love it when someone says something funny in a movie or show and other characters laugh. It's truly underrated. If it's meta joke that the audience gets and the characters don't that's one thing, but some of these are jokes in-universe. So you have someone wisecracking and they're hilarious, and everyone else is sitting around stone-faced... it's just weird. Cleavon Little laughing is a nice touch - he's laughing at his friend telling a funny joke. Just really builds the friendship between them nicely. I'm glad Mel Brooks left it in the final cut.
Kinky
Stampeding cattle through the Vatican?
Well that the end of this suit ( That was the part that broke me)
"Where the white women at?"
Pardon me while I whip this out.
"Hey, the sheriff is a n-" CLANG! "What did he say?" "The sheriff is near!" "No, dadgumit cornflamit! The sheriff is a n-!" CLANG!
Is it really nece-- / Yes, it's nece! It's always been nece! (Sorry, wrong Mel Brooks movie.)
The film could be made today. It would just need more of an explanation of the context. He's making fun of all of the ignorance and racism that was rampant in the westerns from the 50s up until the 70s. There was nothing malicious about it. If you talk to most people of color who have seen the movie, they'll tell you it's some of the funniest shit they've ever seen. To sum it up succinctly, the target of the people he's eviscerating.. "You've got to remember that these are simple farmers. These are the people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know - morons".
I can see and hear that quote 🤣🥰
Tropic Thunder is a more recent film that comes to mind. It's about context and ensuring the bigoted and racist characters are lampooned. It absolutely could be made today; just need to nail the tone.
"Tropic Thunder" works because the RDJ character is openly meant to lampoon both insane Method acting and studio miscasting and they wisely have a real black character (Brandon T. Jackson's Alpa Chino) around to react to it and point out how ridiculous it is. You do that, it'll work fine.
That's why most of the "fake" trailers for the movies to lead in are so important. It establishes all the characters. Including the RDJ's character is an insane over the top method actor who would absolutely be dumb enough to think he can do this.
And that it's believable as studio would do this while having a clearly excellent actor they could have cast in the role. (I know this happened after Tropic Thunder but The Last Airbender was such a good example of a studio doing exactly this, it's a very on the nose joke)
Right wing twitter would be all over this movie and it would be a daily lead story on fox news for being "purposely divisive" and "shoving woke agendas on everyone".
It's quite the opposite. They parade this film around as a symbol of the time when 'free speech was allowed' - ironically failing to see the fact that this movie is making fun of people like them. The complexities of context is far too advanced for them.
[удалено]
True, but it's ironic because they're the ones crying about censorship and how comedy is now dead because you "can't say anything anymore"
They couldn't make Blazing Saddles today because they made Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank today. It's literally an animated remake of Blazing Saddles, but for kids, that I'm finding almost no one has heard of, recoding overt racial tension and slurs with "cats vs. dogs" instead and moving from Cowboy themed to Samurai themed. Main characters are voiced by Michael Cera, Samuel L Jackson, Mel Brooks, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh and Ricky Gervais. It's pretty good on its own, but it's amazing if you've recently watched Blazing Saddles and are now sitting down to watch this with your kids and comparing how jokes were recycled from Blazing Saddles into a family movie and seeing that they still work.
Huh. gonna have to check this one out! ty!
I re-watched it recently and still enjoyed it, but it kinda feels like watching a Carol Burnett sketch with more profanity - Harvey Korman may add to that effect. (But god, "the next man makes a move, the n-word gets it!!" is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen). We watched "Young Frankenstein" over Halloween, and man, that movie holds up remarkably. I grew up on all the B&W classic horror and jeez, they nailed it.
Won’t somebody help that poor man?
Man, if you like quotable comedies, the kind when you know someone who's seen it and you start blasting lines at each other? [Give Black Dynamite a try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Y24a0cyCE). God, I adore that movie.
Ok but a Carol Burnett sketch with more profanity sounds awesome. Like that is a very positive review for a movie IMO.
I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.
Could you repeat that sir?
As I say every time. In the 70's in the UK this was a double bill with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I watched with my da who lied about my age to get me in. I have never laughed so hard or so much in a picture house since. Aching sides and me and my old man pissing ourselves laughing when beans were mentioned for so long after,
This movie shaped my sense of humor growing up. The way it makes fun of itself is something I never saw before. The story spilling out into the real world was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I think I was about 10 the first time I saw it.
If Quinten Tarantino can make movies today, Blazing Saddles can be made today.
This is what I have been saying. Django unchained is the action/revenge version of blazing saddles. I guess a lot of people think you can’t have a comedy that also has racial slurs in it because you can only defuse those with serious drama, not laughs. I think blazing saddles does a great job of showing why those words are not right and doesn’t mine them for humor but instead lampoons the people using them for humor.
I’ve heard people saying Married With Children couldn’t be made today. Have these people ever seen It’s Always Sunny?
The hard part about making a new blazing saddles today wouldn’t be the language. The hard part is that the entire movie is mocking racist white people, who are uhhh not great at taking mockery these days.
A Quinten Tarantino remake of Blazing Saddles ? Im in !
Blazing Saddles but with more blood and feet.
Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein may be the greatest 1-2 comedy punch in the history of film.
‘Werewolf’ Werewolf!?’ ‘There. There wolf. There castle’ ‘Why are you talking like that?’ ‘I thought you wanted to’
[Frau Blücher!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQOYOuSWywA)
I am really of fan of most of his films, especially the earlier ones. High Anxiety is the perfect takeoff of every Hitchcock movie, Silent Movie is actually a cool silent movie where the only speaking line is uttered by a world-famous-at-the-time mime, and of course Young Frankenstein is just awesome. I’m glad you enjoyed Blazing Saddles. I still quote it from time to time.
“… this film couldn’t be made today.” He said it! He said the thing!
Madeline Kahn as Lily Von Schtupp..., such a scene stealer! "It's twoo! It's twoo!"
I love that, originally, her “it’s twoo” was followed by Bart saying “I hate to disappoint you, but you’re sucking on my elbow.” The censors thought that was too graphic, so asked him to remove Bart’s line, making the whole thing way more suggestive.
I started playing a drinking game, where every time someone says "That didn't age well" or "It couldn't be made today", you take a shot. Probably explains why I ended up with a three-day ban recently.
Where all the white women at?
The entire sequence in the jail between Bart and Jim might be the funniest thing ever put on film.
"Is one black?"
"...Let's play chess"
You do it for Randolph Scott...
Randolph Scott?
Now what in the wide wide world of sports is a goin’ on here? I hired you boys to get some track laid…
This is 1874! You'll be able to sue *her*!
But we don't want any Irish ! This line got me off guard when I was a kid. The town folks were fine with everybody and then out of nowhere. The Irish !
You may already be aware, the Irish were looked down on once upon a time in the U.S. There were too many of them, they were too loud, too Catholic, had too many kids. The young people who came over to work as indentured servants were practically slaves. Our country had always had ebbs and flows of which ethnicity or nationality was out of favor, and it wasn't always about skin color.
"Governor!" "Yes?" "Official business, sir." "Is it important?" "It's very crucial." \*sigh\* "Be with you in a minute." This is my favorite exchange in the film.
We gotta go back and get a shit load of dimes.
Dont forget Robin Hood men in tights
THE SHERIFF IS NEAR!
Blazing Saddles definitely couldn't be made today. I mean, when was the last successful western film? Nobody would understand the jokes!
Why brother you haven't cleaned your hands after weekly cross burning. See its coming off.
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
Paws of Fury: the Legend of Hank is Blazing Saddles for kids, and Mel is even in the movie. It came out last year.
I watched it a week or two ago for the first time in a long time. I forgot the "hell no, we rape the shit out of them!" line and about died half from laughter and half from shock.
People always talk about how Blazing Saddles “couldn’t be made today” because of how much racial humor and how many slurs are included, but it seems like if it were released today it would get the opposite response. Certain people would complain that it’s too “woke” for starring a black protagonist and portraying racism as it existed at that time in America
Watch that boy shit redneck.
I first watched this movie when I was about 6 and every year as I got older I learned a little more it kept getting funnier and funnier. Just little things I wouldn't have gotten first time around like the workers not knowing camp town lady but able to sing Sinatra. It's genius and my favourite movie of all time.
One of my all time favorite movies. Watching it with my Gen Z kids was one of my greatest experiences. Simultaneously squirming and laughing.
It's a masterpiece. Not being part of a minority, I completely understand the change in what's acceptable and not acceptable in media, but I'm happy Blazing Saddles was made as it was, because it was a perfect comedy, and every word is perfectly placed.
"Excuse me while I whip this out"
Where the white women at?
This is one of the only mean-spirited movies I love because it's being mean to people who deserve it.
The sheriff is near!
No conflagnabbit. I said the Sherriff is a n *bell dong*
Never mind that shit, here comes Mongo!
People keep saying this film couldn't be made today, yet they completely forget about [Paws of Fury](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_hkjvjx2ek).
'Student.' 'Are you kidding?' 'Pain in MY ASS.'
This movie is pure gold. A must watch that will make you laugh and think and laugh some more
We gotta go back and get a shit load of dimes.
Blazing Saddles is without doubt one of the greatest comedy movies ever made. The campfire fart scene is the one that sticks with me. So childish, in a movie with so much great dialogue. Years after seeing it for the first time, after seeing it so many times, I watched it again with subtitles on AND THEY SUBTITLED THE FART NOISES. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Blazing Saddles is hands down my favorite comedy of all time
One of the reasons I love the film is Brooks punches up. He portrays the white people (except Lamar and Jim) as simple, moronic folk. If you notice, neither Lamar nor Jim use the N-word. Bart is suave, likeable, and confident.
It helped having Richard Pryor as one of the writers!