History Film / Spaceballs

** "Vespa" means "wasp" in Italian. A petulant or easily irritated person, especially a woman, may be described as "waspish." Also an acronym for "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" (which is rather ironic, since Vespa is a parody of JewishAmericanPrincess stereotypes).

* BubblyWaitress: Lone Star and Barf meet a Bubbly Waitress at a space-diner towards the end of the film. She cheerfully takes their order, and absently chews bubble gum while Creator/JohnHurt [[ShoutOut starts convulsing and spasming at the end of the bar]].

* FlippingTheBird: Done by Barf to the guards at the prison to get their attention (so he and Lone Star can beat them up).

** During the fight between Lone Star and Dark Helmet, Helmet swings his Schwartz sword back and hits a member of the movie crew.

* OutlandishDeviceSetting: Lone Star has just put his Space Winnebago into "hyperactive" in a bid to escape the eponymous Spaceballs. Dark Helmet orders pursuit. Col. Sanders tells them to prepare for light speed. Helmet says that light speed is too slow, and they're going to have to take the ship to '''''Ludicrous Speed'''''. The ship passes Lone Star and keeps going.

* SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace: The climactic wedding where Lone Star interferes JustInTime to prevent Vespa from marrying Prince Valium.

* StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot: Parodied; ''Spaceball One'' is so long that its establishing shot lasts several minutes as the ship slowly flies across the screen.

* WeddingFinale: The movie ends with what was to be the wedding of Princess Vespa and Prince Valium, until [[spoiler:Prince Lone Star arrives, declares his parentage, pushes Prince Valium aside, and gets "the short, short version" of the wedding: "Do you?" "Yes!" "Do you?" "Yes!" "Kiss her, you're married."]]

* AtArmsLength: Lone Starr holds Dark Helmet back by the helmet during their Schwartz fight, leaving Helmet to ineffectually flail at the air.

-->'''Sandurz:''' ''Spaceball One'' has now become... ''[drum roll]''' ... the Mega-Maid!

* DrumRollPlease: Sandurz pauses in mid-sentence for this.

* MisaimedMarketing: InUniverse:
** "Spaceballs: The Toilet Paper"
** KillItWithFire: "Spaceballs [[BorschtBelt dah]] '''[[BorschtBelt FLAMETHROWAH!!]]'''"
--->'''Yogurt:''' The kids love this one!

-->[[DeathGlare "Where did you get that?"]]

-->'''Dark Helmet:''' [to Sandurz] Who is he?\\

--> '''Lone Starr:''' I wonder, will we ever see each other again?
--> '''Yogurt:''' Who knows? God willing, we'll all meet again in ''Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money''.

-->'''Lone Starr:''' A million?! That's unfair!
-->'''Pizza the Hutt:''' Unfair to the pay''or'', but not to the pay''ee''. And you're gonna pay ''it'', or else.

-->'''Dark Helmet:''' How can there be a cassette of Spaceballs: The Movie? We're still in the middle of making it!!!

-->'''Spaceball officer:''' You ''idiot''! These are not them! You captured their stunt doubles!

---> '''Dot:''' OK, we all know Prince Valium is a pill...

''[{{beat}}]''\\

-->'''Radar operator:''' I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.\\

'''Radar operator:''' I've lost the bleeps, I've lost the sweeps, and I've lost the creeps.\\

'''Radar operator:''' You know, the bleeps... ''[makes bleeping sounds]'' The sweeps... ''[shakes his jowls]'' And the creeps. ''[makes more beeping noises]''\\

** [[Film/{{Alien}} John Hurt]] plays a patron in "Gus's Galaxy Grill" who had [[ChestBurster the special.]] [[AsideGlance He even says]] "OhNoNotAgain"

-->'''Kane:''' [[HereWeGoAgain Oh no. Not again]].

* WeMeetAgain: Mocked when Lone Starr says to Dark Helmet:
-->'''Lone Starr:''' Helmet! At last we meet, for the first time, for the last time.\\
''[whispers to self, repeating the line]'' Yep!

* UnconventionalFoodUsage: To avoid getting detected by Dark Helmet, Lone Starr decides to jam the Spaceballs' radar... by launching a massive jar of raspberry jam that crashes into the radar's dish, blotting it out instantly. [[DontExplainTheJoke He literally jammed the radar, geddit]]?

** President Skroob's name is a SdrawkcabName of director and actor Creator/MelBrooks' last name.

* TooFastToStop: Going suddenly from LudicrousSpeed to a dead stop is too dangerous courtesy of Newton's First Law (as Dark Helmet learns), and just flying that fast causes ''Spaceball One'' to overshoot the Winnebago.

* XenomorphXerox: After experiencing severe stomach upset from ordering the Space Special at Gus' Galaxy Grill, an alien bursts forth from John Hurt's stomach, puts on a cane and top hat, and begins singing and dancing "The Michigan Rag" from ''WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening''. Hurt groans "Not again!" at the sight of this.

* MobDebt: Lone Starr and Barf owe a hundred thousand space bucks to space gangster Pizza the Hutt for unspecified reasons. He calls them to say that he's moving up his deadline to tomorrow, and adds on so many "late charges" that they now owe him a million space bucks.

* MotionParallax: The ships have a "LudicrousSpeed" mode that causes them to travel so fast, that motion parallax gets plaid.

** The can of Perri-Air that Skroob uses turns out to have a second pun beyond the obvious ProductPlacement gag. The stylized "P" on the can also resembles a "D," and Skroob brings the can up to his nose. He's sniffing his Derri-Air ("derrière," which is French for "rear end").
*** Better yet, this is apparently a bilingual pun, as the Hebrew letter for "P" resembles an uppercase "D" in the Roman alphabet. One of the creators of ''Creator/{{Discord}}'', who is also Jewish, pulled a similar gag with the font for their original logo.
** When the heroes start praising Yogurt, as 'Yogurt the wise!" and "Yogurt the incredible." Yogurt shows modesty and says "I'm just ''plain Yogurt''." Plain yogurt is yogurt served without any additional flavors.

%% Except that "father's brother's nephew's cousin" just makes it a DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: One's father's brother's nephew is either oneself or one's brother, and once that's stripped away, you're left with "your cousin's former roommate."

%% Except the film makes clear that Druidia has a shield surrounding the planet - Dark Helmet mentions it at the end of the first scene, the Spaceballs want the code to open it, and as seen when Princess Vespa's spacecraft leaves & when Spaceball One starts sucking the air out, there is a hatch in it to allow entry & exit.

%%