* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Hedley Lamar makes [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain some very condescending statements about Native Americans]], even comparing them to children. This was [[DeliberateValuesDissonance a fairly common belief at the time the movie is set]], so him genuinely believing it isn't too hard to imagine. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to particularly care that Bart is black except in terms of how he can use that fact to his advantage, appointing him as Rock Ridge's new sheriff in the hopes that the racist townsfolk will either abandon the town (which would let him buy the land for a low price) or lynch him (which would give him an excuse to have them arrested and seize the land). This shows that he's willing to exploit other people's prejudices for his own benefit, and since Governor Le Petomane has incredibly paternalistic views towards Native Americans, it's ''also'' possible that Lamarr is merely playing to the Governor's prejudices so he can gain money and power from appropriating Native American land. Of course, he's a self-serving sleazebag either way.
* AlternativeJokeInterpretation:
** While listing off the crimes committed by the bandits when they attacked Rock Ridge, Reverend Johnson mentions -- among other things -- "people stampeded [[BestialityIsDepraved and cattle raped]]". Did the reverend get some items mixed up, or did the bandits actually do those things? Seeing as how there were cows at the town meeting, it's reasonable to say there's a good chance of the latter.
** Jim says that during his gunslinging career, he must've killed more men than Creator/CecilBDeMille. Is this a reference to the huge number of characters who died in De Mille's {{epic movie}}s? Or is it a gag about the allegations that some people died working on his films due to lax safety standards?
** During the big pie fight at the studio commissary, Hedley notices the chaos and ducks back into the men's bathroom, only to come out a few seconds later with pie on his face. Did someone ambush him with a pie, or did he actually smear himself with pie in order to disguise himself while he fled the studio in the chaos?
* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** "Alright, we'll give some land to the niggers and the chinks, but we don't want ''[[FauxHorrific the Irish!]]''" What seems like a straightforward example of ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is surprisingly accurate for a movie that [[AnachronismStew plays so fast and loose]] with history; as any historian would tell you, the Irish [[TruthInTelevision really were considered to be a separate race]] and discriminated against in a similar way to the black and Chinese people.
** Mel Brooks portraying the Yiddish-speaking Native American chief is a parody of how it was once standard Hollywood practice for Western films to cast white actors, including Jewish ones, to play Native American characters.
*** It might also be a joke about the old theory that the Native Americans were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Creator/WarnerBrothers almost didn't release the film at all because they figured it just wouldn't sell. But it did.
** Brooks screened the film to WB executives... to the sound of crickets. They just didn't get it, and thought it was offensive. Alarmed that they would pull the plug on it, he scheduled another screening, but this time for general WB employees, and had the execs there to watch their reaction to it. The WB employees were rolling in the aisles, and the execs agreed to release it.
* AwardSnub: The movie did get UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations for Creator/MadelineKahn for Supporting Actress, Best Song, and Best Editing. But that it missed out on Supporting Actor for Creator/HarveyKorman, or Best Director, or Best Screenplay, or Best Picture shows [[ComedyGhetto how hard it is for a comedy movie to get its due in Hollywood]]. To be fair though, Hedley Lamarr said in the movie that he was risking that nomination.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The title theme. Mel wanted someone "[[ThePoorMansSubstitute like Western film singer Frankie Laine]]". At the audition, the real Frankie Laine showed up, and was unaware that the film was a comedy; so he sang it as if it was for a genuine western. After hearing how much effort Laine was putting into his singing, Creator/MelBrooks simply didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. Laine didn't find out until the premier and loved it.
* CrazyIsCool:
** ''Bart.'' If there's a funnier or more ingenious way for a black man to escape hostile racists than by ''[[StopOrIShootMyself taking himself hostage]]'', it has not yet been invented.
** The Waco Kid. Anyone who can [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shoot four guns]] out of as many hands [[ImprobableAimingSkills in as many seconds]] ''without appearing to draw his own'' definitely qualifies.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: Let's just say this movie crosses the line so often it might as well be a game of table tennis.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** "Mongo [[HiddenDepths only pawn in game of life.]]"
** Lyle. Not only is he more racist and obnoxious than even Taggart, he's even ''dumber'' too...which just makes him [[LaughablyEvil all the more]] [[LoveToHate entertaining]].
* FridgeBrilliance:
** Jim's career as "The Waco Kid" came to an end after a six-year old [[ShotInTheAss shot him in the ass]]. He states that when it happened, he just "limped into the nearest bar, climbed inside a whisky bottle, and [he's] been there ever since". Nowhere in that recounting does it says he went to a doctor or received any kind of medical attention. Granted, a bullet to the buttocks is probably the least likely gunshot wound to kill or even seriously debilitate anyone, but you'll notice upon rewatching indications that he's still tender in that area. Just after he engages in the impromptu "quick draw" with Bart, he eases ''very gingerly'' back into his chair. And when we first meet him, he isn't laying down on his rack (like you'd expect a passed out drunk), but hanging upside down, asleep, suggesting that lying on his ass is too painful. Maybe [[TheAlcoholic all that drinking]] is Jim self-medicating, to escape gluteal agony?
** The tollbooth joke is overtly an example of Taggart's stupidity, but it's got the governor's name on it, and setting the thing up in the middle of the desert ''is'' just the sort of money-grubbing scheme that Taggart's boss Lamarr would come up with.
* GeniusBonus:
-->'''Taggart:''' I got it! I know how we can run everyone out of Rock Ridge.\\
'''Hedley Lamarr:''' How? \\
'''Taggart:''' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_egypt#10._Death_of_the_Firstborn We'll kill the first born male child in every household!]] \\
'''Hedley Lamarr:''' ''[after some consideration]'' Too Jewish.
** "Mongo! Santa Maria!" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongo_Santamar%C3%ADa Mongo Santamaria]] was a famous jazz musician.
** Governor [=LePetomane=]: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pétomane Le Petomane]]" was the stage name of a French entertainer who was famous for being able to fart at will. It's not a coincidence that one of the most famous scenes in this movie is the cowboys farting after eating beans.
** One would have to be a fan of old American movies to get the following:
-->'''Olson Johnson:''' Our fathers came across the prairie! Fought Indians! Fought drought, fought locusts, fought {{D|oubleEntendre}}ix! Remember when [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dix Richard Dix]] came in here, and tried to take over this town!?
** The townsfolks' reverence for Creator/RandolphScott, a famous actor in the golden age of westerns who had already been retired for years when the film came out.
** "Ah, yes, the Doctor Gillespie Killings. Well, do your best". This is a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Kildare a 1940s movie serial series,]] and is basically the equivalent of joking Jessica Fletcher was the real killer in ''Series/MurderSheWrote''. Considering by the time this movie came out those movies hadn't been in cinemas for ''thirty years'', it's a hell of an obscure joke.
*** There had been two failed TV shows based on Dr. Kildare, the most recent attempt at the time having been aired in 1972 and lasting for 24 episodes so this reference isn't *too* obscure for the time but nowadays the show is just as obscure and unknown as the serials that inspired them.
** Bart's "stampeding cattle through the Vatican" line while dressed as a Klansman works doubly well since the KKK are notoriously anti-Catholic.
** The Ku Klux Klan's inclusion in the movie is even funnier if you know that the Klansmen in Hedley's army are wearing the uniforms of the ''second'' Ku Klux Klan, which didn't form until after World War I--making them [[AnachronismStew almost as anachronistic as the Nazis fighting alongside them]].
** The racist attitude toward the Irish might seem like a random joke to a modern viewer, but the Irish really were discriminated against at the time the film is set. There were even cartoons depicting them as subhumans on the same level as the black, Chinese, and Mexican people.
** The headdress that Mel Brooks wears as the Sioux Chieftain has ''Kosher for Passover'' written in Hebrew across the brow. Except it's written ''[[{{Spoonerism}} Posher for Kassover]]''
** Jim's claim of "[[OneManArmy I must've killed more men than]] Creator/CecilBDeMille!" Cecil B [=DeMille=] was the director of such massive epics as ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}'', where hundreds of cast members would be "killed" on-screen. In an era before safety regulations were much of a thing, [[NoOSHACompliance he was also notoriously lax with the safety of his cast and crew]] and it's been alleged that some people really did die working on his movies.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** From the song "I'm Tired", the line "Let's face it. Everything below the waist is kaput!" is not as amusing considering Creator/MadelineKahn later passed away from ovarian cancer.
** Alex Karras, who played Mongo, suffered from dementia in his last few years. Puts a rather different spin on his act as TheDitz.
** Gabby Johnson being the town drunkard is less funny as Gabby's actor Jack Starrett was a real life alcoholic whose drinking would eventually claim his life in the form of kidney failure in 1989.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** This film got a ''lot'' of quoting online after the election of President UsefulNotes/BarackObama, particularly the "Sheriff is near" scene.
** Similarly, "MONGO STRAIGHT!" becomes (even more) hilarious when you see Alex Karras in ''Film/VictorVictoria'', where he decidedly isn't.
** Bart stealing a Klansman's robes to attempt to sneak into Hedley's recruitment line, while still hilariously absurd, became even funnier four years after the film's release, when Black police officer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Stallworth Ron Stallworth]] successfully infiltrated the Colorado Springs branch of the Ku Klux Klan by posing as a white man over the phone, which would eventually [[Film/{{Blackkklansman}} become its own movie]].
** Bart's [[AnachronismStew Gucci-brand]] saddle bags bring to mind the "cowboy hat from Gucci" lyric from Music/LilNasX's "Old Town Road".
%%** For no adequately explained reason, Hedley Lamarr's office features a parody version of AmericanGothicCouple, in which the characters are seen from behind.
* IronWoobie: Bart is nearly hung from the gallows after lashing out a racist asshole, the townspeople of Rock Ridge nearly lynch him the moment he arrives, he's called a bunch of racist slurs, and he has to fight off tons of outlaws trying to kill him. Still, he takes these horrors in stride.
* LoveToHate:
** Lyle, the red-shirted cowboy played by Burton Gilliam. Not only is he an extremely PoliticallyIncorrectVillain, but he spends his entire screen time doing and saying completely despicable things with a ''[[EvilFeelsGood huge, pearly-white smile]]'' just to make him that much more entertainingly loathsome and hilarious.
** Taggert is a {{Jerkass}} PoliticallyIncorrectVillain who acts as Hedley Lamarr's [[ProfessionalButtKisser personal lapdog]] and loves to KickTheDog, but Slim Picken's LargeHam performance and his sheer [[ButtMonkey stupidity and incompetence]] make his scenes a treat to watch.
** And of course, no one in the film better represents this trope than [[BigBad Hedley Lamarr]]. A [[CardCarryingVillain knowingly dastardly]] baddie who's [[ButtMonkey constantly being infuriated]], backed up by a [[LargeHam beautifully]] [[CampStraight flamboyant]] [[LargeHam portrayal]] from Creator/HarveyKorman. Without a doubt one of, if not ''the'' funniest parts of the film. [[AwardSnub Just a shame he had to risk that Oscar nomination.]]
* MagnificentBastard: Jim is a wry and witty gunslinger who was once "The Waco Kid", the fastest gun in the world. Having killed many men who foolishly thought they could challenge him, after getting shot in the ass by a child he spared, Jim turned to alcohol and became depressed. Befriending Rock Ridge’s new sheriff Bart and demonizing the white citizens’ racist attitude, Jim shows he’s still got it as he assists Bart in preventing Hedley Lamarr and his men from destroying the town by luring them into numerous traps, coming out as one of Rock Ridge’s saviors.
* MemeticMutation:
** Mongo only pawn, in game of life.
** [[{{Website/Botchamania}} Never mind ''that'' shit... Here comes MONGO!]]''.
** "Candygram for Mongo!".
** "You said rape ''twice''." "I ''like'' rape!".
** "They've hit ''Buddy''! '''''C'mon, girls'''''!"
** After Gene Wilder's death, many fans said he'd gone "nowhere special".
** "Hey, where da white women at?" to the point it became a TropeNamer.
** "Howard Johnson is ''right''!" and/or "Who can argue with ''that''?" in response to any TheUnintelligible.
** "'Scuse me while [[AccidentalInnuendo I whip this out]]".
** "The sheriff is a ni-'''''*bong*'''''!".
** "You couldn't make ''Blazing Saddles'' today, because [TriviallyObvious statement]."[[labelnote:Explanation]]There's a sentiment, mainly among MisaimedFandom, that the film's satire would draw "PC" backlash these days. People sick of the cliche have taken to providing much more literal reasons why you couldn't make this film today, such as "Mel Brooks already made it" or "films take much longer than a day to make".[[/labelnote]]
*** "You couldn't make ''Blazing Saddles'' tod- wait, ''[[WesternAnimation/PawsOfFuryTheLegendOfHank they did?]]''[[labelnote:Explanation]]Statements like these now usually get refuted by pointing out how there was an animated loose remake of the film called ''Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank'' though it changes racism to speciesism[[/labelnote]]
* MisaimedFandom: The movie's existence has become a popular catch-all excuse for white apologists of racial insult humor ("Mel Brooks used the n-word, why can't I?") to excuse racist jokes as "transgression", to the point where the buzz-phrase "you could never make a Mel Brooks movie nowadays" specifically references this film. This is blatantly ignoring the fact that every character in the movie who makes racist statements is depicted as evil, an idiot, or an evil idiot. Creator/LindsayEllis did [[https://web.archive.org/web/20190208203235/https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/1093688825434361857?lang=en a long Twitter essay]] about why the anti-PC crowd are so protective of ''Blazing Saddles''. She came to the conclusion that a lot of them secretly fall under this aforementioned camp, and think that Mel Brooks was using satire as an excuse to say racial slurs without consequences. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMFoNZeZm0 This video]] further elaborates by examining how it deconstructed the racist foundations of Western genre conventions that some of the MisaimedFandom embraces.
* MusicToInvadePolandTo:
** The church choir singing about Rock Ridge becomes much faster and more menacing when Hedley Lamarr's men ride into town to scare the townsfolk away.
** In a cut scene, Lili von Shtupp refers to "I'm Tired" as "the song that closed Poland".
* OnceOriginalNowCommon:
** The fart scene is thought to be the first mainstream film fart joke and was quite transgressive for its time, to the point there was a genuine concern how the audiences will react, but fart jokes have become so mainstream and tame now that it lacks its original punch.
** The film was more subversive and shocking in 1974 than it is today. Not that [[ValuesResonance some of the things it says about racism and bigotry don't resonate even now]], but ''Blazing Saddles'' was also a product of its time. For one thing, the Western genre was dying at the cinema when the movie was released, so it was intended to be sort of a finishing blow by showing how artificial and manufactured it all was. Secondly, while racial tension between blacks and whites had been used in film before, the sort of white hegemony prevalent in 1970's America being blamed on white people was also rather new at the time. The film still works as a blanket condemnation of racism, but the subversion of expectations and critique of white people seen in ''Blazing Saddles'' sometimes gets missed by later generations because of how commonplace those things became in movies.
* OneSceneWonder:
** Gabby Johnson makes a handful of appearances rather than literally doing a single scene, but still qualifies as this: "[[TheUnintelligible Authentic Frontier Gibberish]]!" "The sheriff is a Ni-" BONG!
** The Hangman, who got to reprise his role in ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights''.
** Creator/DomDeluise as a Creator/BusbyBerkeley type director and his league of CampGay actors.
* ParodyDisplacement:
** Hedley Lamarr is always correcting people who call him "Hedy". There are fewer people today who know Creator/HedyLamarr (Who starred in 19 films, had six husbands, and whose work in radar technology in WWII served as a key precursor to the development of cell phones, wi-fi and GPS, making her the Mother of the Cellular Age) than who know ''Blazing Saddles'' -- or who know Hedy [=LaRue=] in ''Film/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', a more direct takeoff on Lamarr.
** Ditto jazz musician [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongo_Santamar%C3%ADa Mongo Santamaria]], whose main pop culture legacy these days is as the punchline of a throwaway joke involving Mongo.
** Almost nobody in the movie's target audience would have known that, by Hollywood cliché, Native Americans were sometimes played by Jewish actors in older movies. Hence the movie's Yiddish-speaking Indians.
** Similarly, a lot of the references to different people from film history, like Cecil B. [=DeMille=] and Randolph Scott, would go over the heads of anyone that doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of their works...or access to Wikipedia.
** "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" No, not from ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', but ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre''.[[note]]Also a BeamMeUpScotty -- the original line is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"[[/note]] Then, Music/WeirdAlYankovic co-opted the scene in ''Film/{{UHF}}'': "Badgers? Badgers!? We don't need no stinking badgers!" (And that same year, ''Film/TroopBeverlyHills'' had "no stinking patches!")
* PoorMansSubstitute: In a meta-example, Creator/MelBrooks wanted someone "like Frankie Laine" to record the title track. He got the man himself, and the movie's all the funnier for how [[SoundtrackDissonance totally]] [[SincerityMode unironic]] Laine's song ended up being.
* ProtectionFromEditors: Creator/MelBrooks had the final say on what was actually in the film thanks to his contract, and he was very averse to altering or removing anything. He was once called into a meeting with Creator/WarnerBros company executives where they had a long list of changes that they wanted to make, including removing all instances of the [[NWordPrivileges N-word]], and cutting the [[{{Gasshole}} beans scene]] entirely. Mel took careful notes of all their requests, and when the meeting was over, he dumped their notes in the garbage.
* TearJerker:
** The Waco Kid's story and depression is played absolutely straight at the start of the film. His CharacterDevelopment in the film is also played straight as well.
** While Bart usually brushes off the racism directed at him, he does go through a [[HeroicBSOD brief period of depression]] after he's called the n-word by an old lady.
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: According to Creator/MelBrooks' commentary, this occurred with Frankie Laine when he recorded the title song. He simply didn't realize the film he was singing for was a parody, and Mel didn't have the heart to tell him after he recorded it.
* ValuesDissonance:
** Gay people get raked over the coals in this movie, and this is hardly the only Creator/MelBrooks movie for which this is true. Oddly enough, the CampGay dancers get this treatment, but the apparently StraightGay cowboy who hooks up with one does not.[[note]]Brooks is very pro-gay rights, and being a theatre person initially… well, as he said in a later film, "Without Jews, fags or gypsies, there ''is'' no theatre!"[[/note]]
** Brooks himself has stated that this film could have been made only in TheSeventies, since the overuse of the word "nigger" along with numerous jokes about gay people would make it extremely controversial in more modern times. Of course for many people, this just makes the film ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice funnier]]''.
** Even though Mongo punching a horse is used as a KickTheDog moment, it's still played for laughs. Nowadays, animal abuse is used as fodder for comedy much less often, and the scene has a harder edge. Don't worry about the horse, though. In reality, the punch didn't connect, and the horse was trained to fall over on cue (you can see the rider pull the reins sharply to signal the horse). For that matter, the depiction of Mongo himself (not to mention his name) would be less likely to fly today in an era of increased sensitivity about intellectual disabilities.
** The depiction of UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans is a bit awkward, if FairForItsDay. In particular, Brooks in redface as the Yiddish-speaking Sioux chief was intended to satirize the practice (more widespread at the time) of casting non-Native--including Jewish--actors as Native Americans, but it would still raise eyebrows nowadays.
** The characters joke much more casually about rape than they'd get away with in a modern movie, though to be fair most of those jokes come from the bad guys.
* ValuesResonance: With racial tensions back at the forefront of sociopolitical discussions in the 2010s, the film's hilarious, unambiguously negative depiction of racism, bigotry, and prejudice in general have became more necessary to hear (and laugh at) than ever.
* VindicatedByHistory:
** A variant, as ''Blazing Saddles'' was extremely financially successful from the start, but it was derided by critics of the era as crude and dumb, while today it is considered one of the greatest comedies ever made… and one of the better westerns.
** It was ranked #6 on the [=AFI's=] "100 Years…" list of the best comedy films in the last 100 years.
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