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We're not just doing this for money. We're doing it for a shitload of money!
—Lone Starr
It's easy to spoof a bad movie. A good movie, now that's hard.
—Mel Brooks
A farcical comedy film directed by Mel Brooks that does for Science Fiction, especially Star Wars, what Brooks' earlier film Blazing Saddles did for The Western.
The plot goes something like this: Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), the bold, bossy and beautiful heir to the throne of planet Druidia, runs out on her marriage to the painfully dull Prince Valium, who is the only eligible bachelor in her region of space. Unfortunately, she becomes the target of the Spaceballs, who plan to ransom her off for access to Druidia's atmosphere so they can drain it away and use it to replenish their homeworld's own thinning atmosphere.
Pursued by the villainous Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) and his men, her only hope comes in the form of Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and Barf the Mawg (John Candy), two mercenaries who hope to use the substantial reward offered by the King of Druidia for his daughter's safe return to pay off the evil crime lord Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise). But with a little help from wise-cracking mystic Master Yoghurt (Mel Brooks), Lone Starr hopes to save Planet Druidia, defeat the Spaceballs, and just maybe get the girl, too.
However, the Plot is just there to hang all the gags on. The real point is so Mel Brooks can have his fun with sci-fi tropes.
Spaceballs — the tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Star Wars, and Science Fiction in general, of course.
- Agony Beam: There's a reason everybody covers their crotch when Dark Helmet seems upset.
- Altar The Speed: it boils down to "the short short version".
Priest: "Do you?"
Vespa: "Yes."
Priest: "Do you?"
Lone Starr: "I do."
Priest: "Good! You're married! Kiss Her!"
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Spaceballs. 'Cause what you got is what they need, and all they do is dirty deeds.
- Amusing Alien: Is there an alien in this film who isn't?
- And Zoidberg: "Meet Dr. Schlotkins, the best cosmetic surgeon in the entire universe and Beverly Hills."
- Animated Adaptation: a series shown on G4 some 20 years after the movie. Your Mileage May Vary on how good it is.
- As You Know: Spoofed — Dark Helmet addresses the audience to make sure they're up to speed after an Infodump from Colonel Sandurz.
- At Arms Length: Lone Star and Dark Helmet, during the sword fight.
- Big Red Button: That activates Spaceball One's Self Destruct Mechanism; the one that turns it off turns out to be out of order: "Even in the future nothing works!"
- Bilingual Bonus: Cyrillic letters appear in Eagle 5's targeting scope,including a combination that does make perfect sense - "PYOS - KOT" (Dog - Cat).
- Blade Lock: Parodied as Lone Starr and Dark Helmet's swords of light get twisted around each other: "I hate it when my Schwartz gets twisted!"
- Breaking The Fourth Wall: Over and over again. Particularly funny was when the Spaceballs believe they've captured Barf, Lone Starr, and Vespa:
Spaceball Officer: "You idiots! These are not them! YOU'VE CAPTURED THEIR STUNT DOUBLES!
- Camera Abuse: The camera hits Dark Helmet in the face during a close-up. Later, a cameraman gets slashed during the climactic battle sequence between Lone Starr and Dark Helmet.
Dark Helmet: "Um, he did it!"
Lone Starr: "What?!"
- Check Please: Delivered by Barf and Lone Starr after seeing a singing, dancing chest-burster come out of a diner patron.
- Close Call Haircut: Which proves to be Princess Vespa's Berserk Button: "He shot my hair... Son of a bitch!"
- Cool And Unusual Punishment: The Spaceballs threaten to undo Princess Vespa's nose-job and return her nose to its original grotesque size unless the King hands over the access codes to Druidia's planetary defenses. It works.
- Colour Coded For Your Convenience - Lone Starr's Schwartz is red-orange, and Dark Helmet's is green, since the ship lasers in Star Wars were as well.
- Composite Character: Lonestar is a combination of Luke Skywalker (training in the resident magic source and rivalry with the lead villain) and Han Solo (criminal ties and relationship with furry alien). Yogurt is Yoda (name and appearence) and Obi-Wan (training style). Colonel Sandurz represents the various imperial officers that appeared through the movies.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: Every single scene.
- Deadly Guest: Parodied with the restaurant scene when Kane starts getting convulsions and a chestburster comes out and instead of proceeding to murder dons a top hat and cane and sings Hello My Baby in the voice of Michigan J. Frog. In addition the scene is lampshaded by John Hurt, reprising his role from the original Alien muttering, "Oh no, not again!"
- Decoy Getaway: "You've captured their stunt doubles!"
- The Determinator: Spoofed:
Lone Starr (exhausted and dehydrated): "Must go on...must go on...must go on...who am I kidding?" (collapses)
- Doesnt Like Guns: Vespa, until someone shoots her hair.
- Double Entendre: Lone Starr and Dark Helmet square off with their "Schwartz" lightsabers suggestively held at crotch height. Dark Helmet remarks "Hmm... I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now let's see how well you...handle it!" Made even better when they both glance down to check.
Sandurz: "It's the Mega-Maid, sir. She's gone from 'suck' to 'blow'!"
- Ermine Cape Effect: The king of Druidia is always wearing his crown and ermine robes.
- Everythings Better With Princesses: Vespa
- Fanfare: Can't be a parody of Star Wars without one.
- Greasy Spoon
- Groin Attack: Dark Helmet's preferred use of his Schwartz powers is to force-choke the nards of subordinates who fail him. Or annoy him.
- Half Human Hybrids: Non Human Sidekick Barf: "I'm a mawg; I'm half-man, half-dog. I'm my own best friend!"
- Hey Its That Guy: The black Spaceball combing the desert who says "We ain't found shit!" is Tim Russ, years before he would play Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager.
- Not to mention Michael "That Sound Effects Guy From Police Academy" Winslow manning the Mr. Radar.
- And Dom Deluise as the dreaded Pizza the Hutt.
- I Have You Now My Pretty: Spoofed.
- If You Know What I Mean: "Oh, yes, sir. Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful."
- Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha: Mega Maid
- Laser Blade: Used in the climatic battle.
- Latex Perfection: Mel Brooks plays both bad-guy President Skroob and good-guy Yoghurt, where he was hidden behind latex, makeup, and a lot of knee-walking.
- Let Us Never Speak Of This Again - After watching the painful footage of being catapulted into the bulkhead of Spaceball One, Dark Helmet says "No, no. Go past this part. In fact never play this part again."
- Love Makes You Crazy: "Now listen: on this ship, you are to refer to me as 'Idiot', not 'You captain!' I mean, you know what I mean." So much for Lone Starr always being right.
- Luke I Am Your Father: Spoofed
Dark Helmet:"I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's FORMER ROOMMATE!"
Lone Starr: "What the hell does that make us?!"
Dark Helmet: "Absolutely nothing, which is what you are about to become."
- Magic Feather: The Schwartz Ring Lone Starr gets from Yoghurt.
Yoghurt: "That ring was bupkis! I found it in a Cracker-Jack box!"
- The Merch: Beautifully parodied.
- Taken one step further by some of it clearly being Transformers merchandise with Spaceballs stickers on them.
- Misaimed Marketing: "Spaceballs the toilet paper."
- Moses In The Bullrushes: As luck would have it, Lone Starr is really a prince who was sent off, Superman style, complete with Orphans Plot Trinket.
- Nitro Boost: Liquid Schwartz
- No Fourth Wall: Among other things, the bad guys manage to track down the good guys by watching Spaceballs on VHS.
- Non Sequitur Thud: After Spaceball I comes out of ludicrous speed and Dark Helmet takes a header into computer terminal and smashes the terminal, his head, and his helmet:
Dark Helmet: "Why don't we take a five minute break? Smoke if you got 'em!" (thud)
- The Obi Wan: Yoghurt, who is pretty much Yoda as a crusty-but-lovable Yiddish guy.
- Overly Long Gag: At the beginning of the movie, panning across Spaceball One. Even the orchestra gets annoyed.
- Pimped Out Dress: Vespa's wedding dress, and the Prince Charming outfit Lone Starr shows up in at the end.
- Planet Looters: The Spaceballs.
- Precision F Strike: "FUCK! Even in the future nothing works!"
- Prince Charmless: Prince Valium.
- Recycled INSPACE: Parodied relentlessly, with the Millennium Falcon equivalent being a literal Winnebago with wings — lampshaded when Spaceball guards call it exactly that — and the currency being "space bucks", among other examples.
- Ring Of Power: Subverted, save for the lightsaber part... maybe.
- Robot Buddy: Dot Matrix, Princess Vespa's robot hand-maid.
- Royal Brat: Vespa.
- Runaway Bride: Vespa.
- Running Gag: Both within the movie — Spaceballs merch everywhere — and reusing several gags from previous Mel Brooks movies.
- Sdrawkcab Name: President Skroob. Close enough, anyway.
- See The Whites Of Their Eyes: "Radar about to be ... jammed!"
- Share The Male Pain: Because Dark Helmet is a master of the Groin Attack.
Dark Helmet: "I always have coffee before watching radar. You know that!"
Colonel Sandurz: "Yes, sir!"
Dark Helmet: (to crew) "Everybody knows that!"
Crew: (in unison, covering their crotches) "Of course we do, sir!"
- Shout Out: By the dozens.
- Sigil Spam: Overlaps with the various merchandising jokes, since "Spaceballs" is both the name of the movie and the name of the villains.
- Slap Slap Kiss: Lone Starr and Princess Vespa.
- Sorry I Left The BGM On: Timpani player!
- Sorry To Interrupt / Suspiciously Specific Denial: "No, sir! I didn't see you playing with your dolls again!"
- Space Based Weapon Has Cutoff Range: Especially the scene when Spaceball One is chasing Princess Vespa's car.
- Space Jews: "Funny, she doesn't look Druish!" Mel Brooks has said the only reason that the planet in Spaceballs is named Druidia is so he could throw in the line about a "Druish Princess." Plus plenty of more scenes. That's ok because Mel Brooks has N Word Privileges.
- Spit Take: The Mr. Coffee scene. "Hot... too hot!"
- Strange Minds Think Alike: "That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!"
- Streaming Stars: Parodied. "They've gone to plaid!"
- Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Via Dark Helmet: "That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!" and it turns out that's the combination of President Skroob's luggage.
- Suddenly Suitable Suitor
- Surrounded By Idiots: "I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes!"
- If you look closely, only one crewmember in white uniform didn't stand up when Helmet asked how many assholes are on the ship. This troper likes to believe it's Michael Winslow.
- Teleporter Accident
- Theme Tune Rap: 'Cause what you got is what we need and all we do is dirty deeds we're the SPACEBALLS!
- The Password Is Always Swordfish: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
- "That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!"
- Which was combined with the somewhat inevitable Ironic Echo when they relay the message to President Skroob: "1-2-3-4-5? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!"
- Throw It In: The aforementioned moment with Dark Helmet's dolls. Rick Moranis was handed the figures a few moments before the cameras rolled and told to do something funny.
- Title: The Adaptation: Lampooned, in all its adaptations.
- Transforming Mecha: Spaceball One's transformation into Mega-Maid, featuring one of the best commentary moments ever:
Colonel Sandurz: "Prepare for metamorphosis!"
Dark Helmet: "Ready, Kafka?"
Mel Brooks (commentary): "Why did I write that joke? It's a bad joke."
- Unfortunate Names: Gunner's Mate First Class Philip Asshole.
- Not to mention his cousin, Major Asshole.
- Visual Pun: Again, too many to count, from "jamming" the radar (it's raspberry!) to "combing" the desert.
Colonel Sandurz: "Sir, are you sure we aren't being too literal?"
Dark Helmet: "No, you idiot, the president told us to comb the desert so we're combing it."
- Well Excuse Me Princess: Gets a Lampshade Hanging — "That's all we needed...a Druish Princess!"
- The commentary reveals that he named the planet Druidia for the sole purpose of making that pun.
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