History YMMV / Spaceballs

** The announced ''Franchise/{{Rocky}} Five...Thousand'' review is somewhat funnier since an actual ''Film/RockyV'' was made (there were four ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' films when ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' came out), but even funnier since Rocky returned again a lot later in ''Film/RockyBalboa'', and yet again in ''Film/{{Creed}}'' and ''Film/CreedII''.

** The "we ain't found SHIT!" guy.

** Colonel Sandurz in the French dub is called Colonel Saint-Cyr, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_sp%C3%A9ciale_militaire_de_Saint-Cyr Saint-Cyr]] being a famous French military academy (the equivalent of West Point).

* NightmareRetardant: Pretty much the whole point of Dark Helmet, who is a deliberate subversion of [[EvilIsCool cool]] bad guys like Darth Vader. Any menace the man could have is lost once he pulls that helmet up, if his comically oversized helmet, puffy little breeches and neck-tie afforded him any in the first place.

** The beautiful nurse aiding Dark Helmet's plastic surgeon is future Desperate Housewives/Supergirl/Dallas star Brenda Strong.

* ShallowParody: While most fans would agree the film mostly [[AvertedTrope averts]] this brilliantly, Princess Vespa initially seems more like a parody of fictional [[RoyalBrat princesses in general]] than of [[ActionGirl Leia]] in particular, at least until her CharacterDevelopment after the hair dryer scene.

** A brilliant gem of the French dub, when passing to Ludicrous Speed, Colonel Sandurz suggests Dark Helmet should buckle up. "Buckle up" ("Bouclez-la") in French is often used a way of saying "Shut up", so Dark Helmet replies in kind "No you buckle up!".

* AwardSnub: A rare [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of this trope. While it never received any ''good'' awards like an Oscar or Golden Globe, it did win Worst Picture at the 1987 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. "Winning" over films that are still considered some of the worst of all time like ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'' and ''Film/LeonardPart6''.

* SignatureScene: "Ludicrous Speed", and the revolving moments involving said Ludicrous Speed

* VindicatedByHistory: When the movie was released in 1987, it underperformed at the box office and received mixed reviews, even being named Worst Picture at the 1987 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards; common criticisms included being deemed inferior to Mel Brooks' earlier works and ''Star Wars'' no longer being culturally relevant enough to work as a parody (''Spaceballs'' primarily spoofs ''Film/ANewHope'', which was released a decade prior; following the 1983 release of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' there was little new ''Star Wars'' content released until ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'' was published in 1991). Over the decades, though, ''Spaceballs'' came to be regarded far more warmly, especially given ''Star Wars''' return to the limelight and long-lasting impact on pop culture. Particularly following the Sequel Trilogy's release (which resulted in many aspects of ''Spaceballs'' becoming HilariousInHindsight), the movie is now seen as a CultClassic.

* AwardSnub: A rare [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of this trope. While it never received any ''good'' awards like an Oscar or Golden Globe, it did win Worst Picture at the 1987 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. Winning over films that are still considered some of the worst of all time like ''Film/TheGarbagePailKidsMovie'' and ''Film/LeonardPart6''.

* CriticalDissonance: The film has a mixed reception among critics, currently standing at 55% on Website/RottenTomatoes. However, it has a much more respectable audience score of 83%. This is largely due to most of those critical reviews having come from its original release, [[VindicatedByHistory where it was seen as a major misstep in Mel Brooks's career]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The film has a PG rating on the DVD cover and was shown on the Disney Channel for a while, despite the sex references, constant bad language and occasional fantastically racist remarks. Just because it's called "Spaceballs" doesn't mean it's about playing baseball in space.

* NightmareRetardant: Pretty much the whole point of Dark Helmet, who is a deliberate subversion of [[EvilIsCool cool]] bad guys like Darth Vader. Any menace the man could have is lost once he pulls that helmet up, if his comically oversized helmet and neck-tie afforded him any in the first place.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The ''Film/{{Alien}}'' ShoutOut where a xenomorph bursts out of Creator/JohnHurt's chest and performs a lively rendition of "Hello, My Baby."

** Creator/JohnHurt for his "Oh no, not again!" ChestBurster scene, followed by the chestburster singing "Hello, My Baby".

* CriticalDissonance: The film has a mixed reception among critics, currently standing at 55% on Website/RottenTomatoes. However, it has a much more respectable audience score of 83%. This is largely due to most of those critical reviews having come from its original release, where it was seen as a major misstep in Mel Brooks's career.

* NightmareRetardant: Pretty much the whole point of Dark Helmet, who is a deliberate subversion of [[EvilIsCool cool]] bad guys like Darth Vader. Any menace the man could have is lost once he pulls that helmet up, if his comically oversized helmet afforded him any in the first place.

** Creator/JohnHurt for his "Oh no, not again!" ChestBurster scene.

** The singing little Xenomorph.

* {{Sequelitis}}: More a case of Follow-Upitis, but Spaceballs: The Animated Series, an adult animated series follow-up to the movie that aired for 13 episodes in 2008. Most of the main cast returned and Mel Brooks not only voices Yogurt and President Skroob, but also executive produced! What could go wrong? Well, try animation that wouldn't look out of place on Newgrounds, the returning cast members not including Bill Pullman, John Candy, or Rick Moranis (though Candy had passed away in 1994), Barf being turned into a walking fart-burp-vomit joke, Dark Helmet being given an unsettling character design and being made short enough to make Creator/RickMoranis look like Shaq by comparison as well as killing the entire "people fear this annoying little nerd" joke, trying way too hard to appeal to a modern audience by putting characters from a Star Wars parody into episodes that parody Harry Potter, American Idol, Lord of the Rings, and Grand Theft Auto which works as well as stopping a flash flood with a kitchen sponge, humor that would only appeal to those too young to be watching, horrible puns (instead of Darth Maul, we have Outlet Maul), alongside the type of jokes, humor, and parody-style that you'd expect from a Seltzer-berg movie instead of a TV series helmed by one of the biggest comedy legends of all time.

** The music when ''Spaceball One'' transforms into Mega Maid (complete with DramaticTimpani) is appropriately bombastic and would be just as suitable for a more serious drama.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hekqzcveud4 "Spaceballs"]], courtesy of the Spinners, which plays over the Megamaid evacuation scene.

* EvilIsCool: Lone Starr and company are fun but let's face it, Dark Helmet, Sandurz, and Skroob are the ones who carry the film. There's also the hilarious radar guy, played by the great Creator/MichaelWinslow, who [[OneSceneWonder only appears in one scene]].

* Yes, you can buy [[https://web.archive.org/web/20220000000000*/https://www.boostoxygen.com/ Boost Oxygen branded canned air]].

** The imprisonment of Princess Vespa loosely parodies Leia's captivity in ''A New Hope'', but the overall sequence of events can feel like a direct parody of events in ''The Force Awakens'' which was made later: in both, the female lead is captured by the helmeted evil Force/Schwartz user while the heroes are in the haven of a Force/Schwartz-sensitive mentor figure, and said mentor quickly hands off a laser sword weapon, shown shortly before, to the male lead when the group goes to rescue the female lead.
** The Spaceballs are shown to use handprint scanners in this film. ''Rogue One'' later on would reveal that the Imperials do as well. Ironically, ''Rogue One'' is the film that uses the handprint scanner for a comedic moment, not this one.

** The Yoda-inspired Yogurt demonstrates a talking doll of a smaller, "adorable" version of himself, which now seems like an unofficial predecessor of "[[Series/TheMandalorian Baby Yoda]]".

** Deliberately done as well with the dancing Xenomorph. At first it looks like it's aggressive and fearsome just like its original counterparts...then he starts joyfully singing and dancing to the "Hello my baby"'s notes.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: By far the biggest criticism the film faced at the time of its release was that Mel Brooks took too long to catch up with the sci-fi trend that ''Franchise/StarWars'' had started in the late 70s/early 80s and that he was now more interested in keeping up with the zeitgeist than simply making funny movies like he had in the past. (This became somewhat HilariousInHindsight, as ''Star Wars'' as a cultural phenomenon ended up lasting a ''lot'' longer than the early 80s, meaning ''Spaceballs'' has aged pretty well--at the time, the franchise was largely dormant, and wouldn't start to return until ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'').

*** Some have noted similarities with several elements of the sequel trilogy, including villains Kylo Ren and Dark Helmet. Both wear masks that they periodically remove, both talk to inanimate objects when alone, both prone to whiny outbursts, etc. The connection becomes even more hilarious after a big plot twist of ''Film/TheLastJedi''. [[spoiler:Dark Helmet, in an anticlimactic subversion of the "I am your father" twist, revealed that he was Lone Starr's "father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate," which essentially meant their relationship was "Absolutely nothing." Kylo Ren would similarly dismiss the idea that Rey had any special relation to the other main characters by revealing that her parents were absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.]] '''[[UpToEleven On top of that]]''', with ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', we have [[spoiler:the revelation that Lone Starr is the long-lost son of royal parents paralleling the revelation that Rey is [[{{Retcon}} actually]] the long-lost granddaughter of the former Emperor of the galaxy.]]

* The Yoda-inspired Yogurt demonstrates a talking doll of a smaller, "adorable" version of himself, which now seems like an unofficial predecessor of "[[Series/TheMandalorian Baby Yoda]]".

*** And of course, Creator/RickMoranis as a NerdInEvilsHelmet is downright ''prescient'' in light of the whiny, emo Anakin shown in the prequel trilogy and whiny deranged Vader fanboy Kylo Ren introduced in the sequel trilogy.

* CriticalDissonance: The film has a mixed reception among critics, currently standing at 55% on Website/RottenTomatoes. However, it has a much more respectable audience score of 83%.

** "God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money." The closest it ever got was a not-very-well-received cartoon, which only saw a few of the movie's cast reprise their roles. Rumors of another movie did start going around after ''The Force Awakens'', but some of the original actors had already passed away by then.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: By far the biggest criticism the film faced at the time of its release was that Mel Brooks took too long to catch up with the sci-fi trend that ''Franchise/StarWars'' had started in the late 70s/early 80s and that he was now more interested in keeping up with the zeitgeist than simply making funny movies like he had in the past. (This became somewhat HilariousInHindsight, as ''Star Wars'' as a cultural phenomenon ended up lasting a ''lot'' longer than the early 80s, meaning ''Spaceballs'' has aged pretty well--at the time, the franchise was largely dormant, and wouldn't start to return until ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy''.)

* CrossesTheLineTwice: The two black Spaceballs are combing the desert with an ''afro comb''.