Blazing Saddles: Still irreverent, relevant after 50 years

Funny and flatulent, this parody has set comedy standards for decades

It’s been said that “Blazing Saddles” could never be made today.

Too offensive to Blacks, the LGBTQ community, and fans of classic Western films. But that’s the intent, right?

“Blazing Saddles” was released in 1974 and recently reappeared on movie screens for a 50th anniversary celebration.

It remains fresh in its no-holds-barred style of parody that pokes fun of racism, movie cliches and whatever else you can fit on a wide screen.

Cleavon Little (left) and Gene Wilder are out-of-place Western antiheroes in the 1974 comedy “Blazing Saddles.” (Photo by John Naughton.)

Brooks discusses the film in his autobiography “All About Me!” He compiled a team of writers that included standup comic Richard Pryor.

The concept was to parody Western films in a way no one had done before — turning conventions of the genre upside down. Characters and references up to the modern day were placed against a backdrop of 1874.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like for studio executives reading the script.

A Yiddish-speaking Native American chief? A big musical dance number? Frequent use of the N word? Juvenile fart noises?

At the core of the humor is poking fun of ignorance and racism.

Mel Brooks (right, with Harvey Korman) served in roles as actor, director and co-writer of “Blazing Saddles.” (Photo by John Naughton.)

Brooks understood the genre and pushed the laughter to the limits.

He told the writers: “We will all be in jail for making this movie.”

Brooks would go on to make a career of spoofs, from monster movies (“Young Frankenstein”), science fiction (“Space Balls”) to psychological thrillers ("High Anxiety”).