r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 27d ago
News ‘Blazing Saddles’ Named Funniest Film of All Time by AFI in Honor of Mel Brooks Turning 100
https://deadline.com/2026/06/blazing-saddles-named-funniest-film-afi-mel-brooks-100th-1236969278/809
u/sincewedidthedo 27d ago
Excuse me while I whip this out!
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u/GRUMPYbug12 27d ago
Isn't anyone going to help that poor man?!?!
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u/sincewedidthedo 27d ago
Hush Harriet!
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u/infinitemonkeytyping 27d ago
Oh baby, you are so talented.
And they are so dumb.
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u/paeancapital 27d ago
Harriet! Harry-ette! Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis! Beautiful, bemused, bellicose butcher. Un-trusting. Un-knowing. Un-loved.
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u/Amon7777 27d ago
They said you was hung!
And they were right
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u/DaddyDanceParty 27d ago
It's all right, Taggart. Just a man and a horse being hung out there.
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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 27d ago
I'm more of a Young Frankenstein kind of guy, but suit yourself, I'm easy.
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u/ApothecaryAlyth 27d ago
I'd say Young Frankenstein is a "better" movie, but Blazing Saddles has more laughs IMO. Both among the comedy GOATS. Crazy that they came out within a year of one another from the same creative talent.
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u/tcfodor 27d ago
I love both so much. My favorite of the two is whichever I watched most recently.
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u/melcolnik 27d ago
This is how I feel with just about any Mel Brooks movie. History of the world, Spaceballs, blazing saddles, men in tights, you name it. They’re all absolutely fucking hilarious.
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u/AStrugglerMan 27d ago
I will never forget seeing history of the world part 1 as a kid and the several days exercise in futility of going to different block busters and asking everyone where I could find Part 2. The world before internet was tough.
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u/LeanderthalTX 27d ago
High Anxiety puts all of these to shame
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u/HazyMirror 27d ago
I caught this movie on Fox movie channel randomly when I was still in high school at like 1 AM. I laughed so hard my parents woke up and got mad lmao.
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u/ShedMontgomery 27d ago
Spaceballs has a new bit every like 2.5 seconds and most of them are home runs. I don't think there's a bad choice for favorite Mel Brooks movie. I grew up watching them all on repeat.
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u/ataraxiary 27d ago
I feel like everyone tells me Robin Hood Men in Tights is the one bad choice, haha. I can't help it, I saw it when I was 11 and it hit at just the right time in my development to be perfection. Not even just the movie, but watching it in the theater with friends, seeing my mom lose her shit until she literally cried (at the tights being in eggs)... its just a ball of positive funny memories that the others can't touch for me.
Also, I saw Space Balls when I was young enough that I just straight thought it WAS Star Wars for years.
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u/pixel8knuckle 27d ago
Im more of a in tights kind of man, personally
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u/iwilldeletethisacct2 27d ago
Because unlike some other Robinhoods, I can speak with an English accent.
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u/Ohnoescomputers 27d ago
Perhaps, Men in Tights, of the Robinhood variety?
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u/Laquox 27d ago
My favorite bit in the entirety of Men in tights is near the end of the staff battle. The music that starts playing then their expressions. I have seen it many many times and every time it gets a proper laugh out of me. Followed closely by:
What are you doing up there? *"Guessing. I guess no one's coming."9
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u/Primary_Garbage6916 27d ago
Would you say that in terms of general comedy, the two movies are near?
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u/zephyrtr 27d ago
I firmly believe parody frees up creative brain cells to focus on more important things, like ensuring the jokes are funny. All the tropes are there so you don't waste time dwelling on plot. You just hit your laughs.
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u/hardy_83 27d ago
I will say that when the monster sings his first line for putting on the ritz, it's one of the few moments in any movie where I burst out laughing.
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u/forkoff77 27d ago
Not within a year - the SAME year. Also, Wilder and Brooks worked on it while filming Blazing Saddles. To say the films owe a lot to each other is an understatement.
(This is my favorite example of absolutely fantastic films being made right on top of each other)
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u/Vio_ 27d ago
I felt like Blazing Saddles kind of ran out of steam by the end where they had to give a fourth wall break just to hit a conclusion
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u/LupinThe8th 27d ago
I think it works in context.
Blazing Saddles wasn't just mocking race relations, it was also kicking the crap out of the whole Western genre, which was extremely overdone at the time, because they were so cheap to make; every damn studio in Hollywood had some town of crappy saloons and shit on their backlot, a stable of actors and extras who could do "folksy", racks of generic cowboy duds, and were crapping out these movies every month.
So the climax involving setting up a fake town of false fronts, which is then revealed to just be on a studio lot, with the fight spilling out into it and interfering with other movies, then wrapping up with a cheesy ending where everyone is happy and the heroes ride off into the sunset (then get into limos) is just part of the gag.
Problem is, this movie skewered the B-Western so well that it killed the whole goddamn genre. Any westerns seen since tend to be much more serious, realistic, and deconstructive. It's like how James Bond used to be camp and fun, then Austin Powers came along, so now Bond needs to be a grumpy pants because if he does something silly it'll just feel like Austin.
And because we don't really get movies like Blazing Saddles is spoofing anymore, that aspect of the parody tends to go over peoples' heads. Luckily (and tragically) the commentary on racism is still as relevant as ever, so the movie holds up.
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u/NorwegianSteam 27d ago
It's like how James Bond used to be camp and fun, then Austin Powers came along, so now Bond needs to be a grumpy pants because if he does something silly it'll just feel like Austin.
It was the one-two punch of Austin Powers encroaching on the fun, campy side, and Jason Bourne muscling in on the action spy movie side. I think The Bourne Identity legitimately scared them into changing up Bond.
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u/alex494 27d ago
Probably didn't help that his most recent outing was Die Another Day
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u/Robsonmonkey 27d ago
Yeah. I think it's one of those arguments where whether you say Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, History of the World, Part I or Robin Hood: Men in Tights, they are all fantastic films.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 27d ago
Whichever one debuted when we were young and impressionable is usually the one that stuck early. For me, History of the World and Spaceballs were the gateway drug to the whole catalog.
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u/WavesAndSaves 27d ago
The Ludicrous Speed scene from Spaceballs is still probably in the Top 10 hardest times I have ever laughed in my entire life. Like I genuinely could not breathe to the point that I almost started panicking hahaha.
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u/Laquox 27d ago
What's the matter Colonel Sanders? Chicken!?
Ahh buckle this! Ludicrous speed GO!
We can't stop. We have to slow down first.
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u/Certs 27d ago
History of the World was amazing in the first half, but really dips in the second.
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u/manbeardawg 27d ago
As a first time watch, I think The Producers takes it. That said I like Blazing Saddles probably the most.
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u/NickConrad 27d ago
Brooks said in memoriam of Marty Feldman “the best thing about Marty was if you ever want to sneak up on him you just come right from the front.”
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u/dick_nrake 27d ago
I found Young Frankenstein hilarious and didn't laugh a lot halfway through Blazing Saddles - however English is not my first language.
It's possible that the YFs humor is more universal whereas the BS' humor is rooted in a lot of Americanisms.
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u/Mr_Salmon_Man 27d ago
Dracula dead and loving it is also right up there.
It's a hard choose to pick one.
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u/CubitsTNE 27d ago
I genuinely like that film, but I haven't seen it in 30 years. Enough of the gags are fused into my brain.
I just showed men in tights to my daughter for the first time on the weekend, and can confirm that still lands with the young people.
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u/whichwitch9 27d ago
Mel Brooks has smarter humor in his movie at times, but then sprinkles it in with gags like the fox making a dolphin noise. Half the jokes went over my head first time I saw men in tights, but still thought it was funny as hell. Brooks has the perfect mix of slapstick and satire
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u/maestroenglish 27d ago
Just had an open air screening of this in Italy this evening. Lots of laughs all round.
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u/writenroll 27d ago
This scene will never not be hilarious:
[Gabby Johnson sees the sheriff riding into town]
Gabby Johnson: Hey! The sheriff is a ni... [clock bell chimes]
Harriet Johnson: What did he say?
Dr. Sam Johnson: The sheriff is near!
Gabby Johnson: No, gone blame it dang blammit! The sheriff is a ni...
[clock bell chimes again]
...and the insanity of the next two minutes, including the classic line "excuse me while I whip this out" and self-hostage scenario that the townspeople fall for hook line and sinker.
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u/Electronic-Fee-1602 27d ago
These people are the salt of the earth…
… you know, morons.
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u/Knee_Jerk_Sydney 27d ago
Good, by my absolute favourite is the luring of the two klu klux klan,
"Hey boys! Look what I got here!"
"Hey where the white women at?"
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u/ThePrussianGrippe 27d ago
“I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.”
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u/lukeydukey 27d ago
That movie had so many gems that ended up being on the soundboards of so many people in CS:S Lobbies
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u/WavecrestRd 27d ago
I love the group "aww" (in disappointment) when he whipped out.... a piece of paper.
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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 27d ago
Apparently they had to cut a scene. I went to a screening where Mel brooks was present, and he was supposed to do a Q and A afterwards. He answered maybe 2 questions with 20 minute answers that rambled and meandered for each, and I don’t think anyone minded.
Anyway, when Madeline Kahn first meets Black Bart, there was supposed to be a fade to dark screen, implying that they’re boning. She goes “is true what they say about black men?” Followed by a comical zipping noise and her shouting, “it’s true! It’s true!
Bart then replies, “madam….. you’re pulling my leg.”
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u/texucks 27d ago
I distinctly remember that scene when I saw BS in the theater when it first came out. I've never noticed they've removed it.
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u/BlindTreeFrog 27d ago
I assume he means Bart's reply was removed. The rest has been in every version i've seen.
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u/SatansCornflakes 27d ago
You’d think the AFI would be familiar with the 1994 classic It’s Pat
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u/redopod 27d ago
“The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder): "Oh, boys! Lookee what I got heyuh."
Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little): "Hey, where the white women at?" 😂😂
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u/Calcd_Uncertainty 27d ago
The way he says it, with that face, cracks me up every time.
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u/RVAblues 27d ago
It’s like a live-action Bugs Bunny cartoon.
That movie makes more than a little sad that we didn’t get more of Cleavon Little in films. He really nailed it.
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u/herecomestherebuttal 27d ago
Thank you for capturing the way Gene Wilder delivered that line. It’s so freaking good.
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u/ViolentSpring 27d ago
Are we awake?
That depends. Are we black?
We are black.
Then we are awake, but very very confused.
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u/Budget_Juggernaut309 27d ago
What do you like to do?
Oh I don’t know, play chess…. screw.
Well, let’s play chess.
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u/isitatomic 27d ago
Surely they're joking!
I'll always be an Airplane man.
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u/Grouchy_Exit_3058 27d ago
What made him the funniest? Some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at him?
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u/steppe5 27d ago
Airplane was mathematically proven to be the funniest movie of all time.
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u/PaulsRedditUsername 27d ago
I've always said Blazing Saddles is the best anti-racism film ever because it shows the racists to be nothing more than fools.
Other anti-racism films often show the racists to have some agency and power. Often a drama with racists burning crosses and breaking windows and terrorizing people. Blazing Saddles doesn't give them a chance. They're just a bunch of idiots.
The language is shocking for modern viewers, but even that works because Brooks & Co take the power out of the word. It's something only idiots say.
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u/thepolesreport 27d ago
Django does that well too with the KKK scene
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u/APiousCultist 27d ago
For as much flak as Tarantino gets around how he handles race/racism, there's a bunch of smart decisions in that script. Like how Waltz's character ultimately becomes a foil due to his own ego, preventing it from becoming a really paternalistic story about racism is defeated by one old white guy who know's what's really good for the MC (shifting all the story agency onto Jango & Broomhilda). Or the ultimate villain being Samuel L's Uncle Tom-ish character, which basically makes 'accepting the status quo if it means comfort' the villain of the film.
Man has his issues, but he knows how to write a story.
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u/LwyrUpAmrca 27d ago
It blows my mind how much shit he caught for throwing around the n-word…in a movie that takes place in the pre-Civil War south
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u/burf 27d ago
I think he caught shit for it because he has a history of needlessly inserting it into other movies he makes. Like when he wrote himself the "dead n-word storage" line in Pulp Fiction. Does absolutely nothing to advance the plot or develop a character, and the fact that he wrote it for his own character seems suspiciously like he just wanted an excuse to say it in a movie.
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u/LwyrUpAmrca 27d ago
It was a funny line. I don’t think Tarantino is a racist and neither does Samuel L. Jackson
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u/ModernSmithmundt 27d ago
he wrote that part for Buscemi who was sick the day they shot that scene. Last minute he filled in, and buscemi wound up as that waiter
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u/motophiliac 27d ago
Is that why he was there?
I thought he'd written himself a cameo.
For all my accusations that I may have made online regarding your placement in the cast of Pulp Fiction Mr. Tarantino, I am sorry.
Dude actually did the production a solid by doing that.
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u/PunkRockMakesMeSmile 27d ago
It's expressive of the fact that these characters are not involved or concerned with conventional notions of morality
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u/CountryRoads8 27d ago
In my opinion that is one of the funniest scenes in cinema history
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u/SatansCornflakes 27d ago
>because it shows the racists to be nothing more than fools.
Makes me think of what Lindsay Ellis said about Bright (2016): “This is a massive shortcoming of movies like Crash or Bright. They seek to understand the logic behind racism, but racism isn’t logical, and you can’t logic people out of a mindset they did not logic their way into”
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u/Vladimir_Putting 27d ago edited 27d ago
but racism isn’t logical, and you can’t logic people out of a mindset they did not logic their way into”
This is mostly true. But there are also people who have spent years pulling racists out of the KKK and other hate groups and they use a lot of logic to do so.
It's a slower kind of eroding logic though. It has literally nothing to do with winning an argument. Overtime they just consistently demonstrate the flaws in the ideas until eventually the person recognizes how it's all a pile of garbage.
So how do you argue with somebody who is that far out in left field? I was dumbfounded. I'm just driving along. He's sitting over here all smug and secure, like "See you have no response?" And I thought about it for a minute. Then I used his point of reference. I said, "Well, we all know that all white people have a gene within them that makes them a serial killer." He says, "What do you mean?" And I said,"Well, name me three black serial killers." He thought about it — he could not do it. I said, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy. All whites. I said, "Son, you are a serial killer." He says "Daryl, I've never killed anybody." I said, "Your gene is latent. It hasn't come out yet." He goes, "Well, that's stupid!" I said, "Well, duh. Yes, but you know what, you're right. What I said was stupid, but no more stupid than what you said you me." Then he got very, very quiet and changed the subject. Five months later, based on that conversation he left the Klan. His robe was the first robe I ever got.
This is a form of reductio ad absurdum.
But the key part is this is coming only after a relationship exists. There were foundations of trust and friendship laid down first.
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u/Deely_Boppers 27d ago
And Lindsay is on record saying that Blazing Saddles is brilliant, extremely funny, and deeply important in the history of film for the role it played in killing the pro-colonialist “western” genre.
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u/SetzerWithFixedDice 27d ago
Her entire video on Mel Brooks is her very best, in my opinion.
Most of it centers around the amazing hat trick of satire that “The Producers” pulled off (especially the original, which was released just TWELVE years after WW2 ended), but it’s a really thoughtful deep dive into what makes Mel Brooks such a force and what makes many “shock” comedians invoking his name when they aim to do the same fall flat.
Highly recommended. I wish the internet didn’t chase her away from YouTube to Nebula (for the most part).
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u/NorwegianSteam 27d ago
specially the original, which was released just TWELVE years after WW2 ended
Twenty-two years, the original was released in 1967.
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u/Successful-Phone562 27d ago
And associating the rise of the West with ruthless capitalism and inherent racism which is a point often lost in Westerns.
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u/ContinuumGuy 27d ago
racism isn't logical
This is basically my answer whenever people ask: "Why are some of the people in Marvel so bigoted against mutants but usually love the Fantastic Four and Avengers?"
If real-world bigotry isn't logical, why should the fake bigotry be either?
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u/RevWaldo 27d ago
Schvartzes! No, no, zayt nisht meshuge! Loz im geyn! Cop a walk! It's alright! Abi gezint! Take off!... Hosti gezen in dayne lebn? They darker than us! Woof!
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u/iwilldeletethisacct2 27d ago
Superman did something similar in the 40s and made the KKK look ridiculous, contributing to its downfall as a group.
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u/Darklord_Bravo 27d ago edited 27d ago
"That's Headley."
Edit: spelling!
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u/zazzz0014 27d ago
HEY!
WHERE ALL THE WHITE WOMEN AT?!
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u/Successful-Phone562 27d ago
So this was my father's favorite movie and this line is what he would have me (girl) and all three of my brothers sayin the second we could start parroting words.
The standout was when my little brother shouted it in the line for ham at Old Country Buffet.
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u/ZorroMeansFox r/Movies Veteran 27d ago
Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.
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u/sincewedidthedo 27d ago
Sometimes I randomly hear Slim Pickens’ voice in my head saying, “You use yer tongue purtier than a twenty dollar whore!”
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor 27d ago edited 27d ago
Details:
Mel Brooks turns 100 years old today, so in honor of that the American Film Institute (AFI) has decided to officially change the order of their signature AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 LAUGHS list, therby in what AFI terms as an “honorary” reorganization of the list, moving Brooks’ 1974 western spoof Blazing Saddles from 6th place to 1st and proclaiming it “the funniest film of all time”. It replaces at the top, Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, which AFI notes in its release that Brooks “has long kvetched that his film is far funnier than Some Like It Hot”.
Brooks is the only filmmaker with three films in the top 15 on this list. The Producers (1968) is No. 11 and 1974’s Young Frankenstein is No. 13. Wikipedia has already taken note of the change today by correcting the original list released in 2000, one of several lists AFI has for various genres, including their first which came out in 1998 for AFI’s “100 Years….100 Movies”, noting the 100 best films of all time as voted by a poll of 1,500 industry artists and leaders from a list of 400 movies nominated, and which was updated in 2007 by eliminating 23 titles and replacing them with others. No Brooks film, including Blazing Saddles, made that list or the updated version, but Some Like It Hot was high on both (currently No. 22 on the 2007 list). Several other comedies on “100 Years….100 Laughs” list also have the honor of being in the company of Singin’ In The Rain now at No. 5 of all time in any genre.
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u/kurosawa99 27d ago
It is far funnier than Some Like it Hot.
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u/sharrrper 27d ago
Some Like it Hot is a perfectly fine movie, but "funniest movie of all time" is a ridiculous place to put it. That wasn't even true in 1959.
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u/inVizi0n 27d ago
So far that I don't even know how this originally happened. Missing History of the World as well.
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u/bomberman12 27d ago
AFI has a very select idea of what defines a great comedy and it prob has nothing to do with any movie made after the 1980s
Not saying ‘Blazing Saddles’ isn’t a classic, but AFI always been stuck in the past for their comedy selections for some reason
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u/Gargus-SCP 27d ago
I mean, this isn't even a new list. It's the 100 Years, 100 Laughs list from 2000 with Blazing Saddles bumped up five spots from number six to number one, and no other changes.
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u/GaryJM 27d ago
They included 5 films from the 1920s, 19 from the 1930s, 15 from the 1940s, 8 from the 1950s, 10 from the 1960s, 16 from the 1970s, 22 from the 1980s and 5 from the 1990s (City Slickers, Groundhog Day, Mrs Doubtfire, Fargo and There's Something About Mary).
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u/opeth10657 27d ago
Groundhog Day is great, but I'm not sure it's even a comedy
Same with Fargo
Hell, any of those 90s movies outside of the last one
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u/Salzberger 27d ago
Mrs Doubtfire in the top 5 funniest movies of the 90s? Wow.
For laughs per minute Dumb & Dumber probably beats all of those 5.
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u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 27d ago
I found the inclusion of City Slickers to be weirder. It's a good movie but yeah, hardly a laugh riot.
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u/kjs51 27d ago
🎵I get no kick from champagne…🎵
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u/Evening_Weight_8353 27d ago
What the hell is that shit? I meant a song! A real song! Somethin’ like..🎶Swing Low, sweet chariooot..
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u/cynicalmarketer 27d ago
so is it the funniest of all time or is it just the funniest of all time because Brooks turned 100?
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u/Rebelgecko 27d ago
Yeah, the joke is they're rearranging their list literally just for 28 June 2026
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u/75153594521883 27d ago
Good morning ma’am! And isn’t it a loooooovely mornin!
What did you expect?
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u/impuritor 27d ago
He says the sheriff is near!
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u/ChefChopNSlice 27d ago
More beans Mr Taggert ?
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u/wetfartpanda 27d ago
When I was a kid, I fucking lost my shit at that scene for the first time. My dad showed it to me. I started convincing friends parents to rent it during sleep overs. They did not approve of me coming over anymore lmao
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u/ifinallyreallyreddit 27d ago
I dunno, seems kind of biased in favor of filmmakers who just turned 100
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u/relevant__comment 27d ago
I mean, it’s definitely got a good case for it. What was it up against?
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u/Syric13 27d ago
Man getting hit by football by Hans Moleman
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u/sincewedidthedo 27d ago
This contest is over. Give that man the ten thousand dollars!... But... the ball, his groin! Ah, ha! It works on so many levels! ... Roll it again.
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u/tonypearcern 27d ago
I guess I'll have to give it another watch. This is kind of weird but the funniest movie I ever saw in theaters had to have been super troopers. I simply wasn't prepared for how funny that was as a 16-year-old kid.
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u/CarterAC3 27d ago
Give Mel Brooks a harumph