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February 07, 2014
Forty Years Ago Today, The Zenith Of American Comedy Was Reached
... and it was all downhill from there.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of a film that's not only a favorite here at the HQ but pulls up a chair at a comfortable #6 on the AFI 100 Years, 100 Laughs list.
It has a little something for everyone, be they 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 or Methodists.
IMO, there's no better sign of how much our society has regressed over the last 40 years than the fact that Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today. Mel Brooks diminished racism and bigotry by making it the butt of some great jokes, but today we run for the fainting couches over the slightest little thing. Advantage: Brooks.
Can you imagine the wailing of the League of the Perpetually Offended over this scene alone?
The ol' Number 6 makes me laugh every time.
Happy birthday, Blazing Saddles.
Related: 10 Jokes From ‘Blazing Saddles’ That Would Never Make The Cut In 2014