Dispelling that myth that comedy can’t be made by committee, five men (including Brooks) are credited with the hilarious screenplay about Bart (Cleavon Little), a slave in the Old West who is fed up with the racism and stupidity. He finds fault with a system that can’t afford to send some horses to investigate a quicksand scam and send Bart and his buddy instead. Bart’s insubordination gets him in trouble with Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman, never better), the Governor’s assistant, who is trying to clear out the town of Rock Ridge to make way for that same railroad. To kill two birds with one stone, Hedy, excuse me, Hedley decides to make Bart the Sheriff of Rock Ridge, assuming the simple folk of the western outpost will be so racist that the town will descend into anarchy and he’ll be able to swoop in and take the land as his own. It’s a splendid plan when you think about it.

The best part of BLAZING SADDLES is its single-mindedness; its goal is strictly laughs. Its longevity proves than you can be as vulgar or crude or mean as you want, as long as the jokes are funny. BLAZING SADDLES even packs a wallop when its shown on television; while it has some truly tasteless language, particularly the pervasive use of the “n” word, most of it is considered acceptable for basic cable, which makes it a whole lot edgier than anything else Comedy Central would show on a Sunday afternoon. And since the movie is using the term to deflate and insult racism, and manages to get in playful digs at every race and ethnicity, it’s all in good fun.

SADDLES is, pound for pound, one of the funniest movies ever made. The jokes are shot at you like a machine gun; even if five shots miss, the sixth will hit you square in the chest. Some scenes, like the one in which Brooks himself plays a governor who makes George W. Bush look like Stephen Hawking, could not conceivably be any funnier. Brooks, cross-eyed with an immaculate 70s comb-over, ogles his mistress’ breasts (“Work, work, work, work, work, hello boys, I’ve missed you!”) and, much to Lamarr’s chagrin, keeps calling him Hedy (“What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874! You could sue HER!”). Brooks then ends the chaotically hilarious meeting by giving his cabinet members paddleballs as payment “...in lieu of... uh... other things!” Giving himself the funniest bit in the movie, such nepotism!