No matter where you fall on the all-important/clickable “Is political correctness ruining comedy?” debate, it’s safe to say a movie like Mel Brooks’ 1974 opus Blazing Saddles could never be made today. The lowbrow Western spoof is one of the most un-PC films of all time, telling the tale of the inhabitants (simple farmers) of a lily-white frontier town (people of the land) called Rock Ridge (the common clay of the new West) who are thrown into a tizzy when a black sheriff comes to town (you know, morons). Happily, Blazing Saddles (co-written by Brooks and Richard Pryor) is also one of the funniest films ever made, and rarely punches down with its gleefully offensive and off-color humor. Plus, Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman are fucking brilliant in it.
Now, the 89-year-old Brooks is slated to come to Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater Saturday, June 11 for a “Back in the Saddle” night of conversation, Q&A, and a screening of Blazing Saddles. Reserved seating tickets are $49.50, $79.50, $89.50, and $125, and go on sale Friday, April 30 at noon. $125? Somebody’s gotta go back and get a shit-load of dimes!