Surely you can’t expect us to vote against one of these classics?
I’ll agree with many others that Airplane is as many jokes as it’s possible to cram into a movie.
Where I’ll disagree is that I think that’s what makes Blazing Saddles the funnier of the two. It’s a coherent whole. Even if there aren’t the raw number of jokes, they support each other, and work together. And that makes the whole all the funnier.
Yeah, the fourth-wall-breaking ending didn’t really work right. That happens sometimes when you’re taking risks. And taking risks is necessary for any sort of great art.
It’s an entirely different kind of funny, altogether.
In “Blue Angel”, Dietrich sings “Falling In Love Again”, which is why I assumed it was the object of the satire.
No vote. Differently funny. AIRPLANE is all brief gags and ends well. SADDLES is deeper with longer gags, and ends… thankfully. But Alex Karras insisting, “Mongo STRAIGHT!” kills me. Better than Peter Graves asking, “Have you ever seen a man naked, Timmy?” But Lloyd Bridges did pick a good day to stop sniffing glue and floating about. Nice gag.
Oh, that car-chase guy, sure. He could have had better roles. :smack: At least Feldman’s eyes didn’t give out. BTW Brooks beat me out but he could afford this: I saw the electro lab gear from the original FRANK at a San Francisco shop circa 1972 but didn’t have the cash or space for it. Mel’s props gal got that stuff. They used it nicely so I can’t whine.
Given the choice between authentic frontier gibberish and Jive, I’m going with Jive. There are good bits to Blazing Saddles, but Airplane! tickles my funny bone more thoroughly.
Blazing Saddles has better characters, better setting, and a better story, but I think the jokes in Airplane! held up better over the years. True, Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder (among others) never fail to make me smile, and again, I love the characters, but scenes like the fireside farting, some of the Mongo scenes, and the fake townspeople are a little flat for me.
It’s narrow. I REALLY like the Blazing Saddles universe, but I guess I’m going with Airplane! as the funnier movie. I think if OP had asked which was the BETTER movie, I’d have gone with Blazing Saddles.
That might be the first time I’ve ever heard “coherent” used to describe BLAZING SADDLES in any way.
Blazing Saddles is a BETTER movie, but that’s not what the poll asked, I chose Airplane! as the FUNNIER movie.
But it is. The plot of Blazing Saddles is that a corrupt governor is trying to get a town to sell their land cheap to a railroad company by making their lives intolerable, and the primary way he’s doing that is by appointing a black man as sheriff. And everything in the movie fits in with that basic plot. The plot of Airplane! is that there’s some sort of disaster on a plane that needs to be resolved before it can land, but it’s basically irrelevant, because nothing in the movie relates to that plot at all. It’d be almost the same movie if it were set in a restaurant, or a cruise ship, or a session of Congress, or almost any other setting you can think of.
You misspelled “purchased.”
I do, but how did you know my name is Shirley?
A disaster on a plane? What is it?
It’s the plot of the second funniest move but that’s not impor… I guess it is important.
I’m in the minority in that I don’t even think that Blazing Saddles is Mel Brooks’ funniest movie. I prefer Young Frankenstein, The Producers, and High Anxiety to Blazing Saddles.
I think if the Zuckers and the other guy were to take this poll they would vote for Blazing Saddles. And so will I.
“They lose me right after the bunker scene.”
I agree with that. I also think High Anxiety is criminally underrated. I think all of them are funnier than Airplane!. And I love Airplane!.
Another not voting because they’re entirely different types of funny.
And to be honest, both films are showing their age. Pretty much every comedy ever made has become dated. The campfire scene in BS had theater audiences peeing in their pants with laughter. The ever-present N-word was there to highlight the hypocritical racism of these simple people of the land, common clay of the New West. Now it’s cut out of pretty much every version of the movie shown. Airplane! got a lot of laughs by using familiar faces in comic situations. But how many younger viewers even know of Jimmie Walker, Howard Jarvis, Maureen McGovern, and even Barbara Billingsley?
Tough decision. I’d have to watch them both again to cast a vote.
They’re both two of the funniest movies ever, but Monty Python and the Holy Grail is THE funniest movie ever.
I think Airplane! will age the most poorly of the three, since a great deal of its humor is the juxtaposition of actors and other celebs that were well known 40+ years ago with their very different roles in the movie. For instance, to those of us who grew up in the 1960s watching Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver, her saying “I speak jive” is hilarious. It’s probably still funny if you didn’t, but it would definitely lose a bit of its effect.
I disagree. The vast majority of the humor is verbal and sight gags, with slapstick, absurdism and the such thrown in. I was born in the mid-70s, and I love the movie and think it’s funny as shit despite not recognizing any of the actors or celebs from anything else. (Like, I don’t even know what juxtapositions you’re talking about. I did learn last week that Leslie Nielsen was more known as a dramatic actor before this, but my generation knows Leslie Nielsen from Zucker films, and not knowing his dramatic background does not seem to have impacted the enjoyment or humor people get from these style of movies.)
I didn’t even realize until now that that was actually the June Cleaver actress. The movie stays funny on its own merits without knowing any kind of celebrity backstories. Sure, there are some culturual things you have to be aware of, like hare krishnas in airports and … I dunno … that’s the only thing that comes to mind. Maybe the whole “air disaster” fad of movies that inspired this spoof (and, more directly, “Zero Hour”), but you don’t really need to know that to find it hilariously funny. Nobody I knew heard of “Zero Hour,” though I vaguely remember being aware of the airplane disaster genre.
Blazing Saddles was just on TCM in its full uncut, uncensored version. (Except for “you’re sucking on my arm,” which got added to some later video releases but wasn’t part of the original.) I watched it for the first time in years.
I really, really liked the anti-racist satire. It’s almost incomprehensible how daring it was for 1972. Even the “good” whites were racist assholes until they were saved by Bart and the bad whites were unspeakable. The best lines are the ones that play with racist attitudes.
Everything else is questionable. Like almost all movies from that era it is so slow as to be almost unwatchable. (Try re-watching The Graduate. Nothing happens and then nothing happens and then things slow down.) Harvey Korman and Mel Brooks act as if they were on a Carol Burnett spoof. Not that you can call what Brooks does acting. His films (*Producers *and YF are better for him not being in them.) Woody Allen always played a consistent version of himself, and that worked fine for most of his parts, but here Brooks dumbs himself down and slips into bad schtick.
I’m in the crowd that never liked the ending. This time, though, I paid more attention to the in-jokes. It was a truism on Broadway and in Hollywood that most male dancers were gay. I could be persuaded now that the scene with the “sissy” dancers wasn’t homophobic but a nod to a hidden population who were publicly acknowledged for I believe the first time and made to look good. (I’d be happier if someone gay made the argument.)
Nobody needed the pie fight. Nobody.
*Airplane *worked because it was relentless, a continual barrage of jokes. If one didn’t land, three more were on their way. That approach is wonderful when it succeeds and is almost impossible to duplicate, leaving in its trail dozens of wannabe failures. Doesn’t lessen the original.
Slow? Only for people of the MTV generation where if something doesn’t happen for 5 seconds the movie is “dragging.” Or speed freaks.
Personally, I thing the ending of Blazing Saddles is perfect. Far better than that of Airplane! Face it - once the lights hit the runway Airplane! is over, but it goes on for another 20 minutes.
I won’t defend Mel as an actor because I can’t. He sucks. Always has. But that doesn’t lessen the sheer wonder of BS. And Gov. Le Petomane was perfect.
“Can’t you see that man is a nig?”