10 Film Parodies Better Than The Original

2. Blazing Saddles

Original Movie: The Western genre

Well, how did it take this long for a Mel Brooks movie to appear on this list? To be honest most of this list could have been Mel Brooks films. Space Balls, Robin Hood Men in Tights and Young Frankenstein are all classics in their own right but if there was going to be only one Brooks film on this list it had to be Blazing Saddles.

What makes Blazing Saddles so great is it does not only satirize the entire genre of western movies but also the industry that created them. Brooks made a cowboy movie about racism long before Tarantino made Django. We follow Bart the black sheriff of a small town, hated by the town’s population. Brooks pointed out that while Hollywood was making idealized versions of the old west, they’d forgotten a lot of the ugly and racist parts of the time.

When Brooks cast a black actor as the sheriff in a story about how difficult it would be for a black man to gain acceptance in that time, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a serious film without any fart jokes. But luckily it isn’t, in fact it has a whole symphony of fart jokes, as well as a huge over the top dance number and a man punching out a horse.

Of all of Brooks’ parody movies Blazing Saddles is not only the most important with a heartfelt message but quite possibly the funniest too.