20 Comedy Movies You Must See Before You Die

16. Blazing Saddles (1974)

In light of Seth MacFarlane's recent western spoof A Million Ways To Die In The West, Blazing Saddles looks like something of a miracle. Whereas MacFarlane's movie fails to make an impact in almost every way, despite mining similar territory, Mel Brooks' comic classic remains as funny as ever.

When Brooks embarked on what is still perhaps his most popular film, the western was well overdue for a good, ol' fashioned lampooning - what he delivered somehow managed to break down the conventions of the genre, whilst also embracing and respecting them, too. And by now, everyone knows the movie's most famous sequences (it's impossible for anyone to eat beans around a campfire without making mention to one of Blazing Saddles' most uproarious scenes), but the film's crowning moment must come in its gloriously meta-inclined ending, which sees the characters from the film breaking free from the set and into the studio where the film - among others - are being shot.

True, it's dated in places, but Blazing Saddles still has a lot to say - rather surprisingly, it's deft comments on race relations remains highly apt.