Blazing Saddles (1974)

The loudest, bravest and most quoted Brooks film, and in June 2026 the American Film Institute moved it to No. 1 on its 100 Years...100 Laughs list. The target is the Hollywood western and the racism baked into it: Cleavon Little plays Bart, a Black sheriff sent to a frontier town that wants him gone, with Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid. Richard Pryor is among the credited writers. Go in knowing what it is. Racial slurs come thick and fast, aimed squarely at the bigots, and the satire of racism still bites. Its jokes about gay men and women have not aged as well, and the campfire scene is exactly as crude as its reputation. Watch it second, once Young Frankenstein has shown you the gentler Brooks.