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Comment by rocmcd | Hacker News Reader

I've always viewed Tropic Thunder as somewhat of a successor to Blazing Saddles, but I largely agree that it couldn't be recreated today.

The time period in which these movies were made is a lot of what makes them so special. That's not to say that what we'll have next won't be special, but 1974 (and 2008) was a different time.

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Mel Brookes got full creative control over Blazing Saddles in an accident of contract. The studio didn't notice and signed. This is why the movie is so good. Mel got to make what he thought was funny.

The movie itself alludes to that toward the end when the cowboys bust through a wall into a studio dance number, Dom Deluise as the studio's director tries to regain order, and Slim Pickins proclaims "I'm workin' for Mel Brooks" and socks him. Which is a great example of what Mel Brooks thinks is funny.

I saw a good youtube video about how blazing saddles was satirizing decades of hyper popular sanitized Western genre and helped kill it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMFoNZeZm0

So a "modern Blazing Saddles" would probably be a super-hero movie then

Does that make Deadpool the spiritual successor?

Deadpool feeds off the genre, it does not criticize it.

The Deadpool trailers were better than the movie.

Thinking back to when Tropic Thunder came out, I remember the scandal relating to the movie had nothing to do with RDJs character, but with the fact that they say "retarded" in it.

I have to admit the “full retard” is one of the best lines I have ever heard in a movie. Maybe “10-20 million dead, tops” from Dr Strangelove is on that level.

"I'm not saying we won't get our hair a little mussed."

Back in the dark ages (pre-streaming) Sky Movies showed "Dr Strangelove". The UHF scrambling only affected the picture, not the audio, so even though we didn't have a Sky subscription we could still listen in: it works wonderfully as a radio play too.

And like most of these "scandals", it was nothing more than a handful of offended people being very vocal while the vast majority didn't even notice. It's only worse now because of social media amplifying the outrage but the relative numbers are the same.

> I've always viewed Tropic Thunder as somewhat of a successor to Blazing Saddles

I'd say Django Unchained is the closest I've seen to a modern Blazing Saddles.

"And we'll weep for him ... in the press".

My all-time favorite line.

> but I largely agree that it couldn't be recreated today.

I agree also.

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