The Good pick: 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Spaceballs' offer good old-fashioned parody

If the “Scary Movie” series, or its offshoots ““ “Dance Movie,” “Epic Movie,” etc. ““ are any indication, parody in Hollywood has died a cruel, absurd death.

There is something nostalgic, then, about watching “Blazing Saddles” or “Spaceballs,” which is probably not the response Mel Brooks originally had in mind. The former is Brooks’ brilliant send-up of the Western genre, featuring his typically nonsensical wordplay, a man punching a horse, an Oscar-nominated theme song, Nazis, far too many people named Johnson and a legendary farting scene. The latter gives the same treatment to “Star Wars,” pitting Captain Lone Starr, his half-man half-dog sidekick Barfolomew and the power of the Schwartz against Pizza the Hutt and Dark Helmet, all for the love of one Princess Vespa. If you make it more than a few minutes through either of them without laughing, you’re thinking too hard.

“Blazing Saddles” plays at 8 p.m. and “Spaceball” at 10 p.m. at the Downtown Independent Theater on Friday, Nov. 12.


A still from “Blazing Saddles” Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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