8Blazing Saddles
Screenplay by Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger, Story by Andrew Bergman
In the writers’ room were Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, Alan Uger, and 26-year-old Andrew Bergman. “The thing I remember them saying is that comedy is like poetry – every syllable counts,” Bergman recalled in Entertainment Weekly. Comic poetry is one way to describe the campfire farting scene. Describing its influence on comedy, Brian Grazer told The New York Times: “It was the birth of a certain type of comedy that I call shock comedy. The comedies that preceded it were more gentle and earnest. This one was aggressive and in your face, and dealing in a very smart and startling way with the most intense social issues, from racial bigotry to sexuality.” Grazer added: “Anyone who has been making comedies over the last 20 years – I know Blazing Saddles has got to be someplace in their heads.”