Racial Humor in Blazing Saddles by Mel Brooks

The tension between blacks and whites is a deep rooted problem that is not fixed by any one solution. Many strategies have been used to try to bring the two races together. Humor is one of the most effective ways to make a group of people accept an idea or a different culture. Humor has helped bridge the gap between races. The movie blazing saddles is a perfect example of how satire and common based humor, brings people together.
Blazing saddles is a movie made in 1975 that was directed by Mel Brooks. The movie is a western that portrays a "perfect" white town that has lost its sheriff and is in need of a new one. Through the corrupt white government a new sheriff is sent to the town but he is black. This reverse of rolls in authority is a common base of humor among most people. It would be as though a peasant was sent to rule a group of nobles and kings. This doesn't make much sense, and watching the reaction of the people when they see their new sheriff is comical. Another reverse in common roles is the portrayal of the white people being the stupid and corrupt ones and the black man being the smart character. The only white character that is portrayed as smart is the only character that isn't racist. This implies that racist are ignorant and dumb. That is a huge change in the way society viewed the racist men during that time period and especially a decade before. One of the most striking aspects of this film is that is was made by a white director and made for a mostly white audience. This shows that there was a significant progression in accepting one another and a definite effort by some of the white community to express to the rest of the country that they needed to accept the blacks too. For a white director, during this time period, to put a black man in the hero position of a movie and poke fun at the ignorance of white racist was a huge step toward tolerance and acceptance.
There are many things that created tension between blacks and whites prior to, throughout, and after the civil rights movement. It was perceived that black men raped white women and that they were the instigators and seducers between the two groups. One of the plots to trap the new sheriff drive and him away is to get him to fall in love with a white woman and make it look like he was causing a problem. After she finds out that it is "true how your people are gifted" she falls in love with him and the scheme falls apart. This is funny because it is the white woman that is trying to get him to have sex with her and not the other way around. This totally contradicts that black men rape unwilling white woman. This would normally offend white people of that time era but since humor is used to present it, this concept is easy to accept and the white audience doesn't get offended by it.
Another tension between the two groups is the history of the whites and white supremacy. The movie has seines including the Nazis, white bikers, and the KKK. This is funny and ironic because the movie supposedly took place in 1875, and that means that bikers from the 60's and Nazis from the 40's wouldn't have even been around at all. All of these criminals are portrayed as ignorant and the KKK members are easily tricked and beat up. One of the most ironic and funny scenes is when the black sheriff goes undercover wearing a Klan suit. This is bound to make most people laugh and show how stupid the KKK really is.
The white supremacist movement, mostly including the KKK, was a very suppressive era. The black leaders felt pressure from these men every day in their lives. The White supremacists usually seemed to have the upper hand and usually were the group that was instigating the violence. Blazing Saddles portrays this group in a very humorous but true way. They have put fear into everyone around them including people of their own race. Yet keeping true to the theme of the movie, Mel Brooks displays them as being easily tricked and beaten. The funniest example of this is when Sheriff Bart sets up a toll both in the middle of the dessert so they all have to pay a dime to go on with their mission to ransack the town. Mel Brooks purpose for making the White racists so dumb and easily to defeat, was to encourage whites of that time to not be that way and also to stand up against the remaining racists. Blazing Saddles approached the racist problem from a humorous manner enabling the different race groups to see and understand there own flaws.
This movie was a mile stone in improving the relations between blacks and whites through to use of humor. Mel Brooks somehow knew what to say to make both races laugh and further accept one another. In the decade prior to the release of Blazing Saddles, acceptance was a rare but needed part of society. If a film similar to this had come out in the 60's, it would have been too controversial and might have not made any gain toward acceptance. Due to the fact that it was released about 10 years after the voting rights act had been passed, most things had settled down quite a bit and it was time to crack a good joke about the events of the past. Humor is used to show how silly it was for the whites to think that they were better than the blacks.