Yes, there is this:
If you've seen this 28-second scene, you've seen the best, and pretty much only the best, in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles."
And I love Mel Brooks' films. And I'd heard of this moron scene, and the farting around the campfire scene. So I thought I was ready.
But the rest of the film. Good grief.
Underulilized talents: Harvey Korman. Madeline Kahn. Gene Wilder. GENE WILDER! How do you underutilize Gene Wilder? All three of these actors have real manic qualities that come out in other Brooks films. Not in this one. The Waco Kid may as well have been played by anybody. And all Madeline Kahn got to do was sing that sad, sad song.
Part Two: Mixed Results from Mike Judge.
First of all, I watch TV nowadays in weird ways. What usually happens is that I spend most of my time watching clips from shows (notably The Office and Parks and Recreation. Then I get to watching the episodes and I get bored until the "best of" comes up.
Kinda so with "The Goode Family" from Mike Judge. This week marked the first time I watched all of season one's episodes. And while I liked the universal lessons on listening to others' desires, not judging others because they don't exactly fit the carefully-curated stereotypes we have of their particular little pigeon-hole, and the coach mispronouncing Ubuntu's name as "Umbumchew, or something," the show, well I know now why it was cancelled after one season.
And maybe they should have given it more time. More time to find their feet with the characters and the message. But as they were skewering progressives, time was not on their side.
This is probably my favorite episode, because of its skewering of classism. Both the left and the right suffer from classism, but the progressive left likes to think they don't. So to see them squirm is delicious.
