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This Blazing Saddles trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers Mel Brooks's 1974 Western parody from every angle: the writers' room with Richard Pryor, the casting stories behind Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the characters of Rock Ridge from Hedley Lamarr to Mongo, the campfire scene the studio hated, Frankie Laine's straight-faced theme, the fourth-wall-smashing finale on the Warner lot, the Oscar nominations, the box office and the film's place on the National Film Registry and AFI's list of the funniest films ever made. It is written for movie nights and classic-comedy fans: easy questions on the cast and plot, harder ones on production history and the careers of Brooks, Kahn, Korman, Wilder and Pickens. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was Blazing Saddles released?
1974
It opened on 7 February; Brooks released Young Frankenstein the same year.
Q 02Which stand-up comedian co-wrote Blazing Saddles and was originally intended to play Sheriff Bart?
Richard Pryor
Brooks dropped the casting plan by early 1972; the story treatment came from co-writer Andrew Bergman.
Q 03Who plays Sheriff Bart?
Cleavon Little
Little had won a Tony for the musical Purlie in 1970 and later an Emmy for a Dear John guest spot.
Q 04Gene Wilder plays the Waco Kid, a gunslinger with what problem?
Alcoholism
Wilder co-wrote Young Frankenstein with Brooks the same year and later teamed with Richard Pryor in Silver Streak and Stir Crazy.
Q 05Which actor was originally cast as the Waco Kid but collapsed on set from alcohol withdrawal?
Gig Young
Gene Wilder stepped in; John Wayne had also declined the part but promised to go and see the film.
Q 06Which Western icon turned down a Blazing Saddles role but told Brooks he would be first in line to see it?
John Wayne
The film parodies the whole John Ford tradition he embodied.
Q 07Harvey Korman plays the scheming territorial attorney with what name?
Hedley Lamarr
The real actress Hedy Lamarr sued over the name and settled out of court.
Q 08Which real film star sued over the villain's name?
Hedy Lamarr
Korman was best known from The Carol Burnett Show, where he won four Emmys.
Q 09The saloon singer Lili von Shtupp is a parody of which star?
Marlene Dietrich
Her number 'I'm Tired' earned Kahn her second Oscar nomination in two years, after Paper Moon.
Q 10Which Blazing Saddles performer received an Academy Award nomination for the film?
Madeline Kahn
The film's other two nominations were for film editing and original song.
Q 11Which former NFL defensive tackle played Mongo, the brute who punches out a horse?
Alex Karras
The four-time Pro Bowler for the Detroit Lions later starred in the sitcom Webster.
Q 12Which two roles does Mel Brooks himself play in the film?
Governor Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Sioux chief
The governor is named after Joseph Pujol, a French flatulence performer billed as Le Pétomane.
Q 13Governor William J. Le Petomane is named after Joseph Pujol, a French performer famous for what?
Controlled flatulence
Q 21Roughly how much did Blazing Saddles gross worldwide against its $2.6M budget?
$119.6 million
It was Warner Bros.' top moneymaker of the summer.
Q 22Where did Blazing Saddles rank on the AFI's '100 Years... 100 Laughs' list?
Sixth
The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2006.
Q 23In which year was Blazing Saddles added to the US National Film Registry?
2006
The registry preserves films deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Q 24Which working title was dropped so audiences would not mistake the film for something X-rated?
Pujol headlined the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s and could blow out a candle from yards away.
Q 14What is the name of the frontier town the railroad must pass through?
Rock Ridge
Lamarr appoints a Black sheriff hoping to drive the townspeople out; they end up building a decoy town packed with dynamite.
Q 15Which bandleader and his orchestra appear playing in the middle of the desert?
Count Basie
It is one of the film's deliberate anachronisms, greeting Bart as he rides to Rock Ridge.
Q 16Which crooner sang the film's title song without realising the movie was a comedy?
Frankie Laine
He thought it was another High Noon-style Western and belted it straight; the song was Oscar-nominated.
Q 17Which of these was among the elements Warner Bros. executives wanted cut before release?
The campfire flatulence scene
They also objected to the racial slurs, Lili's seduction scene and Mongo hitting a horse, but Brooks had final cut.
Q 18The film's climactic brawl breaks the fourth wall and spills onto what?
The Warner Bros. studio lot
The fight crashes a Busby Berkeley-style musical and ends up at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Q 19Which comedian plays Buddy Bizarre, the director whose musical number is invaded by the brawl?
Dom DeLuise
His number is called 'The French Mistake'.
Q 20How do Bart and the Waco Kid finally leave town at the end of the film?
In a limousine
They ride off on horseback, then hand the horses to a wrangler and climb into a stretch limo.
Tex X
It was the title of Andrew Bergman's original story treatment.
Q 25Who played Bart in the 1975 CBS television pilot Black Bart, based on the same story?
Louis Gossett Jr.
Steve Landesberg played his drunkard sidekick; the pilot was not picked up.
Q 26Slim Pickens, who plays Lamarr's henchman Taggart, is best remembered for riding what in Dr. Strangelove?
A falling H-bomb
The former rodeo clown took his stage name from a manager's warning of 'slim pickins' for prize money.
Q 27Harvey Korman won four Emmys for which long-running variety series?
The Carol Burnett Show
He also voiced the Great Gazoo on The Flintstones and reunited with Brooks for High Anxiety and History of the World, Part I.
Q 28Which other Mel Brooks comedy did Gene Wilder co-write and star in the same year as Blazing Saddles?
Young Frankenstein
The screenplay earned Wilder and Brooks an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Q 29The actress who played Lili von Shtupp got her first Oscar nomination the year before, for which film?
Paper Moon
She later won a Tony for The Sisters Rosensweig in 1993 and died in 1999 aged 57.
Q 30Mel Brooks was born under what name in Brooklyn in 1926?
Melvin Kaminsky
He is one of the few EGOT winners, having taken Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.