Claim: Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles ranks at number 6 on the American Film Institute's list.

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks . Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder , the film was written by Brooks , Andrew Bergman , Richard Pryor , Norman Steinberg , and Al Uger , and was based on Bergman 's story and draft . The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences , was nominated for three Academy Awards , and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institute 's 100 Years ... 100 Laughs list .   Brooks appears in two supporting roles , Governor William J. Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief ; he also dubs lines for one of Lili von Shtupp 's backing troupe . The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens , Alex Karras , and David Huddleston , as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise , Madeline Kahn , and Harvey Korman . Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself .   The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West , with the hero being a black sheriff in an all-white town . The film is full of deliberate anachronisms , from the Count Basie Orchestra playing `` April in Paris '' in the Wild West , to Slim Pickens referring to the Wide World of Sports , to the German army of World War II .