Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

It was February of 1974, and Mel Brooks' new Western satire comedy was about to hit movie screens across America. Probably no one could have possibly imagined the stir, the controversy, the raised eyebrows -and the laughter- it would create, and does to the very day. Filmed on a skimpy budget of just $2.6 million, Mel Brooks was taking on one of American film's most revered staples- the classic American Western.

Satires of cowboys and the Old West was standard for the great comedians, much like being in the army or dressing in drag. Western satires had already been done by the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and Martin and Lewis. But Mel Brooks, an indisputable comedic genius, was determined to really pull out all the stops with this one.

The film's original working title was Tex X, in honor of Civil Rights leader Malcolm X. It was changed to Black Bart, after the film's African-American character. Neither title sounded quite right. According to Mel, the title Blazing Saddles came to him as he was taking a shower one day. He immediately told his wife, Anne Bancroft, the title and she liked it. Blazing Saddles it was.

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The film's title song "Blazing Saddles" was sung by popular fifties singer Frankie Laine. Brooks had taken out an ad in the show biz trade papers looking for "a Frankie Laine type." He was happily surprised when, two days later, Frankie Laine himself showed up in his casting office at Warner Brothers. Brooks hired Laine on the spot, but he never told him he was singing the title song of a comedy film, a parody. He was afraid that if he told Laine, he would lose the conviction in his singing voice.

Casting for the film was all over the map. Mel originally wanted Johnny Carson for the role of "Hedley Lamarr." Carson declined and Harvey Korman got the role. The famed movie actress Hedy Lamarr sued Brooks over the parody use of her name in the film. Brooks said he was flattered by the lawsuit and happily settled with Hedy out of court.

Richard Pryor was the original choice for the lead character "Black Bart," but because of Pryor's controversial reputation at the time as a standup comic, the financing for the film could not be obtained if he was the movie's star. Instead, Cleavon Little took on the role. Although he remained on as a head writer, Pryor was to never forget the slight. He played the lead role in another Western comedy in 1975, Adios, Amigo. That film was mediocre and is seldom remembered, even by movie aficionados.

The other leading role, "The Waco Kid," was originally played by Gig Young. But on the first day of shooting, in a scene where the character was supposed to be drunk, it was discovered that Young really was drunk and physically collapsed on the set (Young had a drinking problem for years). Brooks fired Young on the spot and paid to have Gene Wilder flown across the country to assume the leading role. Young later sued Brooks for breach of contract.

Madeline Kahn was supposed to have appeared in Mame with Lucille Ball, but was fired for giving a poor performance. (Lucille Ball always thought Kahn had deliberately blown her role so she could work on Blazing Saddles instead.) Kahn's audition for director Brooks surprised her. When she walked into the casting office, Brook simply told her to "raise her skirt." Hesitantly, Kahn did as instructed and Brooks checked out her legs.

Mel based her character "Lili von Shtupp" on Marlene Dietrich's sexy showgirl characters in The Blue Angel and the Destry Western film classics. Kahn passed the audition with flying colors and was so great in the role that she was actually nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress.

"Shtupp" is a Yiddish word for the sex act, and because of this, many television stations censor Blazing Saddles and Kahn is referred to as "Lili von Shhhh…" instead, although the film's credits remain, calling her "Lili von Shtupp."

The film's most surreal scene, when Alex Karras as Mongo punches a horse and knocks him down, was taken from a real life incident. Brooks' friend Sid Caesar was horseback riding one day with his wife when her horse started acting up. According to Caesar, he actually punched the horse between the eyes and the horse reeled and went down.

Another scene, where Cleavon Little holds a gun on himself and keeps a mob at bay, was also based on a true incident. As a teenager, Mel Brooks was caught shoplifting some chewing gum and a water pistol. Incredibly, Brooks remembers pointing the water pistol at the shop owner and keeping him at bay.

Of course, Blazing Saddles' most celebrated scene is the cowboys around the campfire breaking wind.Although Brooks claims this is a movie first, farting was done in the movie Cold Turkey three years earlier. To simulate the required sounds, Mel and various passersby soaped up their hands in the Warner Brothers restroom and repeatedly stuck them under their armpits, raising and lowering their arms.

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Because of the film's crudity and use of the taboo "n" word 17 times, Brooks was warned by a Warner Brothers executive that it was "too offensive" and he would have to change it. Brooks nodded politely and knew he wasn't going to change one frame -he knew he had "final cut" in his contract. Good thing -Blazing Saddles was a huge smash, becoming only the 10th movie in history to gross over $100 million at the box office. The movie grossed almost $120 million -a huge figure for the time.

Blazing Saddles, in spite of mixed reviews, remains a comedy classic, one of those truly great films that remains as fresh as the day it was made. In 2006, the Library of Congress declared Blazing Saddles to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Archives.

When Mel Brooks was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2009, President Obama spoke of remembering going to see Blazing Saddles at the age of 13 in 1974. When Brooks asked him how he got in, with the film having a ratings restriction, Obama replied, "I think I had a fake I.D." He added that "The state of limitations has passed."

Oh, English. The language we all know and love, the lingua franca of a large part of the world, is filled with many beloved idiosyncracies. Judith Herman of mental_floss dug up 14 of English words that are their own opposites.

For example:

1. Sanction (via French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire ‘ratify,’) can mean ‘give official permission or approval for (an action)’ or conversely, ‘impose a penalty on.’

2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings, “oversee” and “overlook.” “Oversee,” from Old English oferseon ‘look at from above,’ means ‘supervise’ (medieval Latin for the same thing: super- ‘over’ + videre ‘to see.’) “Overlook” usually means the opposite: ‘to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore.’

3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)

4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.

5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.

Read more over at mental_floss: Link

Star Wars Spy Voice Changer

Have you always wished you could sound like your favorite Star Wars villain? Now you can with the Star Wars Spy Voice Changer from the NeatoShop. Disguise your voice and fool people into thinking you are Darth Vader, General Grievous, or Boba Fett. The mask also makes Darth Vader breathing noises. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Star Wars items. 

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You can't be sure what to expect when you check into the Lew Sterret Justice Center in Dallas, Texas. I suggest leaving tips to staff throughout your stay, instead of just at the end, to ensure good service.

Link -via Marginal Revolution

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AsapSCIENCE has finally struck the one subject that even web users who avoid science will watch. We all want to know more about cats! Now I know why our female cats always bury their poop while the one male cat just leaves his on top. He thinks he's the alpha. -via Buzzfeed

Crumbs Bake Shop says that it serves 6-8 people, but I think that's 6-8 unambitious people. No, I won't need your help to finish it. Step back and watch me work.

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Etsy seller Holly Renee makes dresses printed with images from Mars! The dress is made with stretch Lycra and cotton, belt sold separately. The images are from the Mars Curiosity rover. The store Shenova also has tank tops, leggings, and skirts with Mars images. Link  -via Boing Boing

TARDIS Ceramic Cookie Jar won by LisaL	Wind-Up Dalek won by Morgenstern	Doctor Who TARDIS Mini Bobble Head won by Jospeh Cuffe

Earlier this week, we had a Choose Your Own Doctor Who giveaway, open exclusively to NeatoMail subscribers. The winners have been picked using the random number generator over at random.org. They get some really neat Doctor Who items from the NeatoShop for free!

Congratulations to LisaL (a long-time Neatoramanaut! Yay!), who won the TARDIS Ceramic Cookie Jar (a popular choice!), Morgenstern who won the Wind-Up Dalek, and Jospeh Cuffe who won the Doctor Who TARDIS Mini Bobble Head. They have all been notified via private message, and need to reply within 3 days to claim the prizes.

Remember to subscribe to NeatoMail to catch the next exclusive contests and giveaways! If you haven't subscribed because you don't want spam, don't worry: we won't rent/sell/disclose your emails to third party. NeatoMail is low-frequency, so your inbox won't be inundated. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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Emiel Pauwels, 94, represents Belgium. Ilmari Koppinen, 95, runs for Finland. Depending on which news organization you consult, they ran either 60 or 100 meters, either of which is amazing. Place your bets.

Link -via Daily of the Day

I've never seen Game of Thrones, but I know enough about it just from being on the internet to find the characters' Facebook feed funny. This is only one entry from the post at Funny or Die. Not only do they snipe at each other, but they register their opinions on things passed around Facebook -the Games of Thrones Drinking Game, to be exact. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

If not for the sign, would you have ever guessed that this building is a McDonald's restaurant? It was an exhibition building in Batumi, Republic of Georgia that ceased to be used for its original purpose. Architect Giorgi Khmaladze turned it into a restaurant and gas station.

Link -via NotCot | Architect's Website | Photos: Dip-Tech

New survey in the UK shows that the traditional social class categories of working, middle, and upper class are outdated - there are actually 7 social classes:

The new classes are defined as:

Elite - the most privileged group in the UK, distinct from the other six classes through its wealth. This group has the highest levels of all three capitals

Established middle class - the second wealthiest, scoring highly on all three capitals. The largest and most gregarious group, scoring second highest for cultural capital

Technical middle class - a small, distinctive new class group which is prosperous but scores low for social and cultural capital. Distinguished by its social isolation and cultural apathy

New affluent workers - a young class group which is socially and culturally active, with middling levels of economic capital

Traditional working class - scores low on all forms of capital, but is not completely deprived. Its members have reasonably high house values, explained by this group having the oldest average age at 66

Emergent service workers - a new, young, urban group which is relatively poor but has high social and cultural capital

Precariat, or precarious proletariat - the poorest, most deprived class, scoring low for social and cultural capital

The BBC has more: Link (image: Pyramid of Capitalist System)

POLL: Which Social Class Do You Belong To?

• Elite
• Established Middle Class
• Technical Middle Class
• New Affluent Worker
• Traditional Working Class
• Emergent Service Worker
• Precariat (Precarious Proletariat)

The U.S. Census Bureau made a March Madness-style tournament bracket for the populations of the 64 largest American cities (actually, their "metro areas," which is a little different). It's a tournament that New York always wins, but what counts in this tournament is your score at picking the winners of each matchup. I scored 49 out of 63 in my first attempt, but each time you play again, the matchups are different. And you'll learn along the way -I mean really, who expected Louisville to be bigger than Cleveland? When you've played the cities enough, you can switch the bracket to U.S. states and play again! Only a portion of the bracket is shown here. Link -via Metafilter

Teatanic Tea Infuser

On April 15, 1912 the RMS Titanic sank into the cold North Atlantic Ocean. Now you can commemorate this sad occasion with a spot of tea made with the Teatanic Tea Infuser from the NeatoShop. 

The Teatanic Tea infuser is shaped like the ill-fated ship. It is made of food safe silicone and is perfect for holding loose-leaf tea.

Hot tea isn't your thing. Make it an iced tea by adding ice made with the Gin and Titonic Ice Tray.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Coffee & Tea items. 

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It's "like Hawaiian Style pizza, but without all the crust." That's how Instructables member crapsoup describes this marvelous mouth-sized bite of happiness. To make it less nourishing, crapsoup made it with turkey bacon and turkey pepperoni. You can find the recipe at the link.

Link -via Foodbeast

World War Z fan art poster by Matt Ferguson

When Don Thompson of Blurppy asked illustrators to come up with their own version of the upcoming Brad Pitt movie World War Z, they obliged (no need to see the movie - the trailer is enough!) and the Internet rejoices.

View more over at Blurppy: Link - via Geek Art

By Marie Bergeron

By David Moscati

By Matt Ferguson

Don't forget to check out NeatoShop's Zombie Shop

In Boston in 1774, tensions were building up that would lead to the Revolutionary War. The colonies were chafing under British rule, and the British were exerting their authority by clamping down on rebellious communities. This was the atmosphere in which John Malcom, a bad-tempered loyalist customs official, was found yelling at a young boy in the street. One thing led to another, and Malcolm hit a townsman in the head. Later that night, a mob gathered to give Malcolm what for.

After a stop at a nearby wharf to pick up a barrel of tar (at some point, down-filled pillows, perhaps taken from Malcom’s own house, were also collected), the crowd, which now numbered more than a thousand people, hauled Malcom through the snowy streets to the center of town, where after three “Huzzas,” they loaded him into a cart parked in front of the Customs House. Almost four years before, this had been the site of the Boston Massacre, and as a consequence the building was now referred to as Butchers’ Hall. Bonfires were common in this portion of King Street, a 60-foot-wide plaza-like space in front of the Town Hall paved with seashells and gravel where the stocks and whipping post were also located. One of these fires may have been used to heat the stiff and sludgy pine tar (a distillation of the bituminous substance that bubbled from a smoldering pine tree) into a pourable black paste.

It was one of the bitterest evenings of the year. Boston Harbor had frozen over two nights before. Malcom was undoubtedly trembling with cold and fear, but this did not prevent the crowd from tearing off his clothes (dislocating his arm in the process) and daubing his skin with steaming tar that would have effectively parboiled his flesh. Once the feathers had been added, Malcom was clothed in what was known at the time as a “modern jacket”: a painful and mortifying announcement to the world that he had sinned against the collective mores of the community. Tarring and feathering went back centuries to the time of the crusades; it was also applied to the effigies used during Pope Night; several Boston loyalists before him had been tarred and feathered, but none could claim the level of suffering that Malcom was about to endure.

The story of John Malcolm's torture at Smithsonian also describes the political background of the incident, and the mob mentality that eventually was harnessed as a tool for the Revolution. Link

(Image credit: The Granger Collection, NYC)

That's slime from the hagfish. Take a good look, because you may be wearing it one day. Anna Rothschild of PRI's The World files this report over at the BBC about how hagfish slime may just be the fabric of the future:

The slime is composed of thread-like fibers.

“When you stretch the fibers in water and then dry them out they take on properties that are very silk-like,” says Douglas Fudge, who heads this research project at the University of Guelph.

Hagfish fibers are incredibly thin and extremely strong, and that gave Fudge and his colleagues an idea.

For years, scientists have been looking for natural alternatives to synthetic fiber like nylon and spandex that are made from oil, which is a nonrenewable resource. [...]

No one has made a spool of hagfish thread yet, but Fudge and his team see a future where hagfish slime or similar proteins could be turned into high-performance, eco-friendly clothing. The fibers might be used for stockings or breathable athletic wear or even bullet-proof vests.

Link - via BBC

Photographer Fabien Nissels always has a model, now that he's constructed the "block man" for his series called Blocks. And he's fairly easy to pose, since he's made of disjointed blocks.

So, to make it short, I took my friend Johan (http://www.chezkatz.com) in the studio and we shot 4 views from each part of his body. We then printed everything and fixed the images on polystyrene blocks we had constructed. Once the blocks were all finished, we took my car and went shooting them in various environments. There is no photoshop cheating, our modular man really went to all these places and always asked for souvenir pictures, except maybe the one when he was on the toilets :)

See the rest of the series at his website. Link -via Laughing Squid

Do you see it? Look closely.

There it is! That tiny painting on a cactus spine is Hasan Kale's depiction of Istanbul. It's one of his many miniature paintings on butterflies, beans and other natural objects. Click on Continue reading to view more.

Link -via Colossal

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I think the original goal here was to create the illusion of a dog-headed person eating at the table with utensils and probably an overdubbed monolog. It turned out to be a lesson in how much dogs like peanut butter. And the videographer's laughter is better than any monolog they may have come up with! -via Metafilter

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is the best children's book ever, but it's probably been a while since we all read it, so thankfully Dan Piraro of Bizarro reminded us:

It’s a terrific book and one I used to read to my daughters when they were little. It’s all about a tree that loves a little boy so much that it lets him play in her branches. When he is a little older, she gives him her apples to sell for money. Some years later, she gives him her branches and limbs so he can build a house for his family. Once his family is gone and he’s an old man, she gives him her trunk to make into a boat so he can sail away. As he sails out to sea, she intentionally sinks and drowns him for being such a selfish jackass his whole life. In the final scene, the lonely tree stump is chuckling to itself, then blows it’s own brains out.

I may not be remembering that entirely correctly, but you get the point.

Just like the way I remembered it! Link

Given an odd sentence out of context, can you determine whether it comes from the instructions for a video game or a fringe religion? You can probably score pretty well in this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss if you play video games or have read up on cults. I figured I would fail, as I have read very little of either, but I tried and scored only 38%. However, the lines you are given are hilariously nonsensical. Going through the answers to see their sources was the best part of the quiz. Link

You have the internet and food. There's no longer a reason to go outside. Buttersafe advises you to stay healthy the indoor way.

Link -via Pleated Jeans

Dig In Salad Server

Spring has sprung. Bring the outdoors in and plant a little happiness in your kitchen with the Dig In Salad Server set from the NeatoShop. This handsome two piece set features Acacia wood handles. One piece is designed to look like a shovel and the other a garden fork. They come housed in an beautiful decorative bag with a vinaigrette recipe printed on the front. They make a wonderful wedding gift.  

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Kitchen Stuff. 

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DC Comics is set to release a series of graphic novels that bring back the Batman of the 1960s TV series. The series Batman '66 is written by Jeff Parker, with the first issue drawn by Jonathan Case. Joey Esposito talked to Parker, who wasn't even born when the series first ran, about the appeal of the Adam West Batman.

Parker: It really hit some mood right at the time. It’s weird, because if you go back and watch it and take it in the context of the ‘60s, it’s very lighthearted, and yet it’s strangely inclusive of a lot of stuff. I don’t know. I think probably at that point in the ‘60s, everyone really needed some sort of a bright spot. Then it comes along like Star Trek: bright colors, big concepts, just completely over-the-top. When you’re a kid -- bam! -- you take it completely seriously, and you lock onto it, or at least I did.

I wasn’t around when it first came out, but the reruns. It’s funny, I’ve shown it to my kids, and they sit down and enjoy it. It’s oddly timeless. You can just keep putting it in front of another generation, and they go right for it. I’m not sure you can say what all is great about it. You can only say, “Well, it wouldn’t have these things,” and try to keep those elements out, whatever they are.

Read the rest at IGN. Link -via Daily of the Day  

Balki Bartokomous doing the weather? Well, of course not, don't be ridiculous.

Well, actually, we'll take that back. When meteorologist with the grown up haircut Jeff Jumper of WPMT Fox 43 in Central Pennsylvania was taping his morning weathercast, he got a neat little surprise when Bronson Pinchot, the actor who played the lovable Myposian in the '80s sitcom Perfect Strangers, decided to jump in.

Inexplicably, the Dance of Joy wasn't performed. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] Wow!

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

A personal insight
by Professor Felicia Schmutzgarten

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The author is a professor at a liberal arts college in the United States. We have disguised her name and location, for reasons that may be apparent to the reader.]

There is a simple way to get girls interested in science. It was revealed, indirectly, at a faculty meeting I attended last week.

At my college, most of the students are female, and so are most of our faculty members. The problem on the table was student attendance -- or rather, the all-too-frequent lack thereof. “I’m surprised,” said one of our brand-new biology professors, a man I shall call Dr. Fox. Dr. Fox is a recent Ph.D. with Ivy-League medical training, several publications in prestigious journals, a postdoc in genomics, Atlantic-stormy blue eyes, high faceted cheekbones, broad shoulders, and perma-tousled raven-black hair. “Do you know,” he went on in his smoky baritone, “it’s mid-October already and I haven’t had a single absence all semester.”

We all looked at Dr. Fox and he blinked his long, sooty eyelashes at us. Mutters of “Papers to grade ...” “Some calls to make...” “Get my eyebrows waxed ...” were heard as we filed, demoralized, from the room.

But it got me thinking. Thirty years of feminism have gotten more girls into math and science classrooms, but there’s still a long way to go before they catch up with the boys. Most of the overt problems of discrimination, and even the subtler forms of sexism, have long since been swept away: there may be a few Neanderthal throwbacks tucked away in high-school science labs here and there, but overwhelmingly, girls aren’t discouraged from taking advanced physics or jokingly admonished not to faint during the dissection of a cat in biology class anymore. The career advantages of a strong science background are obvious these days, and getting more so all the time. An aspiring journalist is in a much better position if she can write knowledgeably about the genome and split-brain surgery; a potential social worker far more employable if she knows something about neurotransmitters. Yet somehow these persistent cultural messages aren’t sufficient to get female students into their high school and college labs.

A frequently heard remedy is the need for more strong female role models in the sciences; Marie Curie can’t be expected to carry the whole load herself, and posthumously at that. So search committees seek out female science teachers and professors who can provide examples to their students of Women Doing Science, and help to build the female equivalent of the kind of old boys’ network that played such a large role in the success of male scientists like Darwin and Einstein, or something like that.

But after Dr. Fox’s revelation at our faculty meeting last week, I wonder if we shouldn’t rethink our strategy. I am in an almost entirely female social-sciences department. While we have many female students enrolling in our courses, they don’t seem to be taking us as role models in any way: if they did, they would eschew facial piercings, wearing pajamas to class, and the use of the word “goes” to mean “says.” So perhaps the role-model theory is incorrect.

Perhaps what we need to do to get more girls enrolled in -- and faithfully attending -- math and science classes is to hire, not more female teachers, but more entirely adorable male teachers, like our own Dr. Fox.

Because, for whatever it’s worth, I haven’t missed a single faculty meeting since he’s been on staff, either.

_____________________

The article above is from the January-February 2004 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can purchase back issues of the magazine by download, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.