Mel Brooks' 1974 Western "Blazing Saddles" takes place in a town called Rockridge, a peaceful and very, very racist berg out on the edge of the Western frontier. The citizens, as described by Jim (Gene Wilder), are the common clay of the New West. "You know," he adds, "morons." In a cute gag, the citizens are named Olson Johnson, Howard Johnson, Harriett Johnson, Gabby Johnson, the Reverend Johnson, and Anal Johnson. On one hand, the similar surnames could just be an absurdist gag from a writer who opted to plug in generic names for the characters rather than invent new ones for each. On the other, it could have been Brooks making a cute joke about how literally incestuous Rockridge was. Are relatives marrying and having kids? It sure looks that way. This author prefers the second interpretation.

Flash forward 13 years later, Brooks wrote and directed "Spaceballs," a spoof of the "Star Wars" movies.