Mongo’s (Alex Karras) Cut Scenes From Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles (1974) would never get made today. The genius humor of writers Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Alan Uger and Norman Steinberg is now politically incorrect. Yes, the movie is vulgar and over the top.  But it remains undeniably one of the funniest movies ever made.

Some of the best scenes in Blazing Saddles belong to the half-wit behemoth Mongo, played by former NFL star Alex Karras.

Here are two of the scenes involving Mongo that were not in the final cut but were broadcast  when eventually shown on television.

So why were these two scenes cut?

Simply, too much material.

Director Mel Brooks was quite aware that theatrical release of Blazing Saddles contained many things that could never be aired on national television if it ever was broadcast.

It took seven years after its release before Blazing Saddles was first shown on CBS, October 29, 1981. When broadcast, Brooks had excised objectionable material and inserted the outtakes that were clean enough for families and the censors.

In the theatrical release, Karras’s total screen time as Mongo is less than eight minutes. But in every scene he’s in, he’s brilliant.  Richard Pryor is the writer responsible for all of Mongo’s dialogue.

The best?  “Mongo only pawn in game of life.”