It might not have the satirical bite of Blazing Saddles or the cinematic prowess of Young Frankenstein, but Spaceballs is now a widely adored cult classic that’s remembered as one of Mel Brooks’ greatest movies. When Spaceballs first hit theaters in 1987, a decade after Star Wars’ groundbreaking release, many critics said it was too late for a parody of George Lucas’ space opera.
But the movie still holds up today with its silly sight gags, memorable dialogue, and inspired performances from comedic legends John Candy and Joan Rivers. The Star Wars phenomenon has proven to be an indefinite thing over the past few decades, and it’s given Spaceballs a surprising amount of staying power.
Sight Gags Never Get Old
Whereas pop culture references can age poorly, a well-constructed sight gag is timeless. The prop comedy of a scene like “combing the desert” in Spaceballs never gets old. Visual humor is one of the hallmarks of Brooks’ filmmaking, and Spaceballs exemplifies that. When Lone Starr and Barf decide to “jam” the bad guys’ satellite, it turns out they mean literally throw a giant jar of jam at the satellite dish.
Joan Rivers’ Hilariously Dry Line Deliveries As Dot Matrix
Mel Brooks spoofed Star Wars’ iconic droid characters R2-D2 and C-3PO with the robotic character of Dot Matrix in Spaceballs. But she’s not exactly an overt homage to either Artoo or Threepio; rather, Brooks gave the late, great Joan Rivers the freedom to make the character her own.
Rivers’ performance is filled with hilariously dry line deliveries. When Princess Vespa machine-guns the bad guys and Barf says, “Not bad... for a girl,” Dot Matrix quips, “Hey, that was pretty good for Rambo!” Rivers never found a role in movies or television that suited her sarcastic comedic sensibilities as successfully as Dot Matrix did.
The Dialogue Is Endlessly Quotable
There will always be a place in fans’ hearts for a movie with quotable dialogue. Like the rest of Mel Brooks’ hilarious movies, Spaceballs is jam-packed with memorable lines that audiences still quote today. From “What’s the matter, Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?” to “I see that your Schwartz is as big as mine,” there are a ton of great quotes in Spaceballs that are still hilarious all these years later. Few comedies from the '80s have endured as rewatchable movies that are also effortlessly quotable by fans and casual viewers alike.
The Satire Of Star Wars Merchandising Is Even More Relevant In The Disney Era
Throughout Spaceballs, there’s a running gag that the characters are all trying to push merchandise. This is a meta-commentary on the fact that the primary function of big studio blockbusters like Star Wars and Marvel and DC is to sell toys to kids.
Brooks’ satire of Star Wars’ rampant merchandising is even more relevant now that Disney has acquired the franchise in a multibillion-dollar deal and the shareholders are eager to cash in on that investment. Like The Producers parodying tasteless Broadway musicals, Spaceballs showcases Brooks' prescient comedy that predicted the franchise-dominated Hollywood of today.
Bill Pullman And John Candy’s Chemistry Created A Real Friendship
Lone Starr and Barf are an obvious parody of Han Solo and Chewbacca, as a roguish smuggler and his furry companion traveling across the stars in search of easy money, but this duo is more than just a shallow spoof of Han and Chewie’s man-and-his-dog dynamic.
Thanks to Bill Pullman and John Candy’s palpable on-screen chemistry, they have as much of a tangible friendship as Harrison Ford and his “walking carpet” companion in Star Wars. A particular standout scene between the two is when they talk to Pizza the Hutt on their ramshackle Winnebago spaceship, the Eagle 5. Their casual banter highlights the fondness shared between the two characters and instantly makes the audience embrace them as the film's unlikely heroes.
The Other Sci-Fi Movies Parodied Are Just As Timeless As Star Wars
While Spaceballs is mainly a Star Wars spoof, Brooks took the time to lampoon a couple of other sci-fi classics. The bad guys are stranded on a beach with their crashed maid ship in an homage to the final scene of Planet of the Apes, and John Hurt cameos as Kane in a recreation of Alien’s chestburster scene that ends with the alien baby belting out a rendition of “Hello! Ma Baby.” These non-Star Wars references still hold up today because the movies they’re based on, like Brooks’ primary satirical target, have aged like a fine wine.
The Visual Effects Hold Up Well
After getting permission from George Lucas to parody Star Wars in Spaceballs, Mel Brooks hired Lucas’ VFX studio ILM – who created all the iconic effects in the Star Wars trilogy – to handle the effects for his movie.
Miniature effects in Spaceballs, like the ridiculously long spaceship in the opening scene and the giant robotic maid at the film’s climax, hold up as well as the same effects in Star Wars. Brooks' film looks just as expensive and immersive as the sci-fi films it parodies so mercilessly.
Rick Moranis’ Turn As Dark Helmet Is One Of His Funniest Performances
Throughout the 1980s, Rick Moranis gave hysterical performances in such movies as Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He’s the standout star of Spaceballs in the villainous role of Dark Helmet, one of the funniest turns of the actor’s career.
Dark Helmet is essentially the anti-Darth Vader because he’s not at all intimidating and he struggles to keep his imperial underlings in line. Moranis hilariously leans into the character’s flustered reactions in the face of countless failures.
Spaceballs’ Spoof Of The “I Am Your Father” Twist Is Brilliantly Anticlimactic
While the plot of Spaceballs is primarily a loose parody of the original Star Wars movie, it incorporates elements of the other two chapters in the trilogy. There’s a pizza-based parody of one of the best new characters from Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt, and a brilliantly anticlimactic spin on the “I am your father” twist from The Empire Strikes Back.
Dark Helmet tells Lone Starr, “I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.” After Empire has inspired every other major blockbuster to force a familial connection between the hero and villain, it’s great to see a comedy in which the tenuous link between the hero and villain means “absolutely nothing!”
The Meta Nods And Fourth-Wall Breaks Poke Fun At The Artifice Of Cinema
Most of Mel Brooks’ movies have a self-aware edge, but Spaceballs is particularly meta. Meta-ness is all the rage now, thanks to Deadpool and Rick and Morty and countless other self-aware staples of pop culture, and Spaceballs holds up in that category.
Spaceballs’ hysterical fourth-wall breaks achieve the same effect as those in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: pointing out the artifice of cinema and poking fun at its most basic conventions. The finest example is when a confused Dark Helmet puts on the Spaceballs VHS and accidentally stumbles across the current scene: “When does this happen in the movie!?”