[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

All the racial humor in Blazing Saddles can be attributed to the utterly unique Cleavon Little’s ability to work with Mel Brooks’ old Borscht-belt Jewish lineup.

Oddly enough, just before Blazing Saddles, there was a very ethnic humor based, short lived (12 episodes), mostly black sitcom, based on a WWII black Quartermaster company, called “Roll Out”. It totally flopped, and even then its humor was seen as deeply embarrassing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069622/

[dfwgator]

All the racial humor in Blazing Saddles can be attributed to the utterly unique Cleavon Little’s ability to work with Mel Brooks’ old Borscht-belt Jewish lineup.

Don't forget that Richard Pryor was one of the main writers, as well.