As writer-director Mel Brooks had previously sent up old westerns with Blazing Saddles and old monster movies with Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs was the first time he skewered modern-day film—as it’s an extremely obvious and detailed parody of the original Star Wars trilogy.
In 1984, Brooks was in the cafeteria at the Fox studio lot when an executive asked him what he was working on. Brooks blurted out “Planet Moron.” He was kidding, but it actually gave Brooks the idea to make a sci-fi spoof. After he discovered there was already a movie called Morons from Space, Brooks came up with Spaceballs. The minor dirty joke is a nice accident, because Brooks just wanted something with “space” in the title, and he thought it was a “screwball” movie.
