Holy smokes! What's NOT funny about that scene.  It's so deeply in the
tradition of de-bunking romantic notions of primitivism that I'm surprised
any reader of Twain misses the point.  But for a comparison that might
help, read in __Mark Twain's Letters From Hawaii__ about Mr Brown's
seasickness and the romantic Mr. Twain's attempts to cure it, or read
about their different views of palm trees.  In other words, if you don't
know the romantic version of THE WEST, the bean scene is merely in bad
taste; if you do, then the juxtaposition of an exaggerated,
grotesque counter-vision with romanticized
visions becomes an aesthetic and intellectual experience worthy of
laughter.

I agree with Gregg -- when I was a kid, I thought Blazing Saddles was
near-hysterical;  my friends and I got a good year out of re-tellings of
its marvelously weird scenes.  At the time (1972?  74?), these seemed
groundbreaking, in an odd sort of way.  Remember the near-mute hulk who
levels a horse with one punch?  Or the town comprised of people all named
Johnson?  Or the horsemen who pass by a full orchestra in the desert (was
it Count Basie's??)?  Or the truly great scene with the new sheriff riding
into town, and the stunned silence as they realize he is black??  To
escape, Little takes himself hostage at gunpoint;  a caring female onlooker
shouts, "Isn't anyone going to do something??!"  Pretty funny stuff.

I still think Blazing Saddles, along with other romance-busting classics
like Brooks's "Young Frankenstein" (horror/gothic) or everyone's favorite,
Animal House (campus life), are pretty over-the-top and in-your-face.
Isn't romance-busting a big part of the Twain canon??  I believe Twain
often chastized and satirized figures of race in his writings, but I may be
mistaken.  I think he sometimes ridiculed narrowmindedness in small towns,
but I may be wrong.
Also, I seem to recall some of his genteel contemporaries being a bit
troubled by some of Twain's gutter language of the time.  Didn't the
Concord Library have some small reservations about Huck Finn?  Maybe I have
been misleading my students . . . .

Hal Bush
Saint Louis University