“What did you expect? ‘Welcome, sonny’? ‘Make yourself at home’? ‘Marry my daughter’? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know … morons.”

It’s one of the subtlest scenes from a movie that is anything but: Mel Brooks’ 1974 classic “Blazing Saddles.” In the scene, a close-up of Jim (Gene Wilder) shows him speaking quietly to Bart (Cleavon Little), consoling him for the hostile reception he has received as the town’s new sheriff. Jim’s first few lines give the impression that the legendary gunslinger is defending the racist townspeople who refuse to accept Bart — a black man — as their sheriff. Jim seems to be making excuses for the tense race relations, attributing the townspeople’s inability to welcome Bart to their humble lifestyle. But then there’s the punchline: Racists are morons.