A satirical postmodernist Western black comedy about a Black railroad worker who is appointed as the new sheriff of a racist town. He and a washed-up gunslinger team up to save the town from a greedy attorney general.

So, Blazing Saddles is not really "like many a Western before it." Brooks was upending Hollywood's version of the Old West, much as Robert Altman's dark, land-grab drama McCabe & Mrs. Miller had, three years earlier. He just took a different tack. 
Bob Mondello
NPR