History Film / Spaceballs

* LeaveTheCameraRunning: The intro, which pans over the ''Spaceball One'' for about ninety seconds. Heck, [[MusicalGag even the orchestra gets tired of it]].

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Princess Vespa, when she's attacked by the Spaceballs. "I don't have to put up with this; I'm rich!"

*** It also bears a striking resemblance to the SDF-1 from ''Anime/RoboTech''. The "ludicrous speed" scene also strongly parallels the SDF-1's TransformationSequence, complete with references to the ship having a mall and other amenities (which the SDF-1 actually had, due to housing a large community of civilian refugees and chunks of the island they used to live on which got displaced in a TeleporterAccident, and although that one didn't have a three ring circus, the beauty contest and pop idol concerts do come pretty close).

Noted for being the final film released by Creator/{{MGM}} to have been shot at the studio's historic [[Creator/SonyPicturesStudios backlot at Culver City]] under their ownership. More specifically, Stages 27 and 30 were utilized to film all of the interior scenes at Yogurt's temple and the interior scenes for both the bridge of the ''Spaceball One'' and Spaceball City, respectively. Shortly after filming wrapped up, MGM sold the studio backlot to [[Creator/{{Lorimar}} Lorimar-Telepictures]].

* FakeStatic: Barf uses this ploy to make King Roland promise a million space bucks to rescue Princess Vespa. Note that he wasn't pretending to lose picture to get away from the conversation as is standard of this trope, but rather as a way of saying "I'm losing interest in this deal."

* MundaneMadeAwesome: A meta case, considering how much a lot of special effects are done in post-production digitally nowadays is that everything, even the sounds of static and the terrible quality of the communicator, in the Jammed Radar sequence was done by Michael Winslow right there and then. He effectively adlibbed what would normally take hours of post-production work. The major evidence is when he drops a PrecisionFStrike when the screen fails, since it smoothly transitions from the fake static he was doing to simulate the sound the screen SHOULD have been making.

** The Schwartz rings recall the magic ring of Ming the Merciless in ''Film/FlashGordon1980''.

** The Schwartz rings recall the magic ring of Ming the Merciless in ''Film/FlashGordon''.

* HeroKiller: The movie never really says why Vespa has to marry Prince Valium when apparently any prince would've done, just that he's the "last" prince. The novelization takes it a step further, saying Vespa has to marry him because there's no other princes left; Dark Helmet killed them all. Presumably he left Valium alone, because obviously he's no threat.

* DigitalDestruction: When watching the original, non-anamorphic DVD on [=TVs=] with huge amounts of overscan, the scene where Dark Helmet threatens to restore Vespa's old nose became cropped so strongly, viewers can't see the crooked tip of her old nose. The anamorphic Collector's Edition DVD fixed this, but might prove harder to find than the original release, which MGM has repackaged a number of times.

* ContraltoOfDanger: PlayedForLaughs with the Bearded Lady, as played by the late wrestler Dee Booher, whose voice is indistinguishable from a man's.
-->'''Bearded Lady:''' ''[addressing Dark Helmet during the climactic escape]'' I'm the bearded lady! What are you, one of the freaks?

** The deep voice singing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" in Spaceballs prison turns out to be... Princess Vespa.

* TooDumbToLive: Dark Helmet, particularly during the "comb the desert" scene (where he does exactly that using literal giant combs and even gets annoyed when Colonel Sandurz suggests he's being too LiteralMinded) and, even worse, the "ludicrous speed scene", where he immediately orders ''Spaceball One'' to jump to ludicrous speed despite Sandurz warning him it could be dangerous, and refuses buckle his seatbelt. Note that Colonel Sandurz is pretty dumb to begin with, and even ''he'' comes across as smarter and more capable than Dark Helmet.
* TooFastToStop: Decelerating from LudicrousSpeed is a dangerous move courtesy of Newton's First Law (as Dark Helmet learns), and just flying that fast causes ''Spaceball One'' to overshoot the Winnebago.

* NitroBoost: [[spoiler:After revealing Lone Starr's royal lineage, Yogurt also reveals that he put a can of Liquid Schwartz in his glove compartment to help him get back to Vespa's wedding in time.]]

* EmergencyRefuelling: The need to keep their ship fueled is PlayedForLaughs; "I told you we should've put more than five bucks in," -- right before they make a crash landing on a desert planet. Fortunately, they eventually find some fuel.

* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Vespa, while still in her dress, is handed a gun. She refuses to use it [[NobodyTouchesTheHair until her hair is singed.]] Then she goes "good enough for Franchise/{{Rambo}}" by mowing down a line of Spaceballs.

* AmusingInjuries: Dark Helmet suffers some of these as a result of crashing headfirst into a control panel while coming out of LudicrousSpeed, and he ''asked'' for that one by refusing to use a seat belt.

Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) -- the bold, bossy and beautiful heir to the throne of planet Druidia -- is fleeing her intended marriage to the painfully dull Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock), the only eligible bachelor prince in her region of space. Unfortunately, Vespa and her robot servant Dot Matrix (performed by Lorene Yarnell[[note]]of Shields and Yarnell[[/note]]; voiced by Creator/JoanRivers) acquire the attention of the Spaceballs, a group of spacefaring evildoers -- led by Dark Helmet (Creator/RickMoranis) and President Skroob (Mel Brooks) -- who plan to seize Vespa and hold her hostage in exchange for access to Druidia's oxygen (in order [[PlanetLooters to drain it away and use it to replenish their homeworld's own thinning atmosphere]]).

--> '''Self-destruct voice:''' Ten... nine... eight... six...
--> '''President Skroob:''' Six?! What happened to seven?
--> '''Self-destruct voice:''' Just kidding.

** Lone Starr and Dark Helmet square off with their "Schwartz" lightsabers suggestively held at crotch height. Dark Helmet remarks "You have the ring...and I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now let's see how well you... handle it!" Made even better when they both glance down to check.

* DrumRollPlease: Sandurz pauses in mid sentence for this.

* EasilyConqueredWorld: Dark Helmet is able to convince King Roland to turn over the codes to Druidia’s air lock simply by threatening to reverse Princess Vespa's nose job.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A bunch of Spaceballs merchandise is Franchise/{{Transformers}} merchandise with Spaceballs stickers on them, which might just seem like a convenient and logical choice when adapting actual merchandise from one of the most well-known merchandise driven franchises ever for a joke about merchandising, but then later ''Spaceball One'' transforms into Mega-Maid, which is the linchpin device for the Spaceballs to steal all of Druidia's air.

** When Skroob is called while in bed with the twins, the title of the book he's holding (upside-down) is "Don't Blame Me," written by himself.
* FreudianSlip: "I'll have the cleavage. Uh, the special." (Barf at the diner staring at the waitress)

* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: When a guard shoots the lock on the Winebago.

* LaserBlade: Used in the climactic battle.

** Mr. Coffee[[note]]The first ever drip-brew coffee machine...at least in the U.S.[[/note]] is name-dropped, and becomes a RunningGag of sorts (Mr. Radar, Mr. Rental, etc.).