Of course he had a protective pad under his pants. Are you people crazy? You think Gene Wilder would really stab himself with a scalpel?
"Nothing says I care like fatty meats." - Frasier Crane

It's a well known fact, Gene Wilder had a wooden leg after standing on a mine in Vietnam.

It's obvious that they put a pad under Gene Wilder's trousers.
Still, one of the greatest laughs in the film, for me. And it happened to me, in a way, which made it seem all the funnier, to me:
I used to assemble plastic models of tanks, so I had a collection of razor knives, known generally as 'Xactos,' after the most famous U.S. brand of hobby razor knives.
One evening, I was working on a model of an M-48 Patton tank (as I recall; certainly could have been a model of another tank), and I dropped my Xacto razor knife.
I automatically squeezed my thighs together, to catch the knife.
And boy, did I ever catch that knife.

• Lord, have mercy on a country boy

This is such a funny thread.
Fits in perfectly with this film.

I read somewhere on IMDb boards that he had padding in his leg. Maybe do a little research next time?

Don't be stupid, the obvious answer is that he had one of those brain clasp things placed on the back of his neck so he didn't feel it when he stabbed himself. Above all else, Mel Brooks was a stickler for realism. Even Peter Boyle died so he could play a corpse being brought back to life using the actual notes from the actual Dr. Frankenstein.
Either that of he had some padding under his pants. I could go either way.

Has anyone considered the possibility that he had something in his pant leg, ie padding?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQbX5YpcdE&feature=youtu.be

Maybe this was the very last scene filmed and he really punctured his leg with the scalpel just for laughs. Then went straight to hospital for stitches.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley

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My thought was that maybe they put something there (like padding) that he could stab at instead of his leg. Or that they did the whole thing with quantum computer CGI. Yeah it's that last thing.

Since no one has sufficiently answered this yet, I will take a stab at it. After some prolonged research I finally figured out that Gene Wilder had something in his pants protecting his leg from the scalpel's sharp blade.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley

Gene Wilder had some padding in his pants. Also, the scalpel was made of cotton candy. So I actually have no idea why they bothered putting padding in his pants. It's all very weird, and strangely sexual.

Ha ha ha
"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Sim" - Frank Grimes

That's a possibility, as well.
Another one, though a real long shot, is that he had padding under his pants to protect his leg. Who knows? There are a million possibilities. LOL.
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. - George W. Bush

Just throwing another idea out there: And I may be way off base here, but I'II bet Gene Wilder had some sort of protective padding under his pants between the material and the actual skin of his leg to keep the scalpel from hurting his thigh when he stabbed it.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley

Being that no one seems to have answered it yet, I'll give it a try. I think he had some sort of padding under his pants.
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. - George W. Bush

I may be way off base here, but I'II bet Gene Wilder had some sort of protective padding under his pants to keep the scalpel from hurting his thigh when he stabbed it.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley

It's painfully obvious that Gene had some sort of padding under his pants leg (either that or his right thigh was having some serious swelling issues during the filming of that scene! ;)). Although I understand why they did it, I have to admit I find it a bit distracting and wish they could have made it (the padding) a little less visable.

I'm glad I have the answer since no one else seems to.
Gene Wilder placed padding into his pant leg, which blocked the scalpel.

Out of context, this may be one of the funniest things I have ever read.

I could be wrong but I think there was something inside Gene's pants protecting his leg from the scalpel.

I think there was something inside Gene Wilder's pants that protected him from the scalpel.
Welcome to my Nightmare- Freddy Krueger

In the trivia section, it mentions he had something under his pants that protected him when he did that.

There's padding on his thigh. If you watch his thigh closely, you can see that it is fatter than the other one, and you can tell there is padding.
"The answers to all of life's riddles can be found in the movies."