Posted on 03/03/2010 11:10:17 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
One of the finest comedy movies ever made was the Mel Brooks classic “Blazing Saddles.” It’s a cult classic that’s still aired on TV today. The film’s dialogue is riddled with racist, sexist, bigoted speech. The “N” word is used 17 times. Yet, 36 years after the film’s debut the “N” word is “bleeped” whenever it’s broadcast on television. It isn’t because the movie was insensitive to racism in 1974. Quite the opposite. The bigotry is an intentional punch line at the expense of the bigoted. Sensitivity to mere words has neutered an extraordinarily important commentary on race in film.
Mel Brooks, like so many entertainers of his era made his living skewering racial, religious, ethnic, and social mores. Brooks, a Jew, was quite fond of poking fun of his heritage. His movies have lampooned Hitler, Nazis, and the Holocaust. It makes the “N” word seem like Sesame Street.
(Excerpt) Read more at bighollywood.breitbart.com ...
Timeless comedy. Classic laugh-fest.
Blazing Saddles was co-written by Richard Pryor.
“The bigotry is an intentional punch line at the expense of the bigoted. Sensitivity to mere words has neutered an extraordinarily important commentary on race in film.
...well said! Very true. I don’t even think we could get away with the farting scene at this point. “Good beans Mr Taggart!” “I believe you boys have had enough”! Classic.
All in the Family would have a tough go at it, as well what with all those chinks, dagos, polacks, spics, wops, kikes, etc...
The campfire fart scene is among the best. I met Burton Gilliam recently. He was on the Dallas Fire Department with my father.
Conservatives aren’t in the word-censorship business. We’re content to let one’s character do the talking. Americans are savvy and can hear the intent of words. They know when they’re meant to make you laugh or inform you. They know when they’re meant to be cynical and deceptive. And they know when they’re used to be hateful.
Mel Brooks used free speech to ridicule free speech. Hate speech, turned on itself though ridicule, is the strongest, smartest kind of free speech.
36 years later, liberals insist Brooks’ speech be censored as to not offend. It is weak and it is certainly not smart.
The Thought Police don’t have the brains to understand satire; it baffles them.
Hilarious me and my wife can quote it word for word and my wife sings all the songs....
It’s twue it’s twue..
Film a re-make in Canada.
“Bart!! You shifty N-word! They said you was hung!”
...well said! Very true. I don’t even think we could get away with the farting scene at this point. “Good beans Mr Taggart!” “I believe you boys have had enough”! Classic.
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True. Have you watched the “edited” version on AMC? It shows them burping. Not farting.
I refuse to watch the “edited” version. It sadly takes away a great deal from the original.
Great flick!!
“And they wuz right!”
It would be no loss. Most folks quit making jokes about people farting when they get past their teen years. This movie was made for juveniles, and I'd keep mine from seeing it.
And Disney has locked away their classic movie “Song of the South” because of political correctness. The slaves in that movie were not miserable enough. Uncle Remus was too positive a character. He apparently did not realize that he should have been demanding reparations. Instead the politically correct types think of him as a stooge. I have seen that movie, and think that his character was presented very respectfully. Yes he was a slave, but he was a friend to the children. Then again, the story was set in the 1840s, I believe, so it was historically accurate that he was a slave.
“Mongo just pawn in game of life.”
Gabby Johnson couldn’t have said it better.
It was still when we could laugh at ourselves.
Clint Eastwood: political correctness has rendered modern society humorless
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