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The hit comedy movie 'Airplane!' is 40 years old. It shows its age, but it's still relevant (back in theaters Aug 30)
nbc news ^ | July 21, 2020 | By Bryan Reesman

Posted on 08/20/2020 1:10:03 PM PDT by 11th_VA

It would be easy to put “Airplane!” on a no-fly list of offensive films. That would be a mistake because it demonstrates how to push boundaries in the right way.

When it first crash-landed in cinemas 40 years ago, the irreverent “Airplane!” wowed critics and audiences with its fast-and-loose brand of humor. It remains one of the most consistently uproarious laughfests ever filmed, and became an instant comedy classic when it hit screens in 1980. The 40th anniversary Blu-ray reissue arrives Tuesday.

In writing and directing “Airplane!,” the creative triumvirate of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker (later known as ZAZ) combined vaudevillian humor, oddball non sequiturs, dirty jokes and visual gags into a unique flurry of funny. One can rewatch the film and uncover new visual and verbal jokes because they packed in so many punchlines.

This was a topsy-turvy world where the roughest bar brawlers are feisty Girl Scouts, a military commander fights his way through religious recruiters at LAX, and a Boeing 747 sign features “no smoking” and “no screwing” light displays. And then there was the witty word play: "Surely you can't be serious?" “I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley.” And yes, coming at the beginning of the ’80s, it delved into gratuitous nudity and cursing, though it stopped short of totally overplaying its hand...

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: blazingsaddles; cancelculture; cnbc; freep; freepthispoll; msnbc; nbc; nobrainscollectively; poll
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To: Texas resident

I remember him in Forbidden Planet.


101 posted on 08/20/2020 3:34:06 PM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hiya kids, hiya, hiya!)
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To: Jewbacca
My name’s not “Shirley”.

"Just kidding."--Johnny with the electric cord in his hands.

102 posted on 08/20/2020 3:39:26 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: wally_bert
Robert Stack in an episode of the good but very short-lived Most Wanted was a police captain who had to impersonate an airline pilot.

Stack also made a brief appearance, in the David Zucker directed "Baseketball", playing himself on Unsolved Mysteries, it was hillarious.

103 posted on 08/20/2020 3:43:47 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

I’ll have to look for that.

Stack also did a sort of Untouchables skit for the color version of the Lucy Show.

It’s in the boxed set of Untouchables.

Quite funny.


104 posted on 08/20/2020 3:45:11 PM PDT by wally_bert (Transmission tone, Selma.)
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To: 11th_VA

“I used to sit on your face and wriggle.”


105 posted on 08/20/2020 3:46:51 PM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hiya kids, hiya, hiya!)
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To: Jewbacca

Elaine: Would you like something to read?
Old Lady: Do you have anything light?
Elaine: Uhh...how about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?


106 posted on 08/20/2020 3:48:37 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: 11th_VA

“Airplane” is a spoof of the movie “The High and the Mighty” made in 1954.


107 posted on 08/20/2020 3:51:17 PM PDT by forgotten man
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To: dfwgator

I remember Siskel and Ebert panned the Zucker brothers back in the 80s, long before the cancel culture. They were like “I wonder if the Zucker brothers think this is funny?!”. Um, yeah I guess they did.


108 posted on 08/20/2020 3:53:01 PM PDT by scottinoc
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To: dfwgator


Goldberg is not amused.

I really don't follow American sports, much. I will note that Israel can't populate a decent football (real football) national team because our good players go off and play for much more profitable European league teams. Pisses me off to no end, but I can't blame them.
109 posted on 08/20/2020 4:09:59 PM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: real saxophonist

What the heck??? Is that John Travolta?....lol


110 posted on 08/20/2020 4:12:01 PM PDT by Getsmart64
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To: LukeL

+ 1,000,000 to that comment. The NBA SUCKS any more.


111 posted on 08/20/2020 4:19:17 PM PDT by Hardastarboard (Three most annoying words on the internet - "Watch the video")
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To: 11th_VA

Just wanted to tell you all, good luck, we’re all counting on you...


112 posted on 08/20/2020 5:01:20 PM PDT by scottinoc
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To: OrangeHoof

It was “nigga.” I remember how shocked I was to hear it ftom her.

You are correct the overdub was “chump.” But that was not the original.


113 posted on 08/20/2020 5:55:47 PM PDT by freedumb2003 ("Do not mistake activity for achievement." - John Wooden)
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To: freedumb2003

I disagree. I saw it in the theaters in the first couple of weeks that it came out in 1980 (we had a friend who was such a movie buff, he dragged us to every new film). It’s always been “chump”. Granted, this was Texas so perhaps the phrase (which is off camera) was redubbed after first release but the n-word was not to be uttered (by cultured whites, anyway) even back then.

Now, the scene in “Mad Men” where Mrs. Blankenship disses the Clay-Liston fight, she really does say the n-word but the DVD release changed it to “negroes”. Her shocking line was “If I want to see two n-——s fight, I’ll just throw a dollar out my back window”. Classic.


114 posted on 08/20/2020 6:05:35 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Face masks are simply mouth diapers for liberals.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Very true. A great film.


115 posted on 08/20/2020 11:41:37 PM PDT by p. henry
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To: scottinoc

Laughing now!


116 posted on 08/21/2020 8:01:25 AM PDT by Kickaha (See the glory...of the royal scam)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Yeah, what’s a Theater?


117 posted on 08/21/2020 8:16:53 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: real saxophonist
I first saw this film in a theater in 1980 when I was 30, and have watched it on TV a few times since. That is the first time I noticed John Travolta in his Pulp Fiction outfit before Pulp Fiction was even made!
118 posted on 08/21/2020 1:10:35 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: Prince of Space

What? No Monty Python and the Holy Grail???


119 posted on 08/21/2020 7:36:44 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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