Remember the days when we could laugh about racial inequality and throw off the casual racist remark as a bit of slapstick? Yeah, those times might not be coming around again until we’re all dead and gone, if then. Director/actor Mel Brooks was talking about one of his most offensive films some time ago and happened to comment that it’s quite possible that if the film Blazing Saddles were to ever be recreated in this day and age it would most likely never fly in the current political climate. That seems an understatement really since if you’ve ever watched the film you know full well that whoever had the guts to bring this film back to the big screen for a remake would be facing an angry mob before the opening credits were finished.
Does anyone happen to remember why Blazing Saddles was so funny, and still controversial movie all at once? The stereotypes, the racism, and the blatant attempts to make it all humorous would drive half of America to riot in the streets if they happened to see it today. But let’s examine that a little closer.
Racism is wrong, no doubt about it. Sexism is wrong, and few people disagree. Stereotypes are harmful, as it’s been said for so long. But laughter is contagious, and the ability to laugh at things that we find harmful and/or offensive is one of the most important parts of life, right?
Oh if only it were so.
People claim to want to laugh but nowadays if you so much as whisper the kind of racist and stereotypical words and speech that essentially made a big part of Blazing Saddles you’d be labeled as one of the worst pieces of human scum to ever walk the earth. Even trying to explain why it’s funny and what it might be like to actually laugh in the face of racism would be met with hard glares and a very real sense that you might not be walking home that night. People don’t want to admit Blazing Saddles was funny because in this day and age everything that offends is just flat out wrong and should be condemned and vilified in a way that suggests it’s borderline unholy and unworthy of being called comedy.
Right…..
It’d be so nice if we could go back to laughing at the stupid and hateful remarks that people make, to depict the willfully ignorant in the same kind of light that Brooks did in his movies in an effort to show just how truly foolish they looked. Did no one get that, or were they just too busy laughing at the antics of the moronic white men? Brooks was making fun of them people, and he was doing a bang up job of making the black men look the part of the hero while the white men were either the bad guys or the friendly outcasts that didn’t care about color and just wanted to get along.
Brooks actually did more in his film to highlight the social iniquities of the white folks than a lot of films do in the current era. So yes, it would be great if Blazing Saddles could be remade in the same way. But chances are too many people would get offended by the very idea.
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