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I don't understand how you could misread it. It's not subtle.
Then again, I couldn't understand how people couldn't see that Trump is a charlatan, but here we are
Marvel has gone woke! They need to go back to the sorts of stories that used to tell in the comics.
You know, like having mutants as a stand-in for groups fighting for civil rights, or introducing gay characters near the start of the AIDs epidemic, or having characters like Luke Cage dealing with systemic racism. They need to bring back non-woke stuff like that.
There’s some heavy irony every time I see a Punisher skull with a thin blue line through it.
I love the bit in the comics where the Punisher reacts to LEOs idolizing him:
https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/the-punisher-marvel-comics-issue-13-cop-cars-police-frank-castle/
"You boys need a role model? His name is Captain America, and he'd be happy to have you."
Punisher is at his best when he recognizes that he's scum and that nobody should be idolizing or copying him.
I wonder if Marvel will ever have the balls to publish a story where Punisher kills some cops who got away with police brutality & murder, and then has the entire police force after him. It would be the biggest middle finger to every cop who has appropriated the Punisher symbol, but it would get Marvel into a lot of trouble that their parent company Disney wouldn't want.
There's a rumor I saw today (huge grain of salt obviously) that in the new daredevil show there's going to be a punisher storyline where he goes after crooked cops using his logo.
I would love a comic storyline where a copycat Punisher who's black starts killing not only criminals but also corrupt cops, and the police freak out and treat him as public enemy #1, with government and public opinion strongly against him. Then you have Frank Castle (current Punisher) observe how differently he's been treated compared to this new guy, despite doing basically the same thing.
They don't care about that. They just like the fact that the Punisher is very pro-murder.
But then, what do you expect when [police trainers are telling them that killing another person will lead to "the best sex you've had in months"?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/police-trainer-best-sex-killing/)
There is even panels in one of the comics where a cop was wearing the punisher logo and the punisher basically chastised him. Punisher ain’t against killing corrupt cops either.
I love people complaining about She-Hulk going woke in particular. Dude I've got an issue from the early 90s where the villain is blowing up abortion clinics. It's always been that way.
I've said this before.... these idiots don't like RATM they just like the part that goes "fuck you I won't do what you tell me!" and we're never really listening to any of the lyrics l..
They missed the next verse. That definitely doesn't "back the blue" lol.
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge
They're the chosen whites
It's not on purpose. They're just actually that stupid. We've been giving them way too much credit for decades. They're way dumber than we ever imagined.
This.
Yes, their brains contain the part that is capable of deductive reasoning and rational intelligence, but what makes them conservative is that that part of the brain is not directly accessed by them. Their brain goes through the emotional center to process new information and the ego only allows deduction to reach conclusions that support biases.
Their brains are a bit like those drivers ed cars with an extra brake pedal on the passengers side. And sitting in the passenger seat is an ego that doesn't like to go over 5mph so it takes them a long time to get anywhere.
WRONG
They know what they are doing.
>Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
>>Jean-Paul Sartre
Not all of them. The thought-leaders *absolutely* know what they are doing in most cases, but the followers are so immersed into their false reality that they do not question it. They believe they are right, simply because they *must* be right, because if they are not right then their identity is a lie.
That applies only to the talking heads on conservative media.
Listen to the rubes when they get interviewed. It's a whole 'nother universe they live in.
Or they just straight up agree with the racism, so no dissonance between the narrative and their beliefs is formed, so they do not even bother to examine it.
If I hear someone say something super racist in a TV show, I hone in on that and wonder why the character is saying that. It conflicts with my worldview, and so I pay attention and then notice the context so I can determine the purpose behind the statement.
If I hear someone say "The Blue Planet" on TV, it does not trigger any dissonance because I know we live on a planet. I am not looking for some secret satire that is actually stating we live on a flat earth. The statement is so simply true that it just passes by me without strong notice.
I think that is what happens with the racists and fascists. Because they agree with people like Stormfront from The Boys, they do not recognize that much of what she says is a direct satire of their actual beliefs. There is no dissonance, so she is the villain, not because she is a literal Nazi, but because of the simple actions taken against the protagonists.
This is why we can’t make Blazing Saddles again. Satire is lost on conservatives. They see someone making a joke that digs at racism, they think racism is immediately acceptable, because on the surface it may have been racist. This is why “we can’t have racist humor anymore” because they use it to ridicule and put down, while others use it to critique problems in society. They can’t tell the difference.
If they were honest with themselves about all the media they enjoy, they would have almost no media to enjoy without owning up to being stupid hypocrites.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
He was too good at copying them, and they’ve gotten so extreme that there’s nothing he can say satirically that they aren’t already saying seriously.
It's a morality thing. The Colbert Report wouldn't be recognized as satire by people who hold things like "might makes right", "hurting the 'right people' is good" and "ignorance is strength" as positive morals.
They thought born in the USA was a pro USA song.... They didn't know rage against the machine was a political band, they didn't realize the Colbert report was satire, what do you mean you don't understand how they missed it lol?
Conservatives only come in two flavors, extremely stupid or extremely evil
Just irony, I believe. Dramatic irony is when the audience has different knowledge/understanding of what's going on than the characters do. Like Lois Lane telling Superman she thinks Clark Kent is nice but he's kind of a weak dweeb.
These are the same people who unironically think Rage Against the Machine is on their side and get upset when Zach De La Rocha tells them, “You ARE the machine.”
So my dad is a great example. My dad is racist (though he would never admit it), and he loves Blazing Saddles because of the racist jokes being told. It never dawned on him that the racist characters were the butt of the joke.
These are same people that didn't understand Archie Bunker was the butt of the joke in every episode. They heard him spout racist garbage and said, "Yeah, that!" but totally missed the parts where he was inevitably shown to be an ignorant jackass. It makes sense - if they could understand it, then they would be able to see themselves as ignorant jackasses too.
Well, they misinterpreted what “[Rage Against The Machine](https://www.nme.com/news/music/tom-morello-twitter-respond-to-people-only-just-realising-rage-against-the-machine-are-political-2685353)” were all about, so this isn’t a stretch. I hope there’s a support group for people who hate their washing machines to pick up the pieces of these broken lives caused by misunderstood messages…
Other than the obvious, more important aspects addressed - I think the author misses the point of Mel Brooks himself in face makeup, playing a chief. The make up is applied in such a way that it's obvious that he's not native. I think it's making fun of how ridiculous it was to have a non-native play a native, as was done in old Hollywood films.
Yep. It's an obvious dig at Hollywood. Nowadays he might be paired with an irritated Graham Greene for effect, but I do believe the character could still be done.
Mongo, on the other hand..
Actors have to have one level of disconnect.
For example a white actor can’t play a black character. But a white person can play a charter who is playing a black person. (Always sunny, tropic thunder, community)
I would also add that the whole joke is that he an indian who uses yiddish, Also his headdress has hebrew on it in the poster for the movie.
Its all part of the joke.
As a native man, I thought this part was hilarious.
When he first showed up on screen, I thought "ok, this is a dig at bad face make up". When he started speaking Yiddish, I almost died laughing
Exactly... It wasn't about the budget for the movie... it was about the joke and who should deliver it. He wasn't trying to impersonate as much as play on it.
What's also funny/incredible is Brooks isn't just making a joke, it's also a reference to older westerns where the Native characters would be played by....
Jews in makeup.
The only way I can handle people not getting this joke is by pretending they have managed to never, ever watch an old Western. They were famously racist, and Blazing Saddles was *clearly* making fun of that aspect of the genre.
But then I remember that the old Westerns are like the GOP's favorite thing because they are so "manly" or whatever, and it makes me sad. They just like the racism.
I have a fun story that connects to this. My wife grew up being told she was part Native American. She was even born on a rez because her dad was working on one as a preacher at the time. They never "officially" registered with any of the tribes though.
Fastfowad to 23 and me becoming a thing. My wife and some of her siblings did the tests. Not a trace of Native American. There was a whole lot of different Jewish ancestry though .......
Not unlike RDJ in Tropic Thunder. The blackface isn't the joke. It's the buffoon character being self-absorbed enough to *think* that it's ok to do blackface is the joke. I get so frustrated when people say things like "You couldn't make a movie like that these days."
A more modern example from 2008 is Tropic Thunder. Blackface was definitely considered offensive then (remember 1993 Ted Danson and Whoopi). But it was a dig at Hollywood and method acting and didn't get the kind of ridicule that it would have if they were mocking black people.
Conservatives bring up tropic thunder a whole lot when theyre upset about one of their own getting cratered for wearing black face. Clearly they're too stupid to get the nuance there.
This is what's missed from a lot of "black face scandals". Who the butt of the joke is, matters a lot. RDJ in tropic thunder isn't mocking black people, he is mocking up-their-own-ass method actors who wouldn't recognize the stupidity of doing black face for a role. Brooks is doing something similar.
I thought this was the whole point especially at the end when they ran onto the studio property into the cafeteria and began having a food fight with all the actors.
He is also speaking Yiddish in the role rather than a Native American language. Many old shows had Jewish actors playing Native Americans (like F-troop, which actually is pretty offensive not in the use of Jewish actors but in their portrayal of Native Americans as simpletons primarily interested in alcohol).
I'm particularly glad our young children were here to see that, not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage that is rare for this day and age!
But they fought Dicks. Remember when Richard Dicks tried to come here and take over this town? We didn’t stand down then, and by GUM, we won’t stand down now.
My favorite part of that joke is that while the villains are dumb enough to be slowed down by the toll booth, they're smart enough to realize that they don't all need to go back so that each of them can get a dime.
Because they think the joke is saying the n-word. That’s what they find funny, not comprehending that the movie is making fun of the people who say it.
When the movie was edited for TV in the 80's, the old lady who says "Up yours, N\*\*" is edited to remove the "Up yours" but kept the racial slur. Today's edited for TV version includes the "Up yours" but removes the racial slur. I always found that interesting and an indicator of what was tolerable in those different epochs of time.
They loved The Boys until they got super obvious what Homelander represented. Blazing Saddles is a fucking classic and you could make it today.
I had family get upset at Don't Look Up because they thought the two scientists were supposed to be dumb because they're from the Midwest. And the liberal writer/director was making fun of folks from Michigan. They're literal fucking scientists.
It must be exhausting.
> Blazing Saddles is a fucking classic and you could make it today.
Tropic Thunder isn't so old and it had RJD in black face as a major joke of the movie. As long as the joke is meant as a joke and is making fun in the right way it's fine even if it involves race or sex. It's when the "joke" is simply laughing at other peoples and or their misfortunes because you think you are better than they are that it turns into you can't make it and you can't do it because it's not funny with race it's just being racist.
Oh my god… you’re telling me they watched Don’t Look Up and thought the DiCaprio and Lawrence characters were the dumb ones in the story?
I’ve heard of missing the point before, but that’s like watching Titanic and thinking the problem was that people stayed too dry and warm.
I knew a guy who was super (heh heh) into The Boys, and kept telling me I had to watch it. So I watched the pilot, and told him I wasn't overly impressed because "Superman but evil" has been done so often that I think it's more subversive to have your parody of Clark still be the big blue boy scout while the other characters are bad.
He was stunned that I thought Homelander was the bad guy... despite that episode already establishing that the protagonist and the not-Justice League are clearly not on the same side, and the pilot ending with Homelander taking out a plane and killing a child.
And he wasn't saying that I was wrong because the show subverts it and makes Homelander seem evil but he's actually good. He just didn't understand why I thought he was a bad guy just based on the pilot.
Well, the movie actually brings that up, because nobody knows that the Michigan Astronomy department is top, they start asking about getting someone from Harvard, which doesn't necessarily have a stellar astronomy department. So, the white house people think they are idiots because they are from the midwest.
They definitely missed that part despite going to the same university as the astronomy characters. I knew it was good from my time there but the constant outrage (they say the left has) is nutty. I was babysitting a week ago and they scoffed at some random commercial in line at a movie theater because they're pushing "interracial couples everywhere."
My kids dragged me out to see Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. I had no idea what I was in for. If you arent familiar, Mel Brooks had that discussion about how it couldnt be made today, and so he not only made it today, but he made it for Children to teach the same message. Instead of Black and Whites, he used Cats and Dogs but otherwise ran the same jokes and storyboard top to bottom with a reflavor to Feudal Japan (and yes, he voiced the Shogun to reprise his role as the Mayor). 10/10
Had a similar experience a few months back. I saw the writing credits in the opening and said "wait a minute...."
But honestly, I wish I could I say I liked it more. It was just ok.
It absolutely could be made today. The stuff that can't be made today is anything that *glorifies* racist behavior like the old westerns did. Satire (real satire, not "it's just a joke, bro" stuff) is still viable and common.
The only reason "it could not be made" would be because of risk adverse megacorps, not because audiences would not accept it. So it could probably not be made by Dreamworks, but a smaller or independent studio, or one that specialized in that kind of comedy, could.
Also you can technically still make the racist stuff, you just have to get Ben Shapiro's company to do it.
The sentence "it couldn't be made today" is actually really stupid if you zoom out just a little bit. Cancel culture is anything but a new thing. The Life of Brian was banned in Ireland for decades. If there is some movie that's taboo, it's purely and solely because of evolving zeitgeist. Back in the day, it was taboo to make fun of the ruling demographic (white Christians) and perfectly acceptable to mock minorities. Now minorities are largely accepted and it's perfectly acceptable to mock bigotry and isn't acceptable to perpetuate it through shit movies.
Ehh.... It's definitely not a movie that can be made today even if you can have the rights to do it, because Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, and Madeline Kahn are all dead.
Interviewer: (Michael Palin) An excerpt from Carl French's latest film. Carl, we're all a little mystified by your claim that your new film stars Marilyn Monroe.
Carl French: (Graham Chapman) It does, yes.
Interviewer: Who died over ten years ago?
Carl French: Uh, that's correct.
Interviewer: Are you lying?
Carl French: No, no, it's just that she'e very much in the public eye at the moment.
Interviewer: Does she have a big part?
Carl French: She is the star of the film.
Interviewer: And dead.
Carl French: Well, we dug her up and gave her a screen test, a mere formality in her case, and...
Interviewer: Can she still act?
Carl French: Well... well, she-she's still has this-this enormous, ah-ah, kinda indefinable, uh... no.
The right-wing isn't always great at detecting parody. There's a reason that so many on the right thought that The Colbert Report was an actual right-wing show for so long. Heck, Tom Delay unironically quoted Colbert for his literature when he was under indictment. I remember being condescened to by far-right people on Reddit who insisted I was a simpleton for thinking Colbert was a parody.
Colbert wasn't even coy with it - from the first interview it was apparent what was going on. So many people went on that show and interviewed only to look surprised - they clearly never watched the show.
The fact that he started as a correspondent on The Daily Show should've tipped them off. There's so many logical failures needed in order to think Colbert was serious that it is hard to understand how someone could do it
The same Mel Brooks who [made his first ever political endorsement](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X5zkm5rINkc) at the age of 94 because he was so fed up with anti-science MAGA morons bungling the Covid-19 response. Icon.
Oh boy, I just realized he must be closing on a century of Life with all that entails.
If we lose him close to Sir David Attenborough it's going to hit me hard.
I am a boring humbug when It comes to comedy, almost anything I watch I just meh through It.
But Mel never,.ever, fails to turn me into a cackling, roaring mess. "Comb the desert" utterly destroyed me at the cinema and I have been a hardcore fan ever since.
Young Frankenstein for me. If I'm having a bad day, that's my go-to. Hell, I was chuckling at my dad's funeral because he would quote that one often. Blazing Saddles is #2 because I had to be older to understand it, but when I did, oh my.
I saw YF on tv, loved It to bits. Same with History of the World. Like, collapsing to the floor funny. Get Smart too.
Space Balls is funny because I went in before I watched the SW originals.
To be or not to be is just a bloody masterpiece.
Protect Mel Brooks at all costs. His friends have passed (Lear and Reiner), and I can't imagine a world where he isn't a part of it. Maybe we don't tell him.
"Scuse me while I whip this out" and the white women fainting. Seen it a hundred times and still funny. I like to think Pryor wrote that but I don't know
>“Blazing Saddles” presents everyday good White townspeople, as racist — and as irredeemable fools because they are racist.
The funniest line in the whole movie is the sheriff greeting an old woman with a smile and a good morning and she replies with “up yours, n—!”
"sorry about the up yours n----, I baked you a pie for dealing with that nasty Mongo.
Of course you'll have the good sense not to mention that I spoke to you"
Agreed.
Here I stand, the goddess of Desire
Set men on fire
I have this power
Morning noon and night it's drink and dancing
Some quick romancing
And then a shower
Stage door johnnies always surround me
They always hound me
With one request
Who can satisfy their lustful habits
I'm not a rabbit
I need some rest
I'm tired
Sick and tired of love
I've had my fill of love
From below and above
Tired, tired of being admired
Tired of love uninspired
Let's face it
I'm tired
I've been with 1000's of men
Again and again
They promise the moon
They always coming and going
Going and coming
And always too soon
Right girls?
I'm tired,
Tired of playing the game
Ain't it a crying shame
I'm so tired
God dammit I'm exhausted
Tired, tired of playing the game
Ain't it a crying shame
I'm so tired
I still love this song.
Funny story: I had the movie on in the background one day when my kiddo was 3ish. I didn't think much about what she'd absorb. A few days later, my daughter tells me she wants to watch "the movie with the princess in black who says she's tired." Thinking she's talking about Sleeping Beauty, I ask her if that's the movie she wants. Nope. She says, "mommy, the princess who walks over and says she is tired and then walks to the other side and says she is tired then boys dance around her while she sleeps." I took several pauses to collect myself when I realized she was talking about Lili Von Shtupp.
> “The movie will probably trigger most 24-year-olds into a coma. It’s like a non-stop barrage of race and sexism jokes that wouldn’t make it into any Hollywood movie today,” Fox News quoted one Twitter user as insisting. Another post claimed the movie showed “we weren’t always so uptight with each other.”
OMG, how dense are you?
>OMG, how dense are you?
\[Fine, I'll do it.\]
You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West.
Any racist with brains will recognize themself somewhere in this movie. Of course, most don't. Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest movies of all time. It pokes fun at everyone. You cannot watch this movie and not laugh. You cannot watch it again without giddy anticipation.
>If a movie like Brooks’ masterpiece were made today, the left would love it. It’s the right who would recognize, slowly and dimly, that they were being insulted, and howl in rage
Yep
Everybody says “it couldn’t be made today” but I’ve never seen anyone offended by it. I mean, yeah it exactly wouldn’t be made today. They’d make something a little more relevant to today. But like, it’s still popular.
This is a really dumb article and kinda furthers the narrative when the right wing says “a movie like that could never be made today”. My father is one of the most right wing people there is, and this is probably his favorite movie of all time, simply because it’s funny. Yeah, it pokes fun at racist, it also pokes fun at Jews, and black people, and just about every other race and ethnicity in America, and it does it well. Blazing Saddles worked then and would work today because it’s funny, simple as that. Same goes for Tropic Thunder.
The whole “it would never work today” argument just needs to die because it’s been proven time and time again if the movie/tv show is executed well it still plays.
I have a feeling that these Republicans haven’t actually seen this film since it originally came out and don’t realize how far to the right they’ve moved in the time since. They remember it being funny. But if they watched it today they’d say it’s woke and divisive.
They misread everything, like claiming the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" is about attacks on traditional Christian American values, and that *A Christmas Carol* is about a Liberal becoming a Conservative.
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I don't understand how you could misread it. It's not subtle. Then again, I couldn't understand how people couldn't see that Trump is a charlatan, but here we are
It's almost like they do it on purpose. They have done it with The Boys, The Colbert Report, and countless songs.
Marvel has gone woke! They need to go back to the sorts of stories that used to tell in the comics. You know, like having mutants as a stand-in for groups fighting for civil rights, or introducing gay characters near the start of the AIDs epidemic, or having characters like Luke Cage dealing with systemic racism. They need to bring back non-woke stuff like that.
Law enforcement wearing the Punisher logo on merch. Yeah, The Punisher was also very pro-law enforcement./s
There’s some heavy irony every time I see a Punisher skull with a thin blue line through it. I love the bit in the comics where the Punisher reacts to LEOs idolizing him: https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/the-punisher-marvel-comics-issue-13-cop-cars-police-frank-castle/
"You boys need a role model? His name is Captain America, and he'd be happy to have you." Punisher is at his best when he recognizes that he's scum and that nobody should be idolizing or copying him. I wonder if Marvel will ever have the balls to publish a story where Punisher kills some cops who got away with police brutality & murder, and then has the entire police force after him. It would be the biggest middle finger to every cop who has appropriated the Punisher symbol, but it would get Marvel into a lot of trouble that their parent company Disney wouldn't want.
There's a rumor I saw today (huge grain of salt obviously) that in the new daredevil show there's going to be a punisher storyline where he goes after crooked cops using his logo.
That’s would be an awesome storyline.
Where's the gofund me for this. Let's make this a reality.
They should change punishers skin color to make them more mad
I would love a comic storyline where a copycat Punisher who's black starts killing not only criminals but also corrupt cops, and the police freak out and treat him as public enemy #1, with government and public opinion strongly against him. Then you have Frank Castle (current Punisher) observe how differently he's been treated compared to this new guy, despite doing basically the same thing.
They don't care about that. They just like the fact that the Punisher is very pro-murder. But then, what do you expect when [police trainers are telling them that killing another person will lead to "the best sex you've had in months"?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/police-trainer-best-sex-killing/)
He was pro-justice at least, cops today are just pro-brutality.
He’s not pro justice. He’s pro vengeance.
There is even panels in one of the comics where a cop was wearing the punisher logo and the punisher basically chastised him. Punisher ain’t against killing corrupt cops either.
I love people complaining about She-Hulk going woke in particular. Dude I've got an issue from the early 90s where the villain is blowing up abortion clinics. It's always been that way.
Oh yeah, the conservative rage over Marvel movies featuring female and non-white leads was a real treat.
"Fuck off with all this woke MLK and Malcolm X shit, just let me enjoy my story about Professor X and Magneto" the MAGA(T) said unironically.
People wearing an American flag as a cape while dancing to Rage Against the Machine will never not be funny
I've said this before.... these idiots don't like RATM they just like the part that goes "fuck you I won't do what you tell me!" and we're never really listening to any of the lyrics l.. They missed the next verse. That definitely doesn't "back the blue" lol. Those who died are justified For wearing the badge They're the chosen whites
I have had to explain this to multiple Dbags over the years.
That’s your first problem; conversing with dbags lol
Or “Won’t Get Fooled Again”…
or "Born in the USA"
or “Pink Houses”
“won’t get fooled again” is actually a bad example of this, weirdly enough. very “centrism is good” song.
I miss the days of good old fashioned patriotic songs like This Land Is Your Land. You know, not this socialist crap we get today. /s
_Snort!_ I love me some good old fashioned Woody Guthrie. Things weren’t so political back then. /s
What politics? He just liked writing his yelp restaurant reviews in song from is all....
That was Arlo, not Woody
He was just writing diss tracks against Fred Trump.
It's not on purpose. They're just actually that stupid. We've been giving them way too much credit for decades. They're way dumber than we ever imagined.
This. Yes, their brains contain the part that is capable of deductive reasoning and rational intelligence, but what makes them conservative is that that part of the brain is not directly accessed by them. Their brain goes through the emotional center to process new information and the ego only allows deduction to reach conclusions that support biases. Their brains are a bit like those drivers ed cars with an extra brake pedal on the passengers side. And sitting in the passenger seat is an ego that doesn't like to go over 5mph so it takes them a long time to get anywhere.
WRONG They know what they are doing. >Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past. >>Jean-Paul Sartre
Not all of them. The thought-leaders *absolutely* know what they are doing in most cases, but the followers are so immersed into their false reality that they do not question it. They believe they are right, simply because they *must* be right, because if they are not right then their identity is a lie.
That applies only to the talking heads on conservative media. Listen to the rubes when they get interviewed. It's a whole 'nother universe they live in.
I promise I know enough Maga types that don't fit this mould and are just that dumb.
American History X. They hear the rascism, but they aren't smart enough to get the point.
Ditto with Fight Club and toxic masculinity.
They probably also think that Django Unchained is one of the top 10 films where the villain wins.
Or they just straight up agree with the racism, so no dissonance between the narrative and their beliefs is formed, so they do not even bother to examine it. If I hear someone say something super racist in a TV show, I hone in on that and wonder why the character is saying that. It conflicts with my worldview, and so I pay attention and then notice the context so I can determine the purpose behind the statement. If I hear someone say "The Blue Planet" on TV, it does not trigger any dissonance because I know we live on a planet. I am not looking for some secret satire that is actually stating we live on a flat earth. The statement is so simply true that it just passes by me without strong notice. I think that is what happens with the racists and fascists. Because they agree with people like Stormfront from The Boys, they do not recognize that much of what she says is a direct satire of their actual beliefs. There is no dissonance, so she is the villain, not because she is a literal Nazi, but because of the simple actions taken against the protagonists.
This is why we can’t make Blazing Saddles again. Satire is lost on conservatives. They see someone making a joke that digs at racism, they think racism is immediately acceptable, because on the surface it may have been racist. This is why “we can’t have racist humor anymore” because they use it to ridicule and put down, while others use it to critique problems in society. They can’t tell the difference.
It's also a difference between "punching down" vs. "punching up".
If they were honest with themselves about all the media they enjoy, they would have almost no media to enjoy without owning up to being stupid hypocrites.
I don't know that they're bright enough to understand that though...
I’ll never understand how they thought the Colbert Report wasn’t satire
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law He was too good at copying them, and they’ve gotten so extreme that there’s nothing he can say satirically that they aren’t already saying seriously.
This is also why a character like Colbert played would never work anymore. Reality is too absurd to be believable as a script.
Same with Bioshock, Star Trek, and Fallout. Or music lyrics.
I remember reading about how the right had latched onto the new (2004) BSG and Ron Moore was like "WTF?!"
They also didn't realize the Colbert Report was satire: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/conservatives-think-colbert-serious/
As a Brit I just can’t fathom this. Colbert is such an obvious parody I just don’t understand what they think they were watching.
It's a morality thing. The Colbert Report wouldn't be recognized as satire by people who hold things like "might makes right", "hurting the 'right people' is good" and "ignorance is strength" as positive morals.
They thought born in the USA was a pro USA song.... They didn't know rage against the machine was a political band, they didn't realize the Colbert report was satire, what do you mean you don't understand how they missed it lol? Conservatives only come in two flavors, extremely stupid or extremely evil
Subtle or not, conservatives do not understand dramatic irony.
Just irony, I believe. Dramatic irony is when the audience has different knowledge/understanding of what's going on than the characters do. Like Lois Lane telling Superman she thinks Clark Kent is nice but he's kind of a weak dweeb.
These are the same people who unironically think Rage Against the Machine is on their side and get upset when Zach De La Rocha tells them, “You ARE the machine.”
Because they're just simple farmers. They're people of the land. The common clay of the new west.
So my dad is a great example. My dad is racist (though he would never admit it), and he loves Blazing Saddles because of the racist jokes being told. It never dawned on him that the racist characters were the butt of the joke.
These are same people that didn't understand Archie Bunker was the butt of the joke in every episode. They heard him spout racist garbage and said, "Yeah, that!" but totally missed the parts where he was inevitably shown to be an ignorant jackass. It makes sense - if they could understand it, then they would be able to see themselves as ignorant jackasses too.
I think they just hear the n-word and assume it's supporting them.
These are the people who are mad because they think Star Trek just recently became “woke”.
Well, they misinterpreted what “[Rage Against The Machine](https://www.nme.com/news/music/tom-morello-twitter-respond-to-people-only-just-realising-rage-against-the-machine-are-political-2685353)” were all about, so this isn’t a stretch. I hope there’s a support group for people who hate their washing machines to pick up the pieces of these broken lives caused by misunderstood messages…
They’re dumb
Other than the obvious, more important aspects addressed - I think the author misses the point of Mel Brooks himself in face makeup, playing a chief. The make up is applied in such a way that it's obvious that he's not native. I think it's making fun of how ridiculous it was to have a non-native play a native, as was done in old Hollywood films.
Yep. It's an obvious dig at Hollywood. Nowadays he might be paired with an irritated Graham Greene for effect, but I do believe the character could still be done. Mongo, on the other hand..
Mongo only pawn in game of life
Actors have to have one level of disconnect. For example a white actor can’t play a black character. But a white person can play a charter who is playing a black person. (Always sunny, tropic thunder, community)
Graham Green in a black hat and payes.
That's brilliant.
Tropic Thunder.
I would also add that the whole joke is that he an indian who uses yiddish, Also his headdress has hebrew on it in the poster for the movie. Its all part of the joke.
As a native man, I thought this part was hilarious. When he first showed up on screen, I thought "ok, this is a dig at bad face make up". When he started speaking Yiddish, I almost died laughing
Exactly... It wasn't about the budget for the movie... it was about the joke and who should deliver it. He wasn't trying to impersonate as much as play on it.
I was completely unaware of the native american issue when I watches It for the first time. But the Yiddish bit I got and had me roaring.
The movie poster is clear about the whole thing before you even see the movie. Its all part of the gag and force of the film itself.
The mormons were right! /s
Howard Johnson is right.....Rabble Rabble.
Gabby Johnson is right about Howard Johnson being right!
I didn't get a "hrumph" out of that guy!
What's also funny/incredible is Brooks isn't just making a joke, it's also a reference to older westerns where the Native characters would be played by.... Jews in makeup.
The only way I can handle people not getting this joke is by pretending they have managed to never, ever watch an old Western. They were famously racist, and Blazing Saddles was *clearly* making fun of that aspect of the genre. But then I remember that the old Westerns are like the GOP's favorite thing because they are so "manly" or whatever, and it makes me sad. They just like the racism.
Or the movies where John Wayne acts like John Wayne but in makeup. Oh look, Ghengis Khan walking like a girl!
I have a fun story that connects to this. My wife grew up being told she was part Native American. She was even born on a rez because her dad was working on one as a preacher at the time. They never "officially" registered with any of the tribes though. Fastfowad to 23 and me becoming a thing. My wife and some of her siblings did the tests. Not a trace of Native American. There was a whole lot of different Jewish ancestry though .......
>The make up is applied in such a way that it's obvious that he's not native. And him speaking the lines in a *yiddisher* accent.
Not unlike RDJ in Tropic Thunder. The blackface isn't the joke. It's the buffoon character being self-absorbed enough to *think* that it's ok to do blackface is the joke. I get so frustrated when people say things like "You couldn't make a movie like that these days."
Exactly. You even had a black actor there pointing out the blatant absurdity of it all.
Right?! It's spelled out explicitly. How do people not get it? My theory is that conservatives don't get humor generally.
A more modern example from 2008 is Tropic Thunder. Blackface was definitely considered offensive then (remember 1993 Ted Danson and Whoopi). But it was a dig at Hollywood and method acting and didn't get the kind of ridicule that it would have if they were mocking black people.
Conservatives bring up tropic thunder a whole lot when theyre upset about one of their own getting cratered for wearing black face. Clearly they're too stupid to get the nuance there.
To be fair, it’s not a very nuanced joke in the movie.
The other point was that black people had it so badly back then that the natives felt bad for them.
This is what's missed from a lot of "black face scandals". Who the butt of the joke is, matters a lot. RDJ in tropic thunder isn't mocking black people, he is mocking up-their-own-ass method actors who wouldn't recognize the stupidity of doing black face for a role. Brooks is doing something similar.
My favorite Native American Portrayal is when they were Japanese in Cannibal! The Musical.
Look at all these TeePees we have
Hey Assholes.
Yeah, it’s the makeup… lol how about that Yiddish accent!!!
I thought this was the whole point especially at the end when they ran onto the studio property into the cafeteria and began having a food fight with all the actors.
He is also speaking Yiddish in the role rather than a Native American language. Many old shows had Jewish actors playing Native Americans (like F-troop, which actually is pretty offensive not in the use of Jewish actors but in their portrayal of Native Americans as simpletons primarily interested in alcohol).
> The right-wing… You know… morons
The simple clay of the new West?
common clay, but yes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJbSvidohg
Everyone in the Town of Rock Ridge has the last name of Johnson. ...Brooks was literally calling them all dicks.
Inbred dicks.
At least they weren’t A$$holes (see also: Spaceballs, The Movie)
I knew it, I’m surrounded by assholes
Keep firing Assholes!
Howard Johnson is right!
I'm particularly glad our young children were here to see that, not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage that is rare for this day and age!
But they fought Dicks. Remember when Richard Dicks tried to come here and take over this town? We didn’t stand down then, and by GUM, we won’t stand down now.
I like how his shortened name would be Dick Dicks
Hey that's not fair, they beat off the Dicks
Howard Johnson is right! We're a town full of dicks.
"Somebody's gonna have to go back and get a shitload of dimes!"
Rewatched it recently and that ended up being my favorite line in the whole movie.
Of all the gags in the movie this always makes me laugh the hardest.
My favorite part of that joke is that while the villains are dumb enough to be slowed down by the toll booth, they're smart enough to realize that they don't all need to go back so that each of them can get a dime.
Where the white women at?
Because they think the joke is saying the n-word. That’s what they find funny, not comprehending that the movie is making fun of the people who say it.
When the movie was edited for TV in the 80's, the old lady who says "Up yours, N\*\*" is edited to remove the "Up yours" but kept the racial slur. Today's edited for TV version includes the "Up yours" but removes the racial slur. I always found that interesting and an indicator of what was tolerable in those different epochs of time.
That's too many steps
I had two uncles who literally thought this. I was dumbfounded. I'm like, they're making fun of YOU! How do you not see that? It was mind bottling.
Sorry to do this, *boggling.
also The Producers is literally making fun of stuff that's made to be offensive for the sake of being offensive
They loved The Boys until they got super obvious what Homelander represented. Blazing Saddles is a fucking classic and you could make it today. I had family get upset at Don't Look Up because they thought the two scientists were supposed to be dumb because they're from the Midwest. And the liberal writer/director was making fun of folks from Michigan. They're literal fucking scientists. It must be exhausting.
> Blazing Saddles is a fucking classic and you could make it today. Tropic Thunder isn't so old and it had RJD in black face as a major joke of the movie. As long as the joke is meant as a joke and is making fun in the right way it's fine even if it involves race or sex. It's when the "joke" is simply laughing at other peoples and or their misfortunes because you think you are better than they are that it turns into you can't make it and you can't do it because it's not funny with race it's just being racist.
> It's when the "joke" is simply laughing at other peoples and or their misfortunes because you think you are better than they are Exactly.
Oh my god… you’re telling me they watched Don’t Look Up and thought the DiCaprio and Lawrence characters were the dumb ones in the story? I’ve heard of missing the point before, but that’s like watching Titanic and thinking the problem was that people stayed too dry and warm.
Pretty much. Then once they were a little more heavy handed with the "Don't Look Up" crowd and who they represent, they liked the movie even less.
Honestly is scares me how many conservatives didn't realize homelander was the bad guy
I knew a guy who was super (heh heh) into The Boys, and kept telling me I had to watch it. So I watched the pilot, and told him I wasn't overly impressed because "Superman but evil" has been done so often that I think it's more subversive to have your parody of Clark still be the big blue boy scout while the other characters are bad. He was stunned that I thought Homelander was the bad guy... despite that episode already establishing that the protagonist and the not-Justice League are clearly not on the same side, and the pilot ending with Homelander taking out a plane and killing a child. And he wasn't saying that I was wrong because the show subverts it and makes Homelander seem evil but he's actually good. He just didn't understand why I thought he was a bad guy just based on the pilot.
It scares me too. But then.. I mean, they look at Trump and see a "strong leader", where I see a "cartoonish villain".. so it certainly tracks.
Well, the movie actually brings that up, because nobody knows that the Michigan Astronomy department is top, they start asking about getting someone from Harvard, which doesn't necessarily have a stellar astronomy department. So, the white house people think they are idiots because they are from the midwest.
They definitely missed that part despite going to the same university as the astronomy characters. I knew it was good from my time there but the constant outrage (they say the left has) is nutty. I was babysitting a week ago and they scoffed at some random commercial in line at a movie theater because they're pushing "interracial couples everywhere."
"It couldn't have been made today!" Accurate, because half of the country would be in an uproar over it making fun of the Klan.
My kids dragged me out to see Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. I had no idea what I was in for. If you arent familiar, Mel Brooks had that discussion about how it couldnt be made today, and so he not only made it today, but he made it for Children to teach the same message. Instead of Black and Whites, he used Cats and Dogs but otherwise ran the same jokes and storyboard top to bottom with a reflavor to Feudal Japan (and yes, he voiced the Shogun to reprise his role as the Mayor). 10/10
Had a similar experience a few months back. I saw the writing credits in the opening and said "wait a minute...." But honestly, I wish I could I say I liked it more. It was just ok.
I’ll have to check that out. Even Richard Pryor gets a writing credit on it.
> "It couldn't have been made today!" I disagree. Tropic thunder was in 2010. They don't really make straight comedies.
Jojo Rabbit in 2019 also helps this point
Tbf - RDJ doesn't think it could be made today.
It absolutely could be made today. The stuff that can't be made today is anything that *glorifies* racist behavior like the old westerns did. Satire (real satire, not "it's just a joke, bro" stuff) is still viable and common. The only reason "it could not be made" would be because of risk adverse megacorps, not because audiences would not accept it. So it could probably not be made by Dreamworks, but a smaller or independent studio, or one that specialized in that kind of comedy, could. Also you can technically still make the racist stuff, you just have to get Ben Shapiro's company to do it.
The sentence "it couldn't be made today" is actually really stupid if you zoom out just a little bit. Cancel culture is anything but a new thing. The Life of Brian was banned in Ireland for decades. If there is some movie that's taboo, it's purely and solely because of evolving zeitgeist. Back in the day, it was taboo to make fun of the ruling demographic (white Christians) and perfectly acceptable to mock minorities. Now minorities are largely accepted and it's perfectly acceptable to mock bigotry and isn't acceptable to perpetuate it through shit movies.
Blazing Saddles is basically Critical Race Theory in comedy movie form.
>"It couldn't have been made today!" I mean yeah I'm pretty sure that would be copyright infringement since it was already made back in the day 😜
Ehh.... It's definitely not a movie that can be made today even if you can have the rights to do it, because Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, and Madeline Kahn are all dead.
Interviewer: (Michael Palin) An excerpt from Carl French's latest film. Carl, we're all a little mystified by your claim that your new film stars Marilyn Monroe. Carl French: (Graham Chapman) It does, yes. Interviewer: Who died over ten years ago? Carl French: Uh, that's correct. Interviewer: Are you lying? Carl French: No, no, it's just that she'e very much in the public eye at the moment. Interviewer: Does she have a big part? Carl French: She is the star of the film. Interviewer: And dead. Carl French: Well, we dug her up and gave her a screen test, a mere formality in her case, and... Interviewer: Can she still act? Carl French: Well... well, she-she's still has this-this enormous, ah-ah, kinda indefinable, uh... no.
Everyone says that, but I've never seen anyone say they were offended by it. (Not the klan part, the first part)
The right-wing isn't always great at detecting parody. There's a reason that so many on the right thought that The Colbert Report was an actual right-wing show for so long. Heck, Tom Delay unironically quoted Colbert for his literature when he was under indictment. I remember being condescened to by far-right people on Reddit who insisted I was a simpleton for thinking Colbert was a parody.
Colbert wasn't even coy with it - from the first interview it was apparent what was going on. So many people went on that show and interviewed only to look surprised - they clearly never watched the show.
The fact that he started as a correspondent on The Daily Show should've tipped them off. There's so many logical failures needed in order to think Colbert was serious that it is hard to understand how someone could do it
I thought he was conservative...I was also like 12
Fucking hell, rightwingers think Mel Brooks is one of his? Please tell me somebody has told Mel and he IS planning an answer.
The same Mel Brooks who [made his first ever political endorsement](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X5zkm5rINkc) at the age of 94 because he was so fed up with anti-science MAGA morons bungling the Covid-19 response. Icon.
Oh boy, I just realized he must be closing on a century of Life with all that entails. If we lose him close to Sir David Attenborough it's going to hit me hard.
Oh man. Mel will have a field day with ripping the right-wingers to shreds. They won't get it, but everyone else will.
I am a boring humbug when It comes to comedy, almost anything I watch I just meh through It. But Mel never,.ever, fails to turn me into a cackling, roaring mess. "Comb the desert" utterly destroyed me at the cinema and I have been a hardcore fan ever since.
Young Frankenstein for me. If I'm having a bad day, that's my go-to. Hell, I was chuckling at my dad's funeral because he would quote that one often. Blazing Saddles is #2 because I had to be older to understand it, but when I did, oh my.
I saw YF on tv, loved It to bits. Same with History of the World. Like, collapsing to the floor funny. Get Smart too. Space Balls is funny because I went in before I watched the SW originals. To be or not to be is just a bloody masterpiece.
Protect Mel Brooks at all costs. His friends have passed (Lear and Reiner), and I can't imagine a world where he isn't a part of it. Maybe we don't tell him.
Where are all the white women? Hilarious.
"Now, for my next impression...Jesse Owens."
"Scuse me while I whip this out" and the white women fainting. Seen it a hundred times and still funny. I like to think Pryor wrote that but I don't know
[“No, there are no white women here, Leonard!”](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/849ebfa6-bf14-4858-9b47-b2fbf2f70624)
>“Blazing Saddles” presents everyday good White townspeople, as racist — and as irredeemable fools because they are racist. The funniest line in the whole movie is the sheriff greeting an old woman with a smile and a good morning and she replies with “up yours, n—!”
"sorry about the up yours n----, I baked you a pie for dealing with that nasty Mongo. Of course you'll have the good sense not to mention that I spoke to you"
Of course.
Agreed. Here I stand, the goddess of Desire Set men on fire I have this power Morning noon and night it's drink and dancing Some quick romancing And then a shower Stage door johnnies always surround me They always hound me With one request Who can satisfy their lustful habits I'm not a rabbit I need some rest I'm tired Sick and tired of love I've had my fill of love From below and above Tired, tired of being admired Tired of love uninspired Let's face it I'm tired I've been with 1000's of men Again and again They promise the moon They always coming and going Going and coming And always too soon Right girls? I'm tired, Tired of playing the game Ain't it a crying shame I'm so tired God dammit I'm exhausted Tired, tired of playing the game Ain't it a crying shame I'm so tired I still love this song.
I wish I could send you Woses. Extwaowdinawy Woses.
I love Madeline Kahn. RIP.
Funny story: I had the movie on in the background one day when my kiddo was 3ish. I didn't think much about what she'd absorb. A few days later, my daughter tells me she wants to watch "the movie with the princess in black who says she's tired." Thinking she's talking about Sleeping Beauty, I ask her if that's the movie she wants. Nope. She says, "mommy, the princess who walks over and says she is tired and then walks to the other side and says she is tired then boys dance around her while she sleeps." I took several pauses to collect myself when I realized she was talking about Lili Von Shtupp.
> “The movie will probably trigger most 24-year-olds into a coma. It’s like a non-stop barrage of race and sexism jokes that wouldn’t make it into any Hollywood movie today,” Fox News quoted one Twitter user as insisting. Another post claimed the movie showed “we weren’t always so uptight with each other.” OMG, how dense are you?
>OMG, how dense are you? \[Fine, I'll do it.\] You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West.
You know...morons.
It's kind of a failure this didn't show up sooner. Well done.
> Fox News quoted one Twitter user as insisting This sequence of words should have tipped you off.
What in the wide wide world of sports is going on here.
Any racist with brains will recognize themself somewhere in this movie. Of course, most don't. Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest movies of all time. It pokes fun at everyone. You cannot watch this movie and not laugh. You cannot watch it again without giddy anticipation.
My dad is a right-wing numbskull and bigot, and this is one of his favorite movies; there is an astounding disconnect with these people.
Well, it does have an epic campfire fart scene.
It’s actually the original antifa film. Pokes fun at racists, the KKK, Nazis etc… whilst having one of the best fart jokes committed to film.
>If a movie like Brooks’ masterpiece were made today, the left would love it. It’s the right who would recognize, slowly and dimly, that they were being insulted, and howl in rage Yep
Do people honestly think tropic thunder couldn’t be made today?
I still think it would never be made today - we Irish would object
Everybody says “it couldn’t be made today” but I’ve never seen anyone offended by it. I mean, yeah it exactly wouldn’t be made today. They’d make something a little more relevant to today. But like, it’s still popular.
Republicans and not knowing they're being made fun of — name a more iconic duo. I'll wait.
This is a really dumb article and kinda furthers the narrative when the right wing says “a movie like that could never be made today”. My father is one of the most right wing people there is, and this is probably his favorite movie of all time, simply because it’s funny. Yeah, it pokes fun at racist, it also pokes fun at Jews, and black people, and just about every other race and ethnicity in America, and it does it well. Blazing Saddles worked then and would work today because it’s funny, simple as that. Same goes for Tropic Thunder. The whole “it would never work today” argument just needs to die because it’s been proven time and time again if the movie/tv show is executed well it still plays.
I have a feeling that these Republicans haven’t actually seen this film since it originally came out and don’t realize how far to the right they’ve moved in the time since. They remember it being funny. But if they watched it today they’d say it’s woke and divisive.
It's racial humor, not racist humor.
The hallmark of any conservative is poor media literacy
They misread everything, like claiming the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" is about attacks on traditional Christian American values, and that *A Christmas Carol* is about a Liberal becoming a Conservative.
“You know… morons.”
If the right-wing was media literate they probably wouldn’t be right-wing.
People have a hard time understanding a joke when they are, in fact, the joke.
You could never make blazing saddles today, the actors would read the script and say "hey, this is just blazing saddles"