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A film like Blazing Saddles could never be made today
- Thread starter Dalek
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notworksafe
Member
Blazing Saddles is a big budget comedy with well known actors that made satrical racial humor as one of its main tentpoles.
I don't see how indie flicks that no one ever heard of or dramas are comparable.
Poodlestrike
Banned
This is actually my thought. Yeah, there's a few things that would rile Tumblr up pretty good, but by and large it's the racist villains who get the short straw over and over and over. My money's on the huge majority of the hypothetical moral outrage coming from the right, not the left.
Orbis Tabula
Member
The only way to win this argument is to go out and remake Blazing Saddles yourself. But something tells me this crowd would be just as upset about a Blazing Saddles remake.
indies are really the only movies these days that get to have a strong creative voice completely in charge the way brooks was back in the 70s, but that's because the business model and economics have changed and not because of the PC brigade
ThreePiMatt
Member
This joke doesn't get made in 2015. Not a chance.
seriously, what the fuck is going on in this thread.
Good grief-I should have just stated-"I would find it hard to believe that Blazing Saddles could be made by a major studio today." I expected a conversation about the film, but the wording of my post.
entremet
Member
Yeah. Studios are also more conservative and less risk taking.
That's the same thing. Do you have any example of any film or project ever quashed over Fear of the SJW Spectre? Ultron caught some "backlash", fine, but it's still making money hands over fist. Why would anyone be afraid of "PC police" or whatever?
I think comedy movies in general kinda suck today. The very odd one is funny but they're so thrown in with terrible side plots and have terrible humour.
I don't know but my two favourite comedies that still make me laugh through multiple re-watches (Airplane/The Holy Grail). I still laugh when I see the scene with the bell ringing as the sheriff comes to town.
But I mean was airplane/Holy Grail offense? I don't remember them focusing on race jokes or really any disgusting humour jokes either which I feel a lot of comedies today try to focus on.
Any pure comedies that aren't completely over the top and point out each joke? I feel like most comedies basically today tell a joke and pause pointing to the joke.
I don't know but my two favourite comedies that still make me laugh through multiple re-watches (Airplane/The Holy Grail). I still laugh when I see the scene with the bell ringing as the sheriff comes to town.
But I mean was airplane/Holy Grail offense? I don't remember them focusing on race jokes or really any disgusting humour jokes either which I feel a lot of comedies today try to focus on.
Any pure comedies that aren't completely over the top and point out each joke? I feel like most comedies basically today tell a joke and pause pointing to the joke.
~Devil Trigger~
In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
"A fat woman wobbled into the shoe store today......"
'Married With Children' too
'Married With Children' too
Get Hard, did.
Which is also a "big budget comedy with well known actors that made satrical racial humor as one of its main tentpoles".
But I bet It doesnt count for some reason.
Bluekaveli
Member
A movie from the 90s couldn't even be made today. I'll even say a movie from 2005 can't either.
No. The show's obvious target was the Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder. That backlash is still the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life. Just staggeringly, shockingly dumb.
As for Blazing Saddles? Yea I believe it could be made today.
Extra Sauce
Member
Is there any recent mainstream movie that uses the word "faggot" for humor? That's not a rhetorical question, I'm genuinely wondering.
notworksafe
Member
Get Hard, did.
Which is also a "big budget comedy with well known actors that made satrical racial humor as one of its main tentpoles". But I doubt it counts
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/get_hard/
Yep, all that racial humor really going over well nowadays.
CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls
Banned
The TV edit is so awful. When the movie's humor is built on the ridiculousness of racism as normal conversation, and all of that is censored, it hollows a great comedy film.
NoblesseOblige
Banned
Is Blazing Saddles even considered big budget? It was 2.7 million. Godfather was 6 million. Jaws was 9 million. Superman just a few years later was 55 million. When adjusted for inflation Blazing Saddles is not even close to modern big budget films.
Edit: Even Young Frankenstein had a bigger budget than Blazing Saddles at 2.8 million, and was released the same year. I fail to consider BS to be big budget. More like average budget.
isn't that just a shitty movie though?
so we have to come up with a big budget movie made by a large studio starring multiple major stars that uses racial humor prominently and is an all-time classic in terms of quality
forget recent history, i can't come up with any movie besides blazing saddles that's done this
entremet
Member
Wow. Superman was expensive!
notworksafe
Member
But I thought it wasn't about profit, it was about reception. Which is it again?
No. Get Hard 100% counts as a good comparison. The reception and review quotes I just posted show how racial humor is not seen the same way as it was in 1974...and it also proves the OPs point.
Arthr2ShdsJcksn
Banned
Not a movie, but Louie C.K. used it, along with a few other 'offensive terms' in the same bit, and it was hilarious. Now it was hilarious because it was a deconstruction of how we use loaded language and racial terms:
The N-Word:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ezVpT8Zew
FriendlyGoat
Member
If only those reviews would tell us WHY the racial humor didn't work in this film.
Oh wait, they do. I promise, if Blazing Saddles was "poorly executed", made up of purely "lazy stereotypes", had "insincere acceptance" of marginalized characters, was "out of touch with society", and had "sleazy objectification" it would have been shat on in 1974 as well as today.
But somehow, despite ALL of this, Get Hard was made.
Mineshaft_Gap
4077th
Clevon Little was absolutely amazing in this. Like a live action Bugs Bunny. Blazing Saddles is a treasure of American social commentary and film making.
Captain Chaos
Member
I see a lot more contentious content in Family Guy then Blazing Saddles - even if Family Guy is seen as being ironic.
It blows my mind that he didn't have a bigger career after this. The man is one of the naturally funniest people I've ever seen on film. Pairing him with Gene Wilder is lightning in a bottle.
I would argue Inglourious Basterds hits all of those points.
did you see get hard? was it good? i haven't been interested in will ferrell movies for a while so that plus the universal panning it got from critics put me off
would you say it's as funny as blazing saddles?
sorry, it has to be a comedy to count. forgot that we have to limit it as much as possible.
notworksafe
Member
I honestly didn't know it existed. Even though it has a bad rating I think I'll see if it's playing somewhere this weekend, I enjoy both Ferrell and Hart.
How does it prove the OPs point? Get Hard wasn't received well because the jokes are *bad*, not just because they touch on charged topics. Meanwhile, it made back its budget more than double. So the poor reception 1) isn't just that the humor was racial 2) won't give a studio exec a second's pause when she goes to greenlight another racial humor movie.
"People arguing over minutia" is not why you caught flak. You caught flak because you didn't back up your claim at all. That's not minutia, that's the whole thing.
And there we have it.
Well. The point its that a movie of this nature cant be game.
Then the point changed to movies that satirize racists.
Then it changed again to movies that satirize racists that have a big budget.
Then it changed to movires that satirize racists that have a big budget and have no negative reception.
I pointed out movies that fullfills this ever-expanding conditions, even one that made a profit in 2015, indicating that 1.It can be made. 2. There is a very profitable market for it.
I could point out Tropic Thunder again, but im sure another arbitrary rule will appear, like it wasnt released during a full moon.
Like. Your edit to the OP is just equivocating.
Why do you find it hard to believe that Blazing Saddles could be made by a major studio today? You agreed with a dude rephrasing you into believing that the humor would outrage people into boycotting the movie... What recent movie has had any kind of consequential organized boycott?
And then most people wouldn't see any of this bickering and would just go watch it because cowboys are cool.
Why do you find it hard to believe that Blazing Saddles could be made by a major studio today? You agreed with a dude rephrasing you into believing that the humor would outrage people into boycotting the movie... What recent movie has had any kind of consequential organized boycott?
And then most people wouldn't see any of this bickering and would just go watch it because cowboys are cool.
Get hard got made and distributed. It also made more than 100m dollars in the BO.
So if it counts as 100% good comparison, the OP point is invalid.
If you want to move the goalposts to "people complained", fine by me, but I will bet people complained about Blazing Saddles too.
I am more cautious about Get Hard. Dunno if it really has the same kind of humor than BS.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
I don't doubt that a film like this could be made, I simply doubt how genuinely funny it would be. I saw Pitch Perfect 2 and all of the racism jokes were cringeworthy, not laugh out loud funny.
Broad City, 30 Rock, South Park, all have handled racial comedy well in my opinion.
Broad City, 30 Rock, South Park, all have handled racial comedy well in my opinion.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Yup. I doubt this hypothesis.
The reality is that plenty of retrograde politically incorrect stuff sees the light of day--I mean, the ongoing career of Adam Sandler for a start. The rarity is quality material in that vein getting made IMO.
They can't blow up that old bridge in Key West twice,
And PC culture aged Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis
That's the distinction. Comedy about racial topics is fantastic when it's done well, but it requires that the creators understand race, an extremely touchy and complex topic.
Blazing Saddles is a classic because it is fucking hilarious. The fact that it skewers racism and racial sterotypes so well is just another mark in its favor.
Mineshaft_Gap
4077th
Clevon Little should have won an oscar. Madeline Kahns nomination was deserved, but Clevon Little just nailed that part. One of the most lovable characters in the history of movies, Gene Wilder too. It's a wonderful, wonderful movie.
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