There are also casual racist jokes through the whole thing. Lynching jokes. Jokes about prostitution. As George Carlin said he can PROVE rape is funny. “Imagine Porky Pig…raping Elmer Fudd.”
Humor is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
My eldest understands racism so little that I would have to spend half of the film explaining “why <scene>, <line> is so funny.” “Why wouldn’t they want to let a black man be Sheriff? What about Doug Wilder…he was Governor and now he’s MAYOR.”
There was a filmed version of The Fantasticks which was made in 1995 but had only a very limited theatrical release in 2000. “It Depends On What You Pay” (the “rape song”) was filmed but then replaced with a new song written for the movie. It is, however, included as an extra on the DVD. I agree that the original song is vital to the story as written, although this may be due in part to the fact that it was one of my late wife’s favorite songs in the show; she would occasionally sing lines from it for no apparent reason.
Zero Mostel: Next time we’ll play The Rape and Abduction of Lucretia.
Old Lady: I’ll be Lucretia.
Zero Mostel: I’ll be rape!
Just the way he says that makes me laugh.
I don’t think the jokes themselves are racist: the joke is in gleefully poking fun at the racists: “Camp-town Lay-dees?”. Bart, The Kid, and the black and Chinese railroad workers - OK, and Mongo, who’s too simple to be racist - are the only admirable characters in the film. All the rest are the common clay of the Old West. You know, morons.
“Is it twue what they say about men of youw…wace? … Oh, it’s twue! It’s TWUE!”
Voila. Racist joke. Not ANTI-black, but still a racist joke.
To be fair, it was originally his elbow she was sucking on {see earlier posts}, which was making fun of the hung black stud stereotype. See also:
“They told me you was hung!”
“And they was right.”
If we are going to call “racism.” at least get the line right.
“Excuse me, Schatze…is it true what they say about how you people are…gifted?”
“Excuse me, while I whip this out.”