Them Interwebs tubes are an amazing way to look up stuff:
I’m sure it happens, but it’s not a problem worth worrying about. A racist having to hide his views is a GOOD THING.
I think this is why brokeback mountain was so well received by republicans…
Tagart: I got it, we’ll kill each first born male child.
comic beat
Hedley: Too Jewish
Not racist, because centuries have passed? I guess.
I think it’s fairly clear that the movie taken as a whole is anti-racist, and it is anti-racist throughout rather than an hour and a half celebrating racism followed by a half-hour condemning it. If someone wants to be offended they can say “yes, but look at this one bit,” as one can for many works, but it requires ignoring the moral stance of the movie and how the audience is intended and expected to respond to that one scene, as in many works.
Considering that Mel Brooks (Jewish) and Richard Pryor (Black and one of the bluest comedians of his time) wrote it, I saw it as a send up of racism. Not a license to practice it, but seeing how ridiculous racism is. One could draw parallels between Sheriff Bart and President Obama.
The movie skewers racism that has been practiced in this country since its inception. But EVERY race/orientation is skewered. Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Methodists, Jews, Rednecks, White Supremacists, Homosexuals…that’s what makes it so funny.
..but, you are correct in that it could not be scripted today…well maybe Quentin Tarantino could…with Spike Lee, GLAAD, the NAACP, and the Tea Party condemning it.
Note: It’s playing on the big screen out here in May. And I will be lined up to see it…More beans, Mr. Taggart?
Some people simply wouldn’t get the jokes, which might contribute to them being thought of as racists.
I had to explain the following to some teenagers (who have no historical reference points because, well, they’re teenagers):
Lil Von Shtup (Shtup being Yiddish for “fornicate”) as a Marlene Dietrich parody.
“Excuse me while I whip this out” (Stereotypes and Porn Tropes)
“Laurel and Hardy handshake” (Comedic Pun)
Heddy Lamar..That’s Hedley Lamar! (WTF is Heddy Lamar?)
William J. Lepetomaine (Well known to Dopers, of course)
As an example:
What if President Obama, in response to John Boehner’s stonewalling over the budget had said, “You’d do it for George Bush”? And had his aides sing “George H.W. Bush” a beat behind it?
I think that most of the old farts in that room would have fell over laughing.
The younger ones would have scratched their heads…
It isn’t just anti-racism it is a parody of Western’s that pretty much up to that time white-washed (no pun intended) the racism of the period.
One of the fun facts, IIRC, is that the Jewish writers wrote the black jokes, and Pryor wrote a lot of the Jewish jokes. I’ll have to re-check the director’s commentary on the DVD to confirm.
The movie isn’t racist. Many of the characters are, and the joke is on them because Bart (and Jim, and later the townspeople) outsmart the racists. The bigots lose in every way. The gay jokes are a little different, by the way: there aren’t any jokes at the expense of Bart or the other black characters, but the gay characters are just stereotypes. In hindsight it’s uncomfortable. There are a lot of the same kinds of jokes in the movie-musical version of The Producers, and if you’ve seen that, maybe you know what I mean. It feels dated and not very funny, at least to me.
i.e. “Keyan Socialist”
If I remeber right, Pryor also gave us Mongo!
I wonder which of the writers was the conga fan. Probably Pryor as well.
Who came up with the idea to have the Indians speak Yiddish?
The Mormon.
Mongo straight!
Mongo only pawn in game of Life.
I think thos line Taggart (Slim Pickens) line would be more problematic than the N. Word if this film were to be released to today… " they were dancing around like a bunch of Kansas City Faggots…"
Not sure that line was written in the same spirit as the other lines. Also, wasn’t there another Gay pejorative said by the Dom DeLuise character at the end?
Amazing to me this film was made in the same year as* Young Frankenstein.* That’s 2 big league projects in a single calendar year.
Fun fact… there are Nazi’s in every Mel Brooks movie made.
Anyone here speak…Gibberish?
“Sounds like steam escaping”
[keeping tempo with foot] “And..Watch…Me…Faggots!”
He also called them “Sissy Marys”.
Really? I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve watched them but I don’t remember any Nazi’s in The Twelve Chairs, High Anxiety, Life Stinks, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, or Dracula: Dead and Loving It.