I don’t see why Airplane! and Blazing Saddles couldn’t be made now. Blazing Saddles was not a family movie and wouldn’t be considered one now. Airplane! was a family movie and extremely tame. These days there will be a chorus from protesters arguing that the use of certain words and jokes are beyond the pale but then be ignored by all the people who have laughed their asses off when they watched the movie.
Hey, 49% of Republicans didn’t say they believed the blood-drinking part, just that “top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings". Nothing insane about that, right?
Please tell me that’s actually an Onion story.
Bizarrely, the poll found that about 1 in 8 people who identified as Democrats, voted for Biden and/or considered themselves very liberal, believe the same thing.
“Uh, no, I don’t support that part of the platform, but they’re OK on other issues.”
One hopes a lot of people lie to pollsters these days, but one may well be disappointed.
Carol, you are certainly not one of the Good 'Ol Boys who bitch about “cancel culture”.
And I agree with you on believing that many scenes of both those movies are cringe-worthy now, but to say that no one can make a movie with cringey or “problematic” scenes today… do we really know that? I think we assume that if there were an outcry, that would shut down production… but I don’t think we’ve become that uptight.
I believe that if a tasteless Airplane! remake (“Space-EX!” or “Jeffy’s Penis Rocket!”) came out tomorrow, with the line “Ever seen a grown man naked?” (or my favorite “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”) that some people would indeed speak out against it.
Which would be invaluable publicity for the movie.
I’m sure you can. It’s easy for people with a persecution complex to imagine all sorts of scenarios where they’re a martyr.
I 100% agree with @digs’s post above. But @Chingon, it’s weird that you’d think I have a “persecution complex.” Dunno what gave you that idea. I’m merely observing.
But I’ll opine a little. I’m a big free speech advocate. With the exception of speech that incites hatred or violence, I am strongly in favor of letting people say whatever the hell they want.
I feel like “cancel culture” is also part of that free speech. You think something is downright appalling, or just insufficiently woke, and you want to protest by encouraging people to not watch/not buy/write the show’s producers/whatever? Hey, that’s an excellent use of your free speech. Go for it.
Airplane! and Blazing Saddles wouldn’t be made the same way today because they derive so much of their comedy from subverting their audiences’ expectations, and today’s audiences have different expectations (partly because of having seen those very films and many others released between then and now).
But people are still making comedies that are shocking or edgy or subversive.
No it is not about that. It is about a girl growing up and choosing between commerce (which she had been taught) and love (which she learned by herself). The fact that she was willing to be that particular man’s mistress was not for the loot but because she loved him. Then he found himself disgusted by what she had apparently become, because he loved her too much to treat her as he generally treated his mistresses.
It is not a particularly easy story because it is set in a time, a place, and a morality so different from our own. But it is not an immoral story by any standard (setting aside the very experienced great-aunt who tried to teach Gigi how to get the best price for all her assets, and who failed).
Certainly the world is very different from the times the movies were originally made and the movies would need to be completely rewritten within the context of the modern world or have never existed in the first place. In the latter case the world be very different now from the way it is, and that logical incoherence is a good reason to follow the former option.
I’m just saying there is no gag or bit or scene from the originals that would have to be censored as socially unallowable or for financial and/or marketing reasons.
I remember during my childhood (1950’s) hearing my grandfather calling them by the “other name” several times.
Here’s one that wouldn’t fly today. Anybody who even attempted to air something like this would be crucified for “being misogynistic” or some such idiocy.
Pepé Le Pew
That’s pretty tame for Married…with Children. The show runs repeatedly on LOGO, the LBGTQ+ inspired channel. I’m sure they air that episode.
You say that as if people weren’t saying it about Married With Children while it was on the air.
And the male dialogue.
I do admire your positive attitude.
I keep getting confused thinking ya’ll are talking about “Gigli.” And I did have a teacher who used a breadboard on “bad” students quite frequently. This was in 1982.
Didn’t fly then, still won’t.
Two from the UK.
Banzai! - a spoof Japanese gambling show with caricaturish Japanese presenters. Awful racial stereotypes, really, but passed off as a bit of fun at the time (and it could be extraordinarily funny; different times, y’know?).
Minipops - where to start?
Though the series was a success for Channel 4 (gaining 2,000,000 viewers), little thought was given to the ethics of child performers singing songs originally written for older artists and dressing and dancing in a provocative style (often influenced by the original performance). Whilst embraced by children who loved the idea of ordinary children singing and dancing (as they did) along with their favourite songs, the show sat uneasily with some adults; this was capped by a performance from Joanna Fisher, who covered the Sheena Easton song “9 to 5” in nightclothes and included the lyrics “night time is the right time, we make love”.
To be fair, the show received quite a kicking at the time. This from The Observer:
Is it merely priggish to feel queasy at the sight of primary school minxes with rouged cheeks, eye make-up and full-gloss lipstick belting out songs like torch singers and waggling those places where they will eventually have places? The final act of last week’s show featured a chubby blonde totlette, thigh-high to a paedophile, in a ra-ra skirt and high heels; her black knickers were extensively flashed as she bounced around singing the words ‘See that guy all dressed in green/He’s not a man, he’s a loving machine.’ Kiddie porn, a shop-window full of junior jailbait? And does the show thrust premature sexual awareness onto its wide-eyed performers?
You can find clips of both online, but I’m not going to link to them. There is also a sort of mini documentary on Minipops (a couple of minutes long) which explains what happened at the time (but which does contain clips from the show) that it might be helpful to link to - if a passing Mod reads this I’d be happy to take guidance as to whether making the link is a good idea.
j
Banzai! Ran for a little while in the USA on Fox. I don’t remember any outrage. It just didn’t get good ratings.
Like I said, different times.
j
Thereby , by the rule of “Whatever the GOP is accusing the Dems are doing, they are actually doing themselves”…
