# Things that seemed funny at the time but you couldn't get away with them now **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [September 25, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472 "2020-09-25T04:50:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/181 "2021-01-23T01:03:42Z")
Thanks to a rabbit hole I don’t recall, I ended up watching _Meatballs_ last night. I know I saw parts of it as a child back when they played post-theatrical run movies on The Big Three networks, but I don’t remember if I ever saw the full thing before. There is a certain “funny” scene in there that completely made me cringe because it was pretty much a lengthy portrayal of attempted rape. (Also a counciler spending a large amount of time alone with one child would get the side-eye today.) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/182 "2021-01-23T03:19:36Z")
https://www.youtube.com/embed/2HlK96kSNt0?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=FLsSwBkYYotulQG9NyustQFg Stone Cold Dead in the Market by the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. Its a light-hearted tale of a woman who kills her abusive husband set to a breezy hipswaying Jamaican rhythm from 1946. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/183 "2021-01-23T03:41:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > (Also a counciler spending a large amount of time alone with one child would get the side-eye today.) According to the “Protection of the Innocent” training I just went through, they would get fired. I got the same training as a Sunday School teacher. You NEVER spend time with a kid one-on-one. It makes heart-to-heart talks harder, but it’s safer to ask another leader to join you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/184 "2021-01-23T14:39:35Z")
I dunno; that’s the same subject matter as “Goodbye Earl”, which wasn’t all that long ago. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/185 "2021-01-23T14:47:59Z")
Maybe Im wrong but I found the tone more shocking than the content. Its basically a light-hearted fun song about spousal abuse and murder. As dark satire this could be an excellent take. But it seems to be played as a dance song. It now its made its way onto the Mafia 2 soundtrack and onto a Fallout 4 radio mod. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/186 "2021-01-23T15:34:26Z")
Three movies that were favorites of mine when I was a teen in the 80’s have content that wouldn’t fly today. In _Sixteen Candles_, Samantha’s (Molly Ringwald’s) grandmother feels up her boobs while saying “they’re so perky!” Farmer Ted shows her underwear to a group of ogling nerds. There’s a scene that broadly hints at FT having non-consensual sex with a passed-out drunk girl. And let’s not even begin to deconstruct Long Duk Dong. In _The Breakfast Club_, Bender catches a peek at Claire’s undies and shoves his head towards her vag; borderline sexual assault. And in _Revenge of the Nerds_, there’s an actual, unambiguous act of sexual assault that’s played for laughs; there’s a hidden camera via which men ogle nude women without their consent. And, again, with the gross Asian (and gay, and Black) stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/187 "2021-01-23T16:36:01Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Nobody could possibly make this scene from _Bugsy Malone (1976)_ today. > > In case you don’t know it, it’s a prohibition-era gangster movie made entirely with child actors. Along the same lines– If you REALLY want to shock somebody these days, show them pretty much any of the child actor skits that Shirley Temple starred in. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/188 "2021-01-23T17:37:58Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Isn’t there a rape in one of the Lethal Weapons? > Seem to recall the younger guy tied to a chair and the villians girlfriend rapes him with a comment along the lines of most wouldn’t be able to get it up? There was a similar scene in 1990s _The Rookie_ but I can’t remember if it was Clint Eastwood or Charlie Sheen’s character who was in the chair. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/189 "2021-01-23T17:50:09Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > > [@bengangmo](#): > > > > Isn’t there a rape in one of the Lethal Weapons? > > Seem to recall the younger guy tied to a chair and the villians girlfriend rapes him with a comment along the lines of most wouldn’t be able to get it up? > > There was a similar scene in 1990s _The Rookie_ but I can’t remember if it was Clint Eastwood or Charlie Sheen’s character who was in the chair.. There’s a scene in _Swordfish_ in which Hugh Jackman’s character’s hacking skills are tested by John Travolta by forcing him to crack a DoD site on a laptop while he is receiving a blowjob with a gun to his head. Not exactly consensual sex. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/190 "2021-01-23T18:28:31Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Nobody could possibly make this scene from _Bugsy Malone (1976)_ today. Huh. I would have expected [this](https://youtube.com/watch?v=v2uQQ9mMnOI) scene to be the one you would link. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/191 "2021-01-23T18:47:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Huh. I would have expected [this](https://youtube.com/watch?v=v2uQQ9mMnOI) scene to be the one you would link.  They both have a lot of sexual innuendo, but the _Speakeasy_ scene is more general. The _Tallulah_ number is explicitly about a prostitute. Whatever your views about child actors, there are a lot of good songs in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/192 "2021-01-23T19:57:27Z")
A couple more: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgJLCigvjCs) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SWSsWpqVJlI/hqdefault.jpg "Bugsy Malone Soundtrack - 04 Bad Guys") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSsWpqVJlI) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/193 "2021-02-04T08:00:17Z")
Has no one mentioned _Blazing Saddles_ yet, or did I just miss it? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/194 "2021-02-04T09:44:14Z")
actually, there was a john Lithgow/Denzel Washington movie called ricochet where Denzel makes a career out of the silly way he arrests Lithgow’s serial killer because it was caught on tv > **[Ricochet (disambiguation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet_(film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > A ricochet is a rebound, bounce or skip off a surface. > Ricochet may also refer to: Lithgow escapes from prison and spends the rest of the movie enacting elaborate revenge schemes and one of them was to drug Denzel’s character tie him to a chair and hireS a hooker to bounce on him while Lithgow tapes it the “most guys” comment was because Denzel was so drugged up he was basically unconscious … come to find out the call girl also had an unidentified std which he caught … which leads to an amusing scene with his wife who has no idea what’s going on ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/195 "2021-02-06T03:12:57Z")
In 1984’s Johnny Dangerously, Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo) is displaying his new .88 Magnum revolver: “It shoots through schools.” ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/196 "2021-02-06T22:09:39Z")
It looks like no one had mentioned it before yourself. It’s on TCM tonight, unedited! I don’t know when you could really get away with most of that movie, with some audiences. I was assistant manager of a video store in the mid 90s. Another assistant manager decided it would be a good idea to put _Blazing Saddles_ on one Thursday night (our busiest night). Did I mention this was in a part of Dallas that had primarily people of color as the clientele? No amount of my saying “Well, Richard Pryor co-wrote that movie” on Friday was going to save his job. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/197 "2021-02-06T22:20:38Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > > I don’t know which side of the line Robert Downey’s performance in Tropic Thunder goes. > > He was very clearly playing a character who wore blackface, and the movie specifically condemns and mocks the practice. That’s why he’s never faced any significant blowback for it, he wasn’t using blackface to play the part of a black guy or to mock a black person or black people in general, he was mocking the practice itself (and acting as the butt of the jokes and criticism). Also the character playing the dude in blackface was playing the character earnestly, oblivious to how offensive it was to those around him. It was actually the portrayal of “full retard” Simple Jack that kind of got Tropic Thunder in trouble. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > His ice cream bit would now be contentious. So would looking mighty fine in jeans and Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood . A gifted comedian. Eddie Murphy reprised his Mister Robinson role relatively recently when he was the host on SNL. Also, no one ever seems to remember the brief scene in Trading Places where Dan Aykroyd appears in blackface. Also “contentious” doesn’t mean “couldn’t get away with it”. A lot of comedy has always been “contentious”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/198 "2021-02-06T22:46:18Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Also, no one ever seems to remember the brief scene in Trading Places where Dan Aykroyd appears in blackface. I think following it up with Implied Gorilla Anal Sex kind of made everyone forget the earlier scene. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/199 "2021-02-07T01:44:53Z")
Sure. Let’s put it this way. Not every comedian could get away with what Eddie Murphy can get away with. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472/200 "2021-02-07T02:45:09Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Another assistant manager decided it would be a good idea to put _Blazing Saddles_ on one Thursday night (our busiest night). Did I mention this was in a part of Dallas that had primarily people of color as the clientele? What, specifically, got him into trouble? The whole film is a criticism of racial prejudice. I’m not seeing why people of color would object. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-seemed-funny-at-the-time-but-you-couldnt-get-away-with-them-now/921472.md?page=11)