I see this a lot. Even Mel Brooks doesn\u2019t think it could be done today. I disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first, and most obvious, argument is that it has already been made. And brilliantly. But that argument says more about my feelings on remakes in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mamnin rgument is that the words used, the topics touched on, are untouchable now. It\u2019s the myth of \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d that is used to insinuate an offense that hasn\u2019t yet occurred. It\u2019s speculative outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that this movie can be seen, is still getting laughs, is proof enough. That it is being celebrated as an iconic film says there is still an audience. And that means it could be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the argument against that relies on taking specific elements out of their context in the film and holding them up as taboo. And yes, some of them are. When they are not in their context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If used artlessly, if used to provoke for the sake of provocation, offend for the sake of offending, then these things would be unacceptable. But that isn\u2019t the case here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end it is an outstanding parody of the Western genre, and a superb satire of racism. The racist townsfolk eventually weep at Bart\u2019s departure, and throughout the film Bart is the smartest person in every room. We are, in essence, seeing this culture through his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that, the film viewed as a whole, is a far cry from just being \u201cthey said \u2018nigger\u2019\u201d. If that were all it was, then the film shouldn\u2019t have been made in the first place, and if it had we wouldn\u2019t be talking about it now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Could Blazing Saddles be made in the 21st century?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-comedy","tag-comedy-theory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mkuhl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/55B78278-5254-409B-AE3E-7C4B216114EB.jpeg?fit=228%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":558,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/tony-hinchcliffe-cancel-culture-vs-comedy-cause-and-effect\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":0},"title":"Tony Hinchcliffe: Comedy Cause and Effect","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"May 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The recent video of a comic\u2019s opening remarks has quite a bit to say about comedy in general.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":407,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/blog\/chicago-as-a-pro-gun-argument-tool\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":1},"title":"Chicago as a \u201cpro gun\u201d argument tool","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"November 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I hate the use of Chicago as a talking point from people who have no idea what Chicago is.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/blog\/thoughts-on-a-low-point\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":2},"title":"Thoughts on a low point","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"May 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Wherein I attempt to explain the extreme lows.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":613,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/comedy-is-not-a-set-of-instructions\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":3},"title":"Comedy is not a set of instructions.","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"February 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Long ago I removed the word \u201csucks\u201d from my lexicon when it came to discussion of any art, but particularly comedy. I spent too long studying, writing, performing and teaching comedy to dismiss it that flippantly. The worst I\u2019ll say about a comic is I am not their audience. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/9-18-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":4},"title":"Comedy and \u201cBoundaries\u201d","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"September 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I have questions.","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/comedy\/on-right-wing-comedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":5},"title":"On \u201cright wing\u201d comedy.","author":"The Official Michael Kuhl","date":"February 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a question I am asked quite a bit. This is not a definitive answer, but I think it\u2019s a piece of the puzzle.","rel":"","context":"In "Comedy"","block_context":{"text":"Comedy","link":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/category\/comedy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mkuhl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}