HBO MAX is a mixed bag right now. Unfortunately, they’re choosing to self-censor the problematic television episodes in their catalog, including eps of South Park, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and of all things, The Boondocks. (If Aaron McGruder can’t be provocative about race, then someone at corporate has lost the plot.) But I really like what they’re doing with their potentially offensive classic film collection. I think the shaming they received for Gone With The WInd may actually end up making these difficult films more satisfying.
I was browsing their library this weekend, and decided to rewatch Blazing Saddles for probably the twentieth time in my life. Despite being nominated for a few Academy Awards in 1974 and being on many lists of the best films of the 20th century, most of you haven’t seen or even heard of it at this point.
And if you watch it completely cold in 2020, man, it’ll be a comedic throat-punch to your sensibilities. The n-word is flying within the the first five minutes, along with similar epithets for Chinese people and gay folks. There are multiple, laughing references to rape. The movie’s even sacrilegious on occasion. And vulgar? BS features the definitive cinematic fart joke.
But HBO doesn’t force you to watch it cold; in fact, they force you to go the other direction. They’ve inserted a three minute explainer at the beginning of the film, where host Jacqueline Stewart walks you through the cultural context, and points out useful info, like how all of the (knowingly) offensive jokes are put in the mouths of either irredeemable villains or the moronic townspeople who must be saved from their own stupidity by the kind, clever heroes, played by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Rather than a lame attempt at appeasing modern audiences, it’s informative and interesting and makes the movie better.
If this is an example of our woke, canceled future, then I’m okay with it.
With that said, it’s worth noting what the explainer doesn’t mention: Blazing Saddles’ racist jokes are far more carefully, thoughtfully written and distributed —thanks to co-writer Richard Pryor— than the sexist ones. And to be honest, the gay jokes are just… gay jokes, on the order of “look at the prancing chorus guys holding hands while synchronized swimming, har har har!” It ain’t perfect.
Oh, and just for @domestic–doll, I’ll leave this clip right here: