We all love “Blazing Saddles,” a groundbreaking 1974 comedy from director Mel Brooks that featured a black sheriff in a racist town and had an abundance of politically incorrect, racially-driven jokes.
I was, sadly, inevitably, waiting for this day to arrive, but Brooks’ satirical masterpiece, one of the great comedies of the 20th century, has now been stamped with a trigger warning (via Christian Toto).
HBO Max, the streaming platform that canceled “Gone With The Wind,” is at it again — they just slapped “Blazing Saddles” with a nauseating pre-film PSA. If you want to watch “Blazing Saddles,” you will have to watch an introduction by TCM’s Jacqueline Stewart, who is the channel’s expert on film preservation and “representation.” Here’s part of her speech to the viewer:
You’re about to watch a movie from 1974 that many consider one of the greatest comedies of all time […] As the storyline implies, the issue of race is front and center in ‘Blazing Saddles’ … and racist language and attitudes pervade the film. But those attitudes are espoused by characters who are explicitly portrayed here as narrow-minded, ignorant bigots. The film’s real and much more enlightened perspective is represented by the two main characters played by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder.
It comes out as a lecture because, as Christian Toto says, “you’re too stupid to process satire in its highest forms”. You basically need to be talked down to. It’s an insult to the intelligence of Max viewers.
Twitter user @HeadyRemarks was one of the first people to sound the alarm on Max’s “Blazing Saddles” warning. Her tweet has garnered almost half a million views so far.
I'm watching Blazing Saddles for the first time and this lady comes on before the movie to tell me the entire plot of the movie and how it ends while warning me about the racist language and how provocative it is
In 2017, Brooks spoke with BBC Radio 4 this week and mentiond how PC culture was going to be “the death of comedy” and that "Blazing Saddles" would never be greenlit in today's current political climate.
“I mean maybe ‘Young Frankenstein.’ Maybe a few. But never ‘Blazing Saddles,’ because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy,” he said when asked if he thinks he could get films like “Blazing Saddles,” “The Producers,” or “Young Frankenstein” made today. “It’s okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it’s not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering into the king’s ear, always telling the truth about human behavior.”
He’s right. Comedy pushes boundaries until that very fine line of what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable is somewhat squeezed to its very limit. That, to me, is what the very best of comedy can do. “Tropic Thunder” did that. Mel Brooks did it, numerous times, in the ‘70s — especially with his comedic masterpiece, “Blazing Saddles.”
Yes, "Blazing Saddles" includes excessive usage of racial slurs, which would render it impossible to be made in today's timid landscape, even though it’s very clearly presented as satirical in the film. Just imagine someone today actually making a comedy about a bunch of white people saying the N-word?
What makes ‘Saddles’ so special, hilarious and all-around great is that it mocks bigotry in American history, and with such brilliant simplicity. It's a satire of the Western genre's racist tropes, and even the white guy (Gene Wilder) knows how stupid the other white people are acting.