First, They Came for Mark Twain. Now, They’re Coming for Mel Brooks
By Rick Moran
Forty-five years ago, Mel Brooks made what many critics agree is the single, funniest film in Hollywood history. Blazing Saddles is not only an iconic comedy, but its social message about racism is also among the finest examples of using satire to make a serious point that you could find.
Now, four decades after it was released, the film has come under fire by social justice warriors because of its portrayal of white racism as comedy. Indeed, it’s hysterically funny.
This film concerns a black man (Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart) who overcomes the severe, nearly fatal racial bigotry of a rustic town full of white people, mainly named Johnson.
The only way to present the adversity over which he triumphs is to present the adversity over which he triumphs. This involves the citizens of Rock Ridge very liberally hurling the N-bomb and other ethnic slurs.
“Good morning, Ma’am,” Sheriff Bart says to a sweet-looking, bonnet-wearing elderly woman (Jessamine Milner). “And isn’t it a lovely morning?”
“Up yours, n—-r!” she replies.
The sheriff’s pain is palpable. And the audience feels it, right in their guts.
There is dialogue like this sprinkled throughout the film, including one drop-dead funny scene where a railroad foreman tries to motivate his black workers.
The liberal use of the N-word and the racist cultural references were meant to be instructive and make the audience think — as was the film’s frequent satirical take on Nazis.
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