Comedians defend the 'absurdity' of edgy, beloved classics like 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Airplane!' and more

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Comedian defends 'Blazing Saddles': Humor in film supposed to be 'as absurd as possible'

Comedian Karith Foster defends the "absurd" humor in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles," which has been up for debate in the midst of cancel culture.

The common joke goes, "Blazing Saddles has been edited for TV. It will air from 8:00-8:07."

The wild 1970s western from Mel Brooks has sparked social media debate in recent years over whether it could survive today's cancel culture. The film is rife with jokes about racism and sexism, but fans of the film say that's the point. It's one of several old, beloved movies that critics muse could never be produced among current sensitivities. 

Blazing Saddles 

In recent debates, fans of "Blazing Saddles" argue that the film's original intentions are misconstrued and, in turn, trigger today's young audiences. The plot centers, in part, on the outrage that ensues over a young Black man being appointed as the sheriff of a racist town. It is full of racial epithets, mocks sexual harassment in the workplace, and much, much more.

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Comedian Karith Foster defended Brooks' vision for "Blazing Saddles" and argued that its "absurdity" is its charm. 

"Blazing Saddles… is a classic film," Foster told Fox News Digital. "Here you have this old, Jewish guy, who kind of came up through the Borscht Belt, who understood the power of hyperbole, of irony, of sarcasm. I think there’s a reason why most of the most prolific artists and comedians are Jewish and Black. They are people who come from some pain. And he is a genius at understanding the absurdity of things. Which is what a lot of comedy does - it points out the absurdity of things like racism, and sexism, and homophobia."

One sheet movie poster advertises the Mel Brooks comedy western 'Blazing Saddles' (Warner Bros), starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Corman, Madeline Kahn, and Dom Deluise, 1974. (Photo by John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/Getty Images) (Photo by John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/Getty Images)

"It almost feels like the whole point of it is to be as absurd as possible," she said. "To point out just how completely wrong those things are, and ignorant they are, and it’s a mocking of those things. But in today’s age and time, people think, ‘Well you’re just laughing at that. You’re making fun of the people who fall into these categories.' And it’s a hard left from where I think Mel’s intentions were, for sure, and certainly the way people thought back 40, 50 years ago. And so it’s just unfortunate that it can’t be seen for what it was intended to be." 

"Blazing Saddles tells so many ethnic jokes that whoever pitched it would be tried with a hate crime and anyone who ever liked one of their tweets would be surveiled by the Biden administration," stand-up comedian and "Fox Across America" host Jimmy Failla told Fox Digital. "Not to mention that the plot revolves around a black Sheriff which is also a problem because half of Hollywood wants to defund the police."

Whoopi Goldberg became one of the most surprising figures to go to bat for "Blazing Saddles" during a Hot Topics discussion on "The View" earlier this month. 

"'Blazing Saddles,' because it’s a great comedy, would still go over today," the Oscar-winning actress said. "There are a lot of comedies that are not good, OK? We’re just going to say that. That’s not one of them. ‘Blazing Saddles’ is one of the greatest because it hits everybody."

"We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy," Mel Brooks himself said of cancel culture.

Airplane! 

"Airplane!," a 1980 parody that makes a mockery of airline disaster films, is considered one of the funniest comedies of all time. But some of its humor may be jarring for today's moviegoers. In one of the most famous scenes, for instance, Leslie Nielsen's character Dr. Rumack hits and shakes a hysterical woman during the flight. Like "Blazing Saddles," it also has its fill of stereotype jokes.

"'Airplane!' is hysterical," Foster said, laughing.

"That’s what comedy’s supposed to do," she said. "Find the line, and like, push it, or cross over it just a little bit… It’s certain subject matters that people are very hypersensitive to. There were so many scenes that… they were cringeworthy back then but cringeworthy in a, ‘Look how completely inappropriate this is,’ that it would never be accepted in normal society. It wasn’t about normalizing it. Again, it was about pointing out the absurdity of stuff that people with common sense, people in their right minds, understood is a no-go."

"It was so out of the realm of what should be done in reality, that that’s why it was funny," Foster concluded. 

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This 1988 publicity file photo provided by Paramount Pictures shows actor Leslie Nielsen, center top, with actress Jeannette Charles,  portraying the Queen of England, in a scene from "The Naked Gun." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Elliott Marks) (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Elliott Marks, File)

Grease

"Grease," the 1978 classic starring a leather jacket wearing John Travolta as Danny Zuko and the late Olivia Newton-John as the innocent Sandy Olsson. The film is still considered a classic and has one of the catchiest soundtracks of all time. In later years, however, some critics have ripped the film for having themes of toxic masculinity, slut-shaming, a dearth of diversity, and heteronormativity.

But the Daily Mail's Sarah Vine said that's the point. 

"Love, heartbreak, peer-pressure, regret, insecurity, fear of failure, of being judged: these are all emotions today's teenagers feel, just as we did," Vine wrote of the film in August. "They are lessons every generation has to learn, mistakes that need to be made in order to be properly understood."

Still, students at Presbyterian Ladies' College and Scotch College in Perth, Western Australia, decided against performing a musical version of the film, declaring the movie to be anti-feminist.

"A number of PLC students raised concerns whether the musical was appropriate in modern times. Scotch College listened respectfully to the girls’ concerns and both schools agreed a different musical would be better suited for their joint production in 2022," a statement from the school read.

"If Danny had been cancelled in the first scene for his (admittedly lascivious) hip movements, he would never have made the journey from greaseball to adoring boyfriend; and if Sandy had remained as prim and proper as she was at the start, she might never have discovered her power as a woman," Foster said. "That's what cancel culture fails to understand: it's the mistakes and idiotic things we say and do that turn us into better people. It's the grit in the oyster that makes the pearl. Without that, you risk just being another mollusc on the seabed of life."

Newton-John herself hit the brakes on the criticism of the movie, saying people need "relax a little bit and just enjoy things for what they are."

"It's a fun movie that entertains people," she added. 

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in a promotional still for their film, 'Grease.' (Paramount Pictures/Fotos International)

Animal House

Former Vice senior editor Harry Cheadle instructed his readers in 2018 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Animal House" by "tossing it in the trash." The film follows fraternity brothers as they engage in drinking, hazing, and plenty of promiscuity.

"Just as it's difficult to imagine watching Animal House in 1978, it's difficult to imagine coming to it today never having seen it before," he wrote. "Drunken frat boys don't seem so charming anymore, the film's gender politics are f---ed beyond repair, and there's no one to latch onto as a sympathetic character, save for maybe Katy, or maybe the women exploited by the protagonists."

White Chicks

The 2004 comedy stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans as FBI agents who go undercover as White women to solve a kidnap plot. With a premise like that, it comes with plenty of controversial humor. But the former Wayans brother said it's what audiences - especially the demographic which it mocks - wanted.

"They’re needed," Wayans told BuzzFeed. "I don’t know what planet we’re on, where you think people don’t need laughter, and that people need to be censored and canceled. If a joke is gonna get me canceled, thank you for doing me that favor. It’s sad that society is in this place where we can’t laugh anymore."

"You know who loves ‘White Chicks’ the most? White chicks," Wayans previously said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2020. "That’s how you know it’s a good movie. A good joke in comedy is when the people you make fun of laugh the loudest. And what’s beautiful is that we’re equal-opportunity offenders. It was a great exploration of gender, of race, of pop culture, and done with kid gloves, so everybody could laugh. And I think that’s what makes it a cult classic to this day."

Honorable Mentions

Christian Toto, a conservative film critic and editor of HollywoodinToto.com, suggested "40-Year-Old Virgin" starring Steve Carell would be ripped to shreds today.

"'40-Year-Old Virgin,' one of the best comedies of the past 20 years, would struggle today," Toto told Fox News Digital. "The film features a bit where two pals call each other 'gay' and list the reasons why. The cast is predominantly white which could spark "white privilege" accusations. Select critics called it sexist and racist upon its release in 2005. Imagine the reaction today."

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Toto said the joke is on film studios kowtowing to cancel culture, because most audiences want the comedy of old.

"There's a good reason we haven't seen many big, bawdy successful film comedies in recent years," Toto said. "Cancel culture. Screenwriters understand the extreme limits placed on them when writing comedies, and some either pull their punches, resulting in mediocre movies, or they don't even bother. ‘The Hangover’ director Todd Phillips admitted as much, saying one reason he directed ‘Joker’ was because there are too many regulations on modern comedy."    

Failla and Foster offered a couple of holiday classics they said wouldn't even be safe from the cancel culture crowd.

"It's crazy to think ‘A Christmas Story’ will play for 24 hours straight this year because there's no way it could ever get MADE this year," Failla told Fox Digital. "The story revolves around a kid named Ralphie who wants a BB GUN which is a HUGE NO-NO. It doesn't help that he's plagued by a BULLY named Scott Farkus who calls him names and beats up Ralphie's friends. Between the anti-gun crowd and the social justice crowd there's no WAY Ralphie would get his gun or the bully would get his beatings. But the Producers WOULD get a pink slip."

Foster joked that the coach in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" would likewise upset some viewers. The coach, who oversees the young reindeers' flying training, has in recent years been accused of bullying.

"It's a classic, but I remember watching it a couple years ago and going, ‘Oh wow yeah that coach - he’d probably be out of a job right now if he dared to say that to anybody,'" Foster said.

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"Most people long for that kind of comedy, and they don't over-analyze every gag along the way," Toto said, before quoting David Zucker, the director of "Airplane!"

"Comedy king David Zucker of ‘Airplane!’ fame said it best -- ‘They’re destroying comedy because of 9 percent of the people who don’t have a sense of humor.’"