we have been bamboozled!!!

Originally posted by Zaphod58
That's because Blazing Saddles was done as a parody to show how absurd racism really is. Blazing Saddles hit EVERY SINGLE racial group out there, with every single stereotype there was at the time. It did an outstanding job of showing how stupid racism really is, and was funny as hell at the same time.

i agree completely, i was just using it as an example of a movie that was full of sterotypes and racial slurs. i love blazing saddles!

a movie like blazing saddles is recieved differently than movies like bamboozled, or other movies. let's say for a moment that blazing saddles had never been made, and this year it was released, would society's take on the movie be the same now as it was back then?

ahh yes, here's the lyrics from the SNL episode, i knew i wasn't going crazy! ( i wasnt even born when this aired, but my parents recorded them and i watched them growing up.)


74 Gonna Get Me a Shotgun (Saturday Night Live - Song Lyrics)
Gonna Get Me a Shotgun
Performed by Garrett Morris on 24 Jan 1976 (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore)

I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see,
I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see.
When I kill all the whities I see, then whitey he won't bother me,
I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whities I see.

Then I'll get a white woman who's wearing a navy blue sweater.

reply to post by sandman692


I've actually had this discussion many times. There is no way in hell that Blazing Saddles would have been made any time in the last 15 years. Studios wouldn't have dared to risk it.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I hope thats because studios are more intelligent now, and not because it wont be allowed. Its a messed up world we live in where films like blazing saddles get more coverage and media than, say, 'bamboozled', which has a more serious message...

"More intelligent"? Blazing Saddles was an awesome movie that is still shown all the time, and MANY people still talk about, and get.

But the reason that it wouldn't be made is because people are quicker to jump on the bandwagon of racism and would riot in the streets if they did.

reply to post by Zaphod58


its called being intelligent when your not gonna make a film full of 'basic' humour, that takes 5 minutes to think of, just to make loads of money but create even more tension in a world that doesnt need it!! you or me wont make no money off it, but we'll be the ones arguing... what for?

Until this thread I've always been very happy with my cupid type lips. Now
I shall not rest until I get implants so I can have big lips.

As far as Blazing Saddles goes, I was most impressed with the passing of gas around the camp fire. Guess I'm not taking the movie seriously enough.

reply to post by dizziedame


listen, dont get me wrong, i cracked up when i watched that film years ago, all im saying is that it in the boiling point environment we live in today, some things are not worth a joke, people actually died from racism.
We dont excactly live in a 'hate free' world, where jokes at others misfortune CANT be taken with a pinch of salt because 'they' actually mean what they are saying but are hiding behind 'jokes'...

reply to post by v4vendetta


So we should all sit around in a constant state of depression and suffering?

There are times and places for both movies; even today.

reply to post by Blaine91555


i agree, humour is a good tool, IF USED PROPERLY!! i dont know if you belong to a minority, but being the butt of the jokes can get boring... the last thing i would wish upon anyone is depression, its just that some things no matter how funny to you or even me, is actually depressing someone else...

Originally posted by Alxandro
Repentance for racists.
I wonder if all will be forgiven if alleged racists end up voting for Obama the radical, or will we keep hearing about reparations by Jackson and Sharpton the poverty pimps?

You mean Michael Jackson???

Maybe Mick Jagger is the love child Don Knotts had with Bea Arthur?

(now you owe me two for that visual!!)

The people that GET the movie and understand what the message is, are the ones that are going to create LESS tension in the world. I know people that would normally been very quick to jump on the racism bandwagon, watch something like this, and afterwards actually thought about WHAT was being said, not how it was being said instead of screaming racism. It isn't going to make things perfect by any means, but even if it only gets through to a FEW people a movie like this works.

reply to post by Zaphod58


yeah, but it sometimes reaches the wrong people too. It is a fact that (i hate bringing it up) white people DO run the western world. Our society is run by the same people that would fine that film 'funny', more in a negative way. Which makes the cut that little bit more painful...

A great modern example of this is Will and Grace. That show did for gay people what crap like Dolemite did for the African American community. Boiled them all down to two very broad characteristics and played it out nonstop. Throw some women in there and you get a demeaning double header! SCORE NBC!!

[edit on 6/14/2008 by joecamel]

reply to post by joecamel


hey, what about that mtv programme with flava flav, where he has to choose a girl? i couldn't believe what i was watching. what an embarrassment. The list goes on an on. I partly blame these 'volunteers' to be portrayed in this way, who are easily blinded by the dollar, just to take us all backwards. oh what to do...
The media is the first place that needs reforming if we are going to change anything... most of these rappers aint helping either...

[edit on 14-6-2008 by v4vendetta]

Rap and hip hop is a culture that has the same unseen hold on minds that most of the stuff constraining us is famous for. You're right in a sense, but I find it's too easy to lay blame ON the rappers because there's a lot of dispute about where the line between media manipulation and personal responsibility is drawn.

Flava Flav, though, I agree with you 10000 percent. I've often wondered what Chuck D thought. Between his sobs, I mean.

reply to post by joecamel


yeah but the whole hip hop scene is so controlled. I believe that the web has been spun, by the higher ups, so if you finally 'make it' and get "out of the ghetto", the hip hop scene suggests you've sold out. so, thats why these rappers HAVE to live up to the image and act stupid. its a trap.
My opinion is that any hip hop you hear commercially isnt hip hop at all... they've kinda lost the point of it somewhere.
Have you heard any British hip hop? or french? now thats what its meant to be...

Hip Hop's Conspiracy is long and sordid. In short, the changes that Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur could have made were recognized ahead of time and put to an end for the profit of both Marion Knight and Sean Combs. There was a chain of companies and the money essentially passed so far up that the people who organized it were paid by the deed.

After that you're absolutely right: rap music became an overslick product and the culture, newly created, recently defined by Mr. Shakur, realistically encompassed in the quiet Christopher Wallace, was exploited and minstrelled around by any number of throw money in their face rap superstars from the late 1990's. There's a good song by Nas from one of his recent albums that outlines most of this, but the title is a tad offensive. I can tell you this: it's track four on his "Hip Hop is Dead" album.

Now rap music is exactly as you said. It's full of businessmen. People who took advice from Jay Z as if he was rapping to THEM and who honestly and truly identified with Tony Montana growing up. Why did they grow up idolizing Tony Montana!? Because enterprising rappers in the 90's exploited the film.

That's probably the greatest conspiracy of all. Oliver Stone needs to direct!