Max Adds Trigger Warning to ‘Blazing Saddles’
Cancel Culture finally comes for Mel Brooks' blistering satire on racism
Cancel Culture has wiped entire films off the map, memory-holed sitcom episodes and coaxed programmers to “warn” viewers about select stories.
Other films have watched “problematic” scenes snipped for our “protection.”
It’s all happened with few, if any, objections from Hollywood, Inc. The trend gave rise to a phrase that should send chills up the spine of any self-respecting artist.
“They couldn’t make THAT today.”
Yet one film has remained untouched by Cancel Culture despite being both outrageous and uncompromising. In a way, it’s the perfect example of a film woke censors would love to erase but couldn’t due to the film’s fan base.
Mel Brooks’ 1974 western satire savaged racism by mocking racists without a filter. It’s considered one of the legend’s best comedies, a testament to Brooks’ creative freedom and wit.
The comedy guru is keenly aware of Cancel Culture and has repeatedly used a variation of, “They couldn’t make THAT today” to describe his film.
That’s true.
Yet there’s been no effort to censor or tweak the comedy in any fashion in the Age of Woke.
Until now.
Max, the platform that once yanked “Gone With the Wind” from its cyber-shelves, just slapped a video trigger warning on Brooks’ vision.
Anyone who wants to watch “Blazing Saddles” must endure an introduction by TCM’s Jacqueline Stewart, who joined the company in 2019 as a host and expert on film preservation and “representation.”
“You’re about to watch a movie from 1974 that many consider one of the greatest comedies of all time,” Stewart begins in the clip, shot in front of a background teeming with books. Ironic.
She gives a quick primer on Brooks’ satirical film canon before describing the film’s plot.
“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,” she says.
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She later praises Brooks’ approach to satire: “Absolutely nothing is off limits and jokes can tackle any and every sensitive subject.”
It’s a trigger warning without a trigger.
Here’s a sample of the trigger warning Disney+ added to the classic film “Dumbo” for comparison’s sake.
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures … these stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together. Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.”
Max didn’t have the courage to do the same.
Yes, you must be lectured about “Blazing Saddles” because you’re too stupid to process satire in its highest forms. Yet Max understands how beloved the film, and Brooks, remain and cannot say there’s anything actually wrong or offensive about the film.
It’s unclear when the video introduction first hit the streaming platform, but a Twitter user alerted the platform to the shift on Feb. 5.
NOTE: Both Netflix and Paramount+ include “Blazing Saddles” on their content rosters without trigger warnings.
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. pic.twitter.com/dZleOvn3yL
— Heidi (@HeadyRemarks) February 6, 2024
Blazing saddles today would have conservatives burning down movie theaters. The movie is mocking them, outright.
If a movie like Brooks’ masterpiece were made today, the left would love it. It’s the right who would recognize, slowly and dimly, that they were being insulted, and howl in rage. The best way to honor “Blazing Saddles” is to offend some racists.
Reality doesn’t align with your comment. The Left is the power behind Cancel Culture. The Left segregates people by race.
By the way, the Left just put a trigger warning on it. Not the Right
I watched it. It is not a trigger warning. It is an introduction that puts the film in historical context for viewers who might not know the history of the film. Also, you don’t emphatically know that it was someone on the left that suggested the film have an intro. Plenty of right wingers work in Hollywood.
The movie has not been anywhere near close to cancelled.
Christian, you should read a recent article on Cracked.com called “No, ‘Blazing Saddles’ Doesn’t Come With a ‘Trigger Warning’.” It is well written and explains how the intro before the film is from 2020 and is not in fact a trigger warning.
Wendy and Wendell saying the same thing. Cis alpine Gals?
Regardless, it is the Left that are the racists, have been the racists and always will be the racists.
Next you’ll tell me that the Racists switched parties.
So, I was just reminded of the refrain “You couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today!”, which Conservatives bandy about as an example of how political correctness and wokeness has “run amok”.
I’ve seen it many times before, both sincerely and ironically, but for the first time it really lodged in my brain because…which part? Which part of Blazing Saddles, a film straightforwardly and unabashedly critical of anti-Black racism, would be criticized by Liberals today?
Do…do Conservatives not understand that the entire premise of the movie is a joke at their expense?
It’s ironic that conservatives love Blazing Saddles so much since they are the target of the film. If a movie like Brooks’ masterpiece were made today, the left would love it. It’s the right who would recognize, slowly and dimly, that they were being insulted, and howl in rage. The best way to honor “Blazing Saddles” is to offend some racists.
A few months ago, I was watching a Dean Martin roast on Catchy TV, and they(if how they worded it alludes me) said the content was more appropriate for “an earlier time”, which was a “polite” way of saying, “We’d be all too happy to ban it today”.
My GenZ teen sons and their friends watched it and laughed and laughed- stopped it, and rewatched it! They thought the campfire scene was brilliant. I had to fill in the age gap jokes (who is Lili Von Shtüpp, RANDOLPH SCOTT!!) Overheard a guy singing, “The French Mistake,” during their online video games. VOILÁ!
You people are racist scumbags who worry about “race swaps” in movies when you can still go beat your meat to the original! You’re all scum!
Poor Keith, snowflake alert!
Funniest comedy EVER! What a sad pathetic world we live in that people can’t spot & appreciate parody, humor & hilarity. From time to time IFC will show Blazing saddles without edits, I’ve seen the movie at least 100 times & maybe more. If you don’t laugh or stop laughing the only explanation is your dead.
“We offer you a Laurel & a Hardy handshake.”
Is this really the lens through which you see the world? You were doing better with your erroneous biblical translations than with trash posts like this.
Wow, Jacqueline, way to throw cold water on the fun with a lecture on racism. Don’t invite this person to your party, she will 100% kill the fun.
TRIGGER WARNING:
You may soil yourself laughing during this hilarious send up of racism.
Indeed I did…it reads…’
“WARNING, THIS FILM IS F’N’ HILARIOUS AND COULD RESULT IS SERIOUS SIDES PAINS AND TEARS”
I wonder if Ms. Stewart and MAX find the buxom red head showgirl offensive? Race race race – just give it a rest already.
I’m glad I have my very own DVD of the movie. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever watched.
Meanwhile Ms. Stewart, president of the Oscar Academy, continues to insist that pretendian “Sacheen Littlefeather” (nee Maria Cruz), who accepted Brando’s Oscar for THE GODFATHER, was a legitimate representative of Native Americans, even though she was no more a real Indian than Mel Brooks’ Indian Chief character in BLAZING SADDLES.
I guess we can be thankful they didn’t just edit it. But it would have been 5 minutes long then. Cancel pigs work really, really hard to find outrage in anything. But companies feel like they need to treat everyone like 5 year olds. We live in a Nanny State.
“Where the white women at?”
Don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder watching a movie that when I heard that line.
Ironic since one of the most hilarious comic geniuses co-wrote that film—Richard Pryor. He’s one who would be rolling over right now.
I attended a screening at the Chicago Theater – Mr. Brooks himself hosted to the full house. He explained that Pryor “checked off” (OK’d) in the script EVERY N word.
which is exactly why we dumped MAX as our cable channel.