Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest farcical, satirical pieces ever created. It rivals only with the best like Monty Python and Caddyshack. Throughout this blog we have dissected different forms of satirical pieces. Natalie Portman’s ‘Natalie’s Rap’, South Park episodes, Weird Al’s ‘Amish Paradise’ and other agents have become notorious for poking fun at their respective industries. The satire and comedy in this movie is set on an over-the-top (almost too much) tone that makes Blazing Saddles an instant Mel Brooks Classic. Take a look at this one scene from the movie when the state procurer, Hedley Lamar, lists off his desired types of scoundrels for his army and then interviews them in the desert.
The reason I chose this scene in the movie is to show the stereotypes associate with the violent groups of history. Just in this one scene (set in the 1874 Wild West mind you) we see the typification of gun-slinging Mexican ‘bandits’, Nazi Germans, ‘cross-burning’ Klu Klux Klan members, Indian ‘agents’, cowboys, greasers, and men on camels. No group was spared in the stereotyping here. By incorporating these violent agents (in a stereotype) Brooks showed us a more complex aspect of human nature…the nature to judge.
When we think of someone (anyone) in Germany, our minds almost immediately revert to some of the atrocities done by the Nazi people. When we read Blood Meridian, we cannot help but despise the Indian ‘savages’. These types of stereotypes are exposed in an overt fashion by Brooks and he does this ‘over stereotyping’ to make fun of the situation. He creates many scenes of different violent militias from across the world to show us the humor in his story. However, underlying this humor is the sad fact that people still misconceive cultural and societal perceptions off of these (often false) stereotypes.
Regardless of the stereotyping depicted in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles the sheer comedy that runs throughout the film will have the audience laughing uncontrollably. However, some may disagree with the over-generalization of violent groups in the film and a correlation with their ethnicities/hertitage. They may look at these ‘jokes’ as a way of reinforcing or backing up the stereotypes themselves. So what do you think?; did Brooks do anything wrong by incorporating these images? Or was it simply all fun in games and a hilarious way to get some laughs?
I definitely think it was all in good fun and the humor lies in the fact that we can see those stereotypes in SOME real life situations. We know that all stereotypes have some truth behind them and Mel Brooks is just showing us them. I guess not all nazis looked like that and neither did all Ku Klux Klan members but when you think about it, who is really going to get offended if someone makes a generalization about some murdering bigots?
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ReplyDeleteComedy is one of the best forms of social commentary. Poking fun at serious matters such as the role that stereotypes play in our day to day lives helps us to look at these generalizations in new ways. Humor allows us to look at stereotypes in ways that we could not before. The reason being that in life we need to make quick, accurate judgement calls in order to survive. Combined with the human need to categorize everything, stereotypes are a natural and in some ways appropriate way of dealing with certain situations. However, this doesn't mean that in many cases stereotyping is a horrible thing that is arguably becoming outdated and more harmful than helpful. TO answer the question at the end of the post I think it was all fun and games but it also expounded on the silliness of some human behaviors.
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