“What did you expect? ‘Welcome, sonny’? ‘Make yourself at home’? ‘Marry my daughter’? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know … morons.”
It’s one of the subtlest scenes from a movie that is anything but: Mel Brooks’ 1974 classic “Blazing Saddles.” In the scene, a close-up of Jim (Gene Wilder) shows him speaking quietly to Bart (Cleavon Little), consoling him for the hostile reception he has received as the town’s new sheriff. Jim’s first few lines give the impression that the legendary gunslinger is defending the racist townspeople who refuse to accept Bart — a black man — as their sheriff. Jim seems to be making excuses for the tense race relations, attributing the townspeople’s inability to welcome Bart to their humble lifestyle. But then there’s the punchline: Racists are morons.
Everyone familiar with the career of Gene Wilder, who died last week due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease, has a personal favorite from among his movies. “Blazing Saddles” is mine.
The film isn’t important in spite of its controversial humor and off-color jokes; it’s important because of them. The movie, which would eventually kick off a string of buddy films starring Wilder and African-American comedian Richard Pryor, makes constant use of racial tropes to critique and ridicule racism.
Yet woven into the humor is the serious reminder that racism can quickly devolve into terror and violence: Before Bart becomes the sheriff, he is a railroad worker in danger of an extrajudicial execution, and the villainous Hedley Lamarr openly hopes that the racist townspeople will lynch Bart.
Creating “Blazing Saddles” was courageous. The film was controversial in 1974, and it would have likely been scrapped without director Mel Brooks and co-writer Richard Pryor’s refusal to alter the script. Starring in the film toward the beginning of his career was risky for Wilder, too, but he strongly pursued the role. “The writers had done something remarkable,” he said, “in that they’ve smashed racism in the face, and its nose is bleeding. But they’re doing it while making you laugh.”
Undoubtedly, it would be even more difficult, if not impossible, to produce “Blazing Saddles” today. Brooks has frequently lamented as much, blaming modern audiences’ inability to differentiate between satire and sincerity. But films like “Blazing Saddles,” and comedy in general, give audiences the opportunity to encounter difficult subjects in a “safe” place — the cinema and comedy show allow people to approach these subjects as a group and their shared laughter can make it easier to acknowledge subjects they might typically ignore.
Social issues like racism are upsetting, difficult, and painful, but closing oneself off from comedy that critiques these issues for fear of being offended will not get rid of these problems — it will just make it easier to pretend they don’t exist. It’s unfortunate for both students and artists, then, that comedians are now refusing to appear on college campuses because they maintain that students are too quick to be offended. They fail to appreciate how comedy affords the opportunity to approach challenging social issues from the safe place of laughter and community.
A recent documentary, “Can We Take a Joke?,” asks comedians to talk about the increasing pressure to self-censor they experience and how they can overcome it (though no one should be immune from criticism). Karith Foster, one of the featured comedians, maintains that no subject is off limits. For Foster, good comedy isn’t about intentionally making people uncomfortable without a purpose, it’s about uncovering a serious point that helps people “realize the absurdity of … racism, and sexism, and homophobia.” This means that after the laughter fades, the audience has something to think about.
With Wilder’s passing, it’s important to remember that comedy requires the courage to confront especially those issues that make us uncomfortable. Gene Wilder is part of a great tradition of brave artists who have used their creative voices to shine a light on injustice. Let’s not let that legacy end with him — we can honor Wilder by continuing to openly and frankly confront society’s greatest challenges.
We will likely not be as funny as he was. But we can strive to be as brave.
Sarah Ruger is the manager of free speech and toleration at the Charles Koch Institute in Arlington, Virginia, a 501(c)(3) educational organization. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
