When I say "allowed" i am not referring to whether or not something is legal. It is in no way illegal to tell jokes that are offensive but the outrage mob that exists online is somehow able to mobilize thousands of people to take down something in what is now called "cancel culture." If you go against the "woke" mob you will get attacked and this is bad, especially for comedy since the only way to be really funny is to be a bit edgy and edgy walks a fine line bordering on being offensive.
Personally, I hate the PC culture that exists today because I don't think that the mob actually CAN be placated. In my mind it is a bunch of people that desperately need attention and will do anything in order to achieve that. If certain forms of entertainment give into their demands, they simply make more demands, and on and on it goes in a never-ending something or other.
Some of these films only feature brief moments that the woke mob would consider not PC enough, while others it is the entire film that would invoke their ire. There are many many more examples but these are just a few that stood out for me.
Airplane
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There are a lot of reasons why the woke mob would go after this movie if it was made today and I would imagine there are probably people out there that are calling for it to be removed from streaming services. The main reason is because of several black stereotypes that are played out in the film most notably this "jive" sequence.
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There were exactly zero people that were openly offended by this scene and people openly laughed about it because we weren't a bunch of PC assholes in the early to mid 80's.
The Monster Squad
This is significantly less well known but because of its pure 80's-ness it is worth a look today. It was obviously trying to take advantage of the Ghostbusters craze that was going on at the time and that is evident in the poster.
This film, unlike Ghostbusters was a financial disaster despite having a pretty massive budget for the time period.
It would be disallowed today for having kinds involved in extreme gun violence and the movie celebrates said violence as many films have done in the past but not so much involving kids. It would be lambasted by the woke mob for encouraging kids to play with guns because that's never happened before... remember GI Joe?
Also the kids fat shame their fat friend, the kids are foul-mouthed and frequently use gay slurs to insult other people (just like we did in the 80's) and despite being very young, they are overly sexual. It probably wouldn't help that there is virtually no non-white characters in the entire film.
Tropic Thunder
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I don't think I need to really explain why this wouldn't be allowed today but it is worth mentioning this film because it shows how absurd the world (primarily the USA) has become in the recent past. This movie was released a mere 12 years ago and almost no one complained about Downy Jr. playing a role in blackface and adopting a black way of speaking. Since it was meant to be stereotypical and the world was not insane back then, almost no one complained about it at all and simply laughed about it. People today would be so offended they would probably burn a theater down or at least that is what they would claim so they could cause destruction carte blache. No one would ever mention that awful movie White Chicks which essentially did the same thing in reverse or when Eddie Murphy went undercover as a white man and they people shouldn't complain about it.
But it doesn't end there. The woke mob would lose their collective shit over the very funny scene where Downy says this
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It had a huge budget for a comedy at nearly 100 million dollars and did very well at the box office nearly doubling that amount.
Blazing Saddles
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Almost this entire film would be considered racist by the ultra-PC people of today who would completely ignore the fact that everyone enjoyed this sort of humor back in 1974. Most people still do today but are too afraid to say so. There are stereotypes about black, white, American Indian, Chinese, you name it and there is a racial or ethnic stereotype that is poked fun at in this movie. If you are not part of the PC police it is still very funny today but the only way you are ever going to be able to watch it is if you buy a DVD (does anyone even have a DVD player anymore?) or if you steal it via torrent.
There are many other examples that I am not going to dedicate an entire section to but here's some blurbs
- Animal House because of objectification of women and where one person contemplates statutory rape of a 13 year old (he decides against it)
- Revenge of the Nerds for basically the same thing
- Let's speed things up and just say that virtually every 80's comedy was guilty of objectification of women
- The Crying Game and by extension Ace Ventura, Pet Detective because the leads express disgust when they discover the pretty woman they were romantically involved with is actually a transsexual.
- Ghostbusters: Cast is too white, Venkman carries around a date rape drug with him and he is aggressive and doesn't take no for an answer - basically he is a womanizer. The Ghostbusters have a passive stance on environmental protection.
I'm sure you can think of quite a few examples on your own since it seems the culture-climate is just out of control at the moment and no matter what you do someone out there is going to have a problem with it.
Personally, I hate what the world has become and this is part of the reason why comedy in general in both stand up and in films has taken a bad turn lately since comedians and writers have to be concerned about who they are going to offend when offense was actually part of their intention in the past.
Imagine if Andrew Dice Clay were to do stand up today? Fuggetaboutit!
I love the jive part of Airplane! It is so classic! Not surprised for you to have Blazing Saddles on here. I would also say that Smokey and the Bandit would probably be on this list as well. I am actually surprised that Tropic Thunder hasn't come under more fire being as new as it is. Any James Bond movie should be on the list as well. Great post!
Along that line, I would love to see how Team America would be received these days!
America F-yeah!
freedom costs a buck o' five.
oh of course, the representation of Islam would cause riots in the street. Although I don't think that Matt Stone and Trey Parker actually care. Their entire show is predicated on TRYING to insult you.
Truth is, comedy and comedians are now more commercialised and this is why the comedy based movies and stand up comedians are always careful as to who not to offend or evoke offence from anyone.
In truth movies in the 80s just wants to portray their storyline without even thinking of anything and that's why some of them were financial mess and never became contemporary I mean. However inasmuch as I feel it's better these days I still think everything about movies nowadays is for the commercial success and this actually limits how broadened a movie can impact.
They've already gone after Tropic Thunder because of Robert Downing Junior's role. The "woke mob" are also referred to as "snowflakes". These snowflakes are getting mad about just about everything these days and want to reduce the World to this lame place without comedy.
Dave Chappelle has gotten a lot of flak because he's always making fun of everything serious and you know what? I love it
yeah, Chappelle is amazing and is very unlikely to back down / give in to the PC police. The last time he got fed up with being a celebrity and all the BS that comes along with it he just disappeared for a long time. It wouldn't surprise me if he were to do that again.
He did a Netflix stand up where he talked about it. I'm always looking forward to the shit he's going to say because despite how "offensive" he comes off, he seems to be among the few people saying the honest truth.
Eehehh, nice article! I never even realised that when I watched those movies! 😝
On other news, Portugal's Government complains that the Russian and Chinese are dictatorial regimes and complain that they censor the Internet...
... meanwhile, the same Portuguese Government has just announced they will start to monitor Social Networks to take off what they consider to be Hate Speech!
I guess in our case that's OK because we're a Democracy. Right? 🤔
They don't even realise their clear double standards.
it's the double standards that get me. Just like I said in the article. That horrible movie White Chicks is the same thing that all these people are complaining about and the movie is horrifyingly awful. Yet no one ever mentions this because it's black people making fun of whites, which is just fine and dandy. I thought White Chicks was a bad film because it was a bad film and the Wayans brothers other than Damon are not funny. I didn't care that they wore whiteface and i don't think anyone else did either.
I agree. I started watching it but couldn't follow through. It started so badly I couldn't force myself to watch the rest. Sometimes Hollywood directors are trying so hard to be funny that they end up making fools of themselves. They could learn a thing or two from the Spanish, they have hilarious comedies! 🤦♂
White Chicks is one of the most disturbing and unfunny comedies that don't have Amy Schumer in it ever made. But other than Requium for a Dream I don't think the younger Wayans bros have ever been in anything that was any good.
Actually everything is commercialised now a days. Stand up comedians too. Some of them don’t even know what they are saying and what will be the impact. Movies and media or even any of the article gives some impact on our subconscious mind. If we speak about racism back of the mind it’s increasing day by day generation by generation. Whole scenario is against humanity that’s the main concern.
I find it bizarre that people see things where there is no real offence. I have found that when people raise these issues they are just being racist in their thinking. We need to be able to laugh at other races as that is natural. It isn't racist taking the piss out of each other but normal. I have noticed that every advert has to have all races these days and that is far from normal. World is mad and all I say is fuck em.
That Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino has every single stereotype in the book in it and was fantastic because of it since Clint realizes in the end that his racist feelings were misplace. Of course this is towards Asians who have never really jumped on the "im not successful because: Racism" bandwagon so there's that. But I wonder how long it will be before they go after that film because there is a scene where 3 black guys are hanging around harassing a woman and a white guy.
Hahaha!
I was opening the post to see what you chose as I have been thinking about this lately. One that is not a movie is Eddie Murphy stand up comedy special Delerious. Raw probably just as much but that is the one I remember.
I WAS going to put Blazing Saddles as my movie contribution to this post though and you beat me to it! "Where all the White Women at?!!?
I will have to add Police Academy because of a couple really bad racial comments (meant to villianize the jerks but that would be overlooked these days and taken as a serious trigger) and the tense situation in North America with law enforcement.
I think we could take almost any comedy from the 70s and 80's and show it to the easily triggered masses of today and they would have a problem with it.