Spiritual Forum

Mel Brooks Blasts Political Correctness: 'Blazing Saddles' Couldn't Be Made Today

---

In an interview with Yahoo News surrounding the 40th anniversary of his comedic masterpiece "Blazing Saddles," co-writer/director Mel Brooks blasted present-day political correctness and says he was "lucky" to have made the film in the days when he still could:

"They can't make that movie today because everybody's so politically correct. You know, the NAACP would stop a great movie that would do such a great service to black people because of the N-word," says Brooks. "You've got to really examine these things and see what's right and what's wrong. Politically correct is absolutely wrong. Because it inhibits the freedom of thought. I'm so lucky that they weren't so strong then and that the people that let things happen on the screen weren't so powerful then. I was very lucky."

In the comment sections and on Twitter, I caught all kinds of entertaining hell (Kos is especially perturbed) for my review of the new 40th Anniversary Bluray of "Blazing Saddles" and for a follow-up piece, both of which stated the obvious: That today's Left has become a bunch of insufferable, joy-killing, censorious, fascist Church Ladies who would never allow "Blazing Saddles" to be made today and that they will someday try to have the film banned.

It looks as though Mr. Brooks agrees with my first point. That's because Mel Brooks is a free-thinking liberal, not a freedom-stifling, controlling, free speech-hating leftist.

The difference between a liberal and a leftist is not the how they vote. Liberals don't use phrases like "the debate is over," "the science is settled," "ban bossy" or "ban anything that might offend anyone who isn't a white Christian male." Fascist leftists do.

Forget about the racial stuff in "Blazing Saddles." Think about what the fascist gay left has already accomplished when it comes to silencing, bullying, and stripping people of their livelihood. Then watch the third act of "Blazing Saddles" and tell me the gaystapo won't someday scream "hate crime."

Here are the ten reasons of proof why we live in an atmosphere of leftist-based "political correctness" that seeks to ban and censor the true spirit of comedy in the name of "a war on words:"

1. Political correctness has ensured we're not allowed to see "Song of the South." Even left-wing film lovers like Roger Ebert support a ban on the 1946 film.

"I am against censorship and believe that no films or books should be burned or banned, but film school study is one thing and a general release is another," Ebert wrote in his Movie Answer Man column for the Chicago Sun-Times (www.suntimes.coindeebert.html). "Any new Disney film immediately becomes part of the consciousness of almost every child in America, and I would not want to be a black child going to school in the weeks after 'Song of the South' was first seen by my classmates."

So as you can see, Ebert really is in favor of bans even though he says he is not. And there is a ban. You cannot buy "Song of the South" on home video. It has not been seen in America since 1986.

2. Leftists are removing the word "n***er from Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The novel is widely considered the greatest in American literature, it is a product of its time, it is opposed to racism and slavery. Still, leftists are rewriting it.

If "Huckleberry Finn" isn't safe, nothing is.

3. Just this week a black comedienne on "SNL" was hammered by leftists for joking about slavery.

4. In 1990, comedian Sam Kinison was attacked for his onstage act, which included jokes about world hunger, gays and AIDS. He backed down.

5. In 1990, comedian Andrew Dice Clay was attacked and boycotted for making jokes about women. Boycotts were led by people in entertainment like Sinead O'Connor and "SNL's" Nora Dunn. Clay's career was effectively destroyed.

After the incidents involving Clay and Kinison, comedy was never the same. Left-wing, politically correct fascists, with the help of a complicit media, effectively created sensitivity barriers around certain groups and topics.

American stand-up comedy, which had hit its freedom-zenith between Lenny Bruce and 1990, was over.

6. In 2011, comedian Tracy Morgan nearly lost his career and had to agree to attend GLAAD's re-education camp after joking about his son's sexuality onstage.

No one in the mainstream entertainment community or media dared stand up for him.

7. The Left is banning and attempting to further ban voices of those who do not believe in Global Warming. Already, a major urban newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, has silenced the opposing voices of its very own readers. This fascist zeal is only increasing as the science around Global Warming falls apart. The planet hasn't warmed in 15 years. More than 90% of the models used to predict Global Warming have been proven false. All they have left is shut up.

8. In 2010, to avoid offending Muslims, Comedy Central censored an episode of "South Park."

9. Left-wing Democrat Chuck Schumer has announced a serious effort to rewrite and water down the First Amendment. This is a powerful United States Senator proposing this. Worse, Schumer is targeting the most precious speech there is: political speech.

If political speech isn't safe from the Left, nothing is.

10. On HUNDREDS of American left-wing college campuses, where speech should be freer than anyplace else, unconstitutional speech codes have become the norm.

--

For decades, in the name of "sensitivity," the Left has been waging a war of inches against speech (including humor and satire) they don't like. It is a war where the bad guys employ a weapon called "repressive tolerance," and it is spreading like a cancer.

It is therefore not speculation to believe "Blazing Saddles" will someday be a casualty of this war -- it is only a matter of time.

If you want to know what America would look like if Chuck Schumer and the rest of the political Left win the day, go to one of those college campuses.