re: Is Blazing Saddles a racist movie?

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Is Blazing Saddles a racist movie?

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*Comedy legend Mel Brooks said had to call Richard Pryor and get his blessing while making his cult movie “Blazing Saddles” because there were so many jokes surrounding the N word.

The moviemaker admits he was so worried about upsetting black people with the language in the film, that he needed the comedian’s blessing for gags about the plot’s African-American sheriff, played by Cleavon Little. [Scroll down to watch.]

“We used the ‘N’ word a lot, so I called Richard and I said, ‘Richard, I need you to bless the ‘N’ word’,” Brooks told Jimmy Kimmel. He added that the film is so politically incorrect, it could not be made today.

“They (censors) wouldn’t let you (make it)… When we had a preview… there was a guy running the studio… and he was going with a girl, his fiancee, and they had this preview and people went crazy; they laughed, they enjoyed it. He grabs me by the collar and shoves me into the manager’s office… and he says, ‘Ok, here’s a legal pad, here’s a pencil, take these notes.’

“He says, ‘N word. Out…! We don’t say it.’ He said, ‘No punching a horse…! Around the campfire, cut out the farting… You can’t punch an old lady…’ I said, ‘Yes sir, it’s gone. It never happened. Come back tomorrow and it’s all out of the movie.’ He leaves and I crunch it (note paper) up and I go all the way across the room and put it in the waste basket.

“I had final cut, so I said, ‘What do I care?’”

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“I had final cut, so I said, ‘What do I care?’”

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