‘Authentic Frontier Gibberish’

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The best comedy ever made? That’s a tough call, but if it’s not Animal House, then surely it must be Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles — and not just because I first saw it as a 15-year-old with my dope buddies Mike and Dave after we’d toked up some fine Colombian gold bud.

Even without the buzz, it’s one of the zaniest things ever captured on film, but that day in 1974, I quite literally fell in the floor in spasms of painfully hysterical laughter. There was no film tradition Mel Brooks did not mock, nor any taboo he did not violate. The humor was a madcap mix of everything you could possibly imagine — vaudeville innuendo, sight gags, fart jokes — perfectly aimed at an audience that had grown up reading Mad magazine and had more recently graduated to National Lampoon and George Carlin albums.

Kids who see Blazing Saddles today cannot possibly imagine how shocking it was to see it in 1974. Unfortunately, most younger people now have only seen it on cable TV, where it gets chopped to pieces, and younger viewers are jaded by having seen other comedies that followed through the gigantic holes that Mel Brooks punched through the wall of Things You Can’t Say or Do in a Movie.

One of the running gags in the movie is that everybody in the “peaceful town called Rock Ridge,” is named Johnson. After the bad guys have made their first violent raid against Rock Ridge, there is an emergency meeting at the town’s church. One of the speeches — if you can call it that — is given by Gabby Johnson, a grizzled old-timer who jabbers incomprehensibly but with much passion and angry gestures. After Gabby has finished making noises about these sidewindin’ bushwackin’ hornswagglin’ cracker croakers, Olson Johnson then stands up to address the assembled citizenry of Rock Ridge:

“Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.”

For some reason, that came to mind today as I was reading President Obama’s statement about the military coup in Egypt. No, it’s not authentic frontier gibberish, but it is certainly as incomprehensible as anything Gabby Johnson said that day in Rock Ridge:

“Core principles . . . universal human rights . . . legitimate aspirations . . .  the democratic process . . .  we are deeply concerned . . . an inclusive and transparent process . . . Given today’s developments, I have also directed the relevant departments and agencies to review the implications under U.S. law for our assistance to the Government of Egypt.”

Exactly what the hell does this mean? Have the White House speech writers been replaced by a Random Platitude Generator, a computer program that automatically cranks out empty rhetoric, glittering generalities and vague diplomatic argle-bargle?

The new sheriff . . . Well, he’s failed to answer the critical question we now face in Egypt: “What are we going to do about these sidewindin’ bushwackin’ hornswagglin’ cracker croakers?”

As for me, I say we work up a Number Six on ’em . . . .

 

 

UPDATE: Linked by The Lonely Conservative — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

The latest news out of Egypt is . . . well, it’s not really news: The Muslim Brotherhood hates Jews,  John Kerry is a liar, and President Obama is a Stuttering Clusterf–k of a Miserable Failure.

Meanwhile, in the comments, I notice that some people are claiming Young Frankenstein is funnier than Blazing Saddles, which is proof some people smoked too much weed back in the day. You could have said Airplane or Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, and I’d have said, “OK, maybe.” But Young Frankenstein? No, sorry.

 


153 comments

  5. Actually Richard a lot of us Democrats stayed home in 2004.

    That the GOP did not learn from that blunder and picked John McCain and then Mitt Romney as your candidates was pretty pathetic. Why not make it a hat trick with Chris Christie?

  6. I just had the mental picture of Obama, instead of a teleprompter, using paper and reenacting the “Excuse me while I whip this out.” routine. There will never be another “Blazing Saddles”.

  7. I just had the mental picture of Obama, instead of a teleprompter, using paper and reenacting the “Excuse me while I whip this out.” routine. There will never be another “Blazing Saddles”.

  10. Ha! We’re virtually the same age, and I saw Blazing Saddles stoned too. Unlike you, however, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much straight.

    I also think Young Frankenstein was better.

  11. Ha! We’re virtually the same age, and I saw Blazing Saddles stoned too. Unlike you, however, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much straight.

    I also think Young Frankenstein was better.

  12. Insecure and incompetent people do not like being reminded of their weaknesses.

  14. That is not exactly something to brag about. I will never get back those 89 minutes.

  15. Marty Feldman made that movie all it was.

    Which is why I nominate “The Last Remake of Beau Geste.”

  20. In the early 1960’s I recall virtually rolling in the aisles watching a British movie, with Peter Sellers, “I’m All Right, Jack.” However, I don’t know that its humor would stand up today.

  22. That actor also played the nasty deputy who tortured Rambo in the first movie and died falling out of the helicopter while trying to shoot him. Startling contrast.

  26. There are two kinds of people I hate: those who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.

  29. ‘When G*d made the Irish he didn’t make much, but they’re d*mned lot better than the G*d d*mned Dutch!”

    – Traditional Drinking Song

  30. “What are we going to do about these sidewindin’ bushwackin’ hornswagglin’ cracker croakers?”

    What are we going to do? I’ll tell you – we’re going to watch as Barack Obama subverts the ongoing process that the Egyptian military and other elements in that society has started of escaping the evil tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood – who Obama enthusiastically supports – because HE CAN’T STAND IT WHEN HIS PROJECTS GO AWRY! He wants Egypt to be more fascist and less tolerant, because then it will be LESS OF AN ALLY TO THE UNITED STATES. Remember – EVERYTHING he does is geared towards weakening America – both foreign AND domestic. That’s why he talks about re-evaluating our military aid to Egypt – and also why he SAID NOTHING when Coptic Christians were being murdered by the Brotherhood in Egypt and in other countries in the Middle East. Anything that isolates and lessens America’s influence abroad, Obama will back. Anything that either maintains or increases our standing and influence – he breaks down. That’s why he disappeared during Benghazi – what are a few American lives, when an opportunity to harm American interests presents itself?

  32. A mel Brooks movie is the greatest movie ever made. That is true. But, it is “The Producers”, although Blazing Saddles was very good. “Springtime for Hitler and Germany”

  33. Life Of Brian. “He’s not the Messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy”. Um, epitaph for Obama?

  34. OK, maybe it’s just me, but I thought “The War of the Roses” was the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner swinging on that chandelier as the chain slowly pulls away from the wall…And it didn’t even appear on the American Something-or-Other list of the 100 funniest movies.Can’t understand it.

  36. Stacy, Funniest is really a highly subjective question. Blazing Saddles was/is very funny. I could go with a couple dozen different movies in my top five funniest depending on mood and what I’ve seen recently. Some really stupid movies (Spaceballs?) can be darn funny if in the right mood. To each their own.

  37. Agreed. Airplane is tops for laughter per minute and universal appeal. Blazing Saddles is a close second. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is likewise a close third.

  38. You must get with the times, sir! I believe you meant to say “It’s time for President Obama to pivot, laser-like, to jobs.”

  40. Catholic High School Girls in Trouble!

    Thank you for bringing a smile to my face. Now I must go watch Eyewitness News again. And then wash my hands.

  42. “The problem is that modernity tends toward decadence — secularism, materialism and demographic decline — so that the more “Westernized” segments of these societies became decadent and lost their influence over the masses, which then gave heed to demagogues appealing to their superstition, ignorance and resentment.”

    Paul Tillich observes more than once this phenomenon. In his context for it, socialism (secular, i.e., decadent) reduces religious, political and moral functionality – the three functions of the dimension of spirit – and is followed therefore, almost always, by fascist dictatorship. That’s what obtains now in USA and EU, both with strong, ground-level instigation and support of “Moslem Brotherhood.” Paulus left Union Theological Seminary, NYC, for a post as University Professor at Harvard University (which he also left in dismay, stopping finally at University of Chicago and more specifically at New Harmony, Indiana, thanks to Jane Blaffer Owen) because Union was head-over-heels in love with socialism (e.g., Niebuhr), despite Henry Luce’s presence on the Board. Since 1969 Union has taken the route he forecast for the socialist decadence. At root, it is a spiritual decadence descending from a studied rejection of the presence of transcendence.

  45. The statement that kids of today think this movie is mild is amazingly far from the truth. This movie could not be made today and kids are stunned by what is in it. Politically incorrect does not come close to covering what they wrote and filmed. Wonderful.
    Truth be told I didn’t think it was that funny when it first came out. It was NOT cutting edge at the time. Mongo was always fantastic though. The movie was not terribly outrageous. It is only cutting edge now in retrospect. It gets funnier with every viewing.

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