"Blazing Saddles"

With the titanic kerfuffle just unfolding over Elon Musk's buyout of Twitter last week, I'm forced to recall, with fondness, the Grand Opening of Warner-Bros. 1974 movie, "Blazing Saddles."

I was in the audience that night.  And it erupted with laughter from the opening credits until the "The End" scrolled by.  It was a monumental success, both theatrically and financially, because it made fun of everyone in America.  Equally.  No conventions were spared.  No "sacred cows."  Every little group was scorned equally.  Which was the idea.  Like the TV shows "Archie Bunker" and "The Jeffersons" back then, free speech abounded.  The only limits to it were of the legal kind.  The kind that would get you sued.  Or thrown in jail.  

But it was a time of humor.  Even then-POTUS Dick Nixon appeared on "Laugh In," a show that skewered every politician equally.  Not just those of the Republican persuasion.  Like it is now.  Since the so-called "Main-Stream-Media" has been co-opted by the Democrat National Committee.

But back to "Blazing Saddles."  It was written and directed by Mel Brooks, who also starred in it.  And it was off the wall even by 1974 standards.  It was the story of a small town which appoints a Black railroad gang worker to be its sheriff.  Yeah.  And the reaction by the purportedly universally racist West was hysterical!  The movie's opening should give you a taste:

A bunch of White, KKK-member cowboys encounter Little's railroad gang.  They demand that this "N-word" and his gang sing plantation songs, like they did when they were slaves.  Little breaks out with "I get no kick from champagne!  Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all...," with his gang singing backup behind him.  

You didn't even have to be there...

The movie starred every comedian then extent, including Gene Wilder,  Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras and, of course, Madeline Kahn as "Lili Von Sctupp."  And if you don't speak German, look up "Sctupp."  It'll do you good.

But anyway, all those who were wounded by the mere thought of having someone other than those who speak, eat, think and act "woke," like now, should be forced to sit through an entire screening of "Blazing Saddles."  Most likely with the benefit of restraints.  Their doing so would instantly acquaint them with what it was like back way back when America was free. 

Or maybe they should just take a look at the gigondo mess Disney's CEO has made out of trying to make a tiny minority of his employees happy.  By picking a fight with a State.  The State in which it's a guest.  A State which can pull the "Reedy Creek" self-governing authority out from under it.  And did.  And a State which can tax the s**t out it in the future.

And I'm guessing...WILL!

Tell me what part of CEO Bob Stupak's $34,000,000 annual salary paid for Disney's more than $50 Billion Dollar cratering in stock valuation?  Oh yeah, that guy Stupak brought in to craft his new "woke" agenda has been shown the door.  Look at the carnage he left in his wake...

Memo to America's corporations:  Pay attention to your bottom lines and to your shareholders' return on investment.  And not on trying to remanufacture America...  

And also to our temporary Gubmint that if they persist in trying to create and run a "Ministry of Truth Board," which is so Orwellian as to defy description, so 1984 it could have been dreamed up by the "Babylon Bee," that I'm pretty sure a bunch of true believers will start looking for the torches and the pitchforks.  

And, oh yeah, oiling up the firearms...