Posted on 06/30/2021 11:45:17 AM PDT by Red Badger
Airplane! (1980) is a fun spoof comedy with lots of laughs, right? I watched this film on Netflix for the first time the other night. Instantly, I recognized so many references and clips that I had previously heard and seen. At every turn, it’s filled with great gags that are so incredibly clever and intelligently crafted. Even for someone watching it for the first time all these years later, I loved it. Then came the racist jokes. I think it’s easy for people to dismiss this as being a “product of its time.” I agree, but that doesn’t excuse the racism, nor does it mean that we can’t dissect why these jokes are problematic. If we gloss over casual racism in older movies, it doesn’t allow us to understand the issue with them; and if we don’t understand why they are problematic, then we can’t take the necessary steps to evolve as a culture.
Let’s start first with this: what is the kind of humor that Airplane! is embodying? From the very beginning, this is clearly a spoof comedy. It’s going for absurdism that largely comments on the stupidity of human beings. Common gags involve people misunderstanding each other (“don’t call me Shirley”), playing on expectations for how routine things operate (the announcers arguing in the airport), and visually contrasting what characters say is the case with what the reality is (the dance scene where Ted is stationed). These jokes are based on wordplay and expectations; essentially their craft is what makes them funny. The jokes regarding race in the film are different; these jokes are not based on wordplay or craft, but are rather made at the expense of a particular group of people — specifically targeting them. The other gags in the movie relate in no way to race; anyone could have been at the center of those jokes and the intended effect of the gag would not have changed. The joke is based on something other than the identity of the character involved; they are merely a vessel for the punchline. However, these jokes only feature White characters. The jokes involving People of Color are usually based around that person’s color, whereas none of the jokes involving White characters specifically involve them being White. The identity of the character in these gags is irrelevant; the identity of the character in the jokes involving People of Color is pertinent.
Throughout the movie, two Black men talk really fast to each other on the plane, with subtitles translating their “Jive” into English. Many of the other White passengers make periodic comments, saying they can “never understand them.” One of the White passengers turns out to be “fluent in Jive.” Many other momentary gags with People of Color often involve them playing into some preexisting stereotype. Airplane! makes it clear from the beginning that it is going for balls-to-the-wall absurdism: everything is a gag, and nothing is to be taken seriously. This makes it easy for some people to write off the more problematic race jokes as having no more stock than any other gag. When a joke goes after someone’s personal identity — their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, their physical attributes — they themselves become the joke. No longer are they merely a vessel for the joke, they are now the face of the punchline; and no one wants to be a face in a punch line. It’s not even that these jokes aren’t funny in and of themselves; what matters is who is telling the joke. In the case of Airplane!, all three of the directors are White. There are also three additional White writers, and another three White producers. This is a team of all White men writing jokes targeting People of Color, which immediately makes it a White interpretation of a Person of Color. This is where it turns from being merely a gag into a caricature.
When a Person of Color is involved in the joke’s craft, or is even the one telling it themselves, they are making the joke at their own expense. It doesn’t target a group of people different from themselves; it is based on their own identity. That becomes your joke to tell. Had this movie been directed by three Black people, with three additional Black writers, and another three additional Black producers, these jokes would hold no venom. It isn’t the joke itself, but rather who is telling the joke, and who is the punchline. Filmmaking is all about making mistakes so that other filmmakers can learn how to do it better. Inclusivity in Hollywood has changed drastically from 1980 to 2020. There are filmmakers working today who were inspired by Airplane! and other films of its time. What these filmmakers need to do is see where Airplane! went wrong, and then work to improve. It’s all about who is telling the story, and the filmmakers who are currently in positions of capability within the industry directly influence who the storytellers are. Airplane! is a brilliantly crafted spoof comedy that should be timeless. With nonspecific jokes, there shouldn’t be a period of time where they don’t land. The race jokes, however, are specific, and in our period of time, they are uncomfortable to watch. As comedy fans revere Airplane! as one of the greats — and 80% of the film is phenomenally written and perfectly executed comedy — let us not gloss over the shortcomings of the filmmakers with these specific jokes. If we turn a blind eye, or chalk it up as merely being a “product of its time”, the filmmakers of today cannot learn from these shortcomings, and subsequently work to be better.
“The sheriff is near”
Boondocks cartoon.
It’s a movie. The left has no sense of humor. A reference to a difference based on race is not racist.
Throughout the movie, two Black men talk really fast to each other on the plane, with subtitles translating their “Jive” into English. Many of the other White passengers make periodic comments, saying they can “never understand them.” One of the White passengers turns out to be “fluent in Jive.”
And yet Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White, the two actors had fun and got paid well. But what do they know, they are black. They need a white protector to watch over them.
Humorless is an understatement. BTW is Fitchburg State a real school and why would you go there to study film making. Isn’t fire science or elementary ed more in their purview? And why would you tell anybody you went there if you didn’t have to? It is like bragging about graduating from Job Corp. There is nothing actually wrong with it but it is not like it is an actual accomplishment either.
I always thought that Blazing Saddles made white people look stupid.
One interesting fact is that the woman who played Helen Willis actually was married to a White man, and they gave birth to singer Lenny Kravitz.
Whenever I read or hear the POC bullshiite, I just shut it off. You know you are dealing with a deranged loon.
wait til they review Blazing Saddles
LOL, yes re: In Living Color and Vanilla Ice.
In fact, see post # 19. I did those two links and watched, and after the second, it went automatically to more ILC vids, with the Vanilla Ice and Michael Jackson video parodies. Hilarious! And the end of the MJ video, after he had danced on top of a car and smashed the windows, etc., it had him asking a cop, “Officer, am I black or white?” and the officer said, “You’re under arrest,” to which MJ said, “I guess I’m black!” Funny!
I suspect many women wished they had the set of boobs that bounced around in front of the camera for two seconds.
And then kept laughing at stuff in the movie just like everyone else there did.
In fact I bet in some places it was a thing that a couple gals in the audience would stand up and shake theirs at that point of the movie.
Not when it first came out, but like campus movie nights and stuff like that.
Rocky Horror and other films they do that kind of stuff, its not a wild thoery, I’ve been to the midnight showings in college.
As I suspected, the author is too young to remember that Jive was an actual dialect before the movie came out, and was waning due to incomprehensibility. History did not start yesterday.
“Laqueesha, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. And don’t call me Laqueesha.”
Fixed.
So is the “Johnny” role a gay man being stereotypically gay? And yet agreed to do it just for laughs? As usual, liberals talk in circles. When I saw the scene of the two black men speaking jive in the theatre back in 1980, I knew somebody would get their panties in a wad over it (can I use that?). I didn’t know some moron would take it task 40 years later. Everything else must be right with their world if they have to waste their time politically-correcting a 40-year-old movie.
Q: Did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have the fried chicken and watermelon for his in-flight meal?
And to extend the joke, Barbara Billingsley’s character June Cleaver was probably the “whitest” character on TV.
I think the movie will be come less digestible by future audiences who don’t understand that many jokes were derived from cultural touchstones that were familiar to audiences at the time. The more curious ones will dive deeper into the jokes and probably laugh a second time when they realize what original material was being parodied.
I love the fact they got the same actress who did the Yuban coffee commercials to play the housewife. “Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home...”
I remember also they did get a dig on Reagan...”I haven’t felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film.”
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