Can't do the Otto-pilot scene anymore. Nope.
Posted on 07/03/2020 8:52:32 AM PDT by Stravinsky
Surely, we can be serious: Forty years ago in the summer of 1980, Airplane! flew into theaters and made the friendly skies safe... for laughter. The disaster movie spoof became an era-defining hit and launched the directorial careers of writing partners David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker — better known by their comedic call sign ZAZ. The trio went on to make such oft-quoted favorites as Top Secret!, The Naked Gun and Hot Shots!, but Airplane! remains their crowning achievement, even landing a spot on the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.
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While Airplane! is filled with gags that are funny in every age, some jokes play very differently in 2020 versus 1980. That includes moments like the “I speak jive” sequence, which might strike contemporary audiences as being out of step at a time when the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests are shining a light on the way race is addressed in Hollywood comedies from the past and present.
Zucker, though, stands by it four decades later. “It’s evenly laughing at Black people and white people. Everything is so sensitive nowadays, but when we show the movie, it still gets a laugh. People get it. It cuts through all the sensitivity, because in humor, you can’t be that sensitive.” On the other hand, Zucker notes that ZAZ made a point of road-testing all of their movies in front of preview audiences in order to spot jokes that crossed the line into meanness. “Sometimes stuff just isn’t funny, and that’s our fault. If the audience doesn’t get it, we haven’t done our job and we cut it out.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Can't do the Otto-pilot scene anymore. Nope.
The two black actors who spoke “jive” wrote all of their own dialog. The Zucker brothers didn’t try to write it because they knew it wouldn’t sound authentic coming from a Jewish man. They were fully in on the joke.
Leslie Neilsen was actually on an episode of MASH.
That’s not Kareem, his name is Roger Murdoch, he’s an airline pilot.
He didn’t work hard enough on defense.
Golly!
I'm Irish and I love that episode.Actually all the episodes were great but that was one of the best.
I love the scene with the young brat and the ‘wrongly-shaped’ chips.
Boy’s Mother: “He’s very clever... rather highly strung.”
Basil: “Yes...Yes, he should be!”
Airplane is timeless. It will always be hilarious.
I was thinking the same thing. I have to buy Airplane!, Gone With The Wind, and Blazing Saddles.
I can see a time where they won’t be available.
I’ll have the fish.
Robin Williams does a cool jive talking scene in his movie RV to kids playing basketball.
If you’re an RV nut, this is the movie for you.
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