Posted on 08/20/2020 1:10:03 PM PDT by 11th_VA
It would be easy to put “Airplane!” on a no-fly list of offensive films. That would be a mistake because it demonstrates how to push boundaries in the right way.
When it first crash-landed in cinemas 40 years ago, the irreverent “Airplane!” wowed critics and audiences with its fast-and-loose brand of humor. It remains one of the most consistently uproarious laughfests ever filmed, and became an instant comedy classic when it hit screens in 1980. The 40th anniversary Blu-ray reissue arrives Tuesday.
In writing and directing “Airplane!,” the creative triumvirate of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker (later known as ZAZ) combined vaudevillian humor, oddball non sequiturs, dirty jokes and visual gags into a unique flurry of funny. One can rewatch the film and uncover new visual and verbal jokes because they packed in so many punchlines.
This was a topsy-turvy world where the roughest bar brawlers are feisty Girl Scouts, a military commander fights his way through religious recruiters at LAX, and a Boeing 747 sign features “no smoking” and “no screwing” light displays. And then there was the witty word play: "Surely you can't be serious?" “I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley.” And yes, coming at the beginning of the ’80s, it delved into gratuitous nudity and cursing, though it stopped short of totally overplaying its hand...
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I remember him in Forbidden Planet.
"Just kidding."--Johnny with the electric cord in his hands.
Stack also made a brief appearance, in the David Zucker directed "Baseketball", playing himself on Unsolved Mysteries, it was hillarious.
I’ll have to look for that.
Stack also did a sort of Untouchables skit for the color version of the Lucy Show.
It’s in the boxed set of Untouchables.
Quite funny.
“I used to sit on your face and wriggle.”
Elaine: Would you like something to read?
Old Lady: Do you have anything light?
Elaine: Uhh...how about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?
“Airplane” is a spoof of the movie “The High and the Mighty” made in 1954.
I remember Siskel and Ebert panned the Zucker brothers back in the 80s, long before the cancel culture. They were like “I wonder if the Zucker brothers think this is funny?!”. Um, yeah I guess they did.
What the heck??? Is that John Travolta?....lol
+ 1,000,000 to that comment. The NBA SUCKS any more.
Just wanted to tell you all, good luck, we’re all counting on you...
It was “nigga.” I remember how shocked I was to hear it ftom her.
You are correct the overdub was “chump.” But that was not the original.
I disagree. I saw it in the theaters in the first couple of weeks that it came out in 1980 (we had a friend who was such a movie buff, he dragged us to every new film). It’s always been “chump”. Granted, this was Texas so perhaps the phrase (which is off camera) was redubbed after first release but the n-word was not to be uttered (by cultured whites, anyway) even back then.
Now, the scene in “Mad Men” where Mrs. Blankenship disses the Clay-Liston fight, she really does say the n-word but the DVD release changed it to “negroes”. Her shocking line was “If I want to see two n-——s fight, I’ll just throw a dollar out my back window”. Classic.
Very true. A great film.
Laughing now!
Yeah, what’s a Theater?
What? No Monty Python and the Holy Grail???
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