Whoopi Goldberg defended Western satire “Blazing Saddles” against internet trolls on Wednesday, saying the racist joke went too far and tried to take it down.
“The View” hosts began a discussion about how classic comedies will age in 2022 — a topic inspired by Mindy Kaling’s recent comment that “The Office” is “so out of place now” and could never be made today.
Goldberg’s 1974 Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles deals with racism right, straight, from the outside, and makes you think and laugh about it, because, listen, it’s not just racism, it’s all the “-isms.” ‘ It beats all the ‘-isms’.’
Set in 1874, the story follows a corrupt politician who hires a black sheriff to keep a frontier village from being destroyed.
“‘Blazing Saddles,’ because it’s a great comedy, continues today — there’s a lot of comedies that aren’t good, right?” We’re just saying – this is not one of them. “Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest movies because it touches everything,” Goldberg said.
“If you’ve never seen ‘Saddles of Fire,’ do yourself a favor and grab some popcorn, a glass of wine, and put it on, because it’s awesome,” Goldberg advised.
Co-host Sarah Haynes agreed that “laughter is the ultimate cure for life and everything it brings” and that comedy should be a “sacred space” for artists to work in.
Joey Behar brought up the 70s TV series All in the Family and argued, “You take away Archie’s bigotry, and you don’t have a character.”
“That’s the way it was, that’s how you should treat people,” he continued. “If everything was great…and decent, then you’d never know about the other people out there.”
“The purpose of this art is to introduce you to all sides of a person. Why would you want to take away the beauty of watching Archie Bunker make a fool of himself?’ Behar finished.
“Leave my Shining Saddles alone.” Don’t make me come to you,” Goldberg said at the end of the segment.
The “Sister Act” star made headlines earlier this week when she revealed on “The View” that her will contained a clause barring unauthorized biopics from being made about her after her death.
