The right-wing misreading of ‘Blazing Saddles’ is so telling

"Gene Wilder as Bart’s fast-drawing friend Jim, is even more explicit. “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers,” Jim reassures Bart after he’s endured racist insults from a nice White grandma. “These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.”

You’re really not supposed to outright say that rural White MAGA voters — the “people of the land” — are deplorable racist dunderheads. You’re supposed to be respectful. But Blazing Saddles,” 50 years ago, said that treating racists with respect is BS — even if those racists look like your grandma, even if those racists live in small towns and hang out in diners.

If a movie like Brooks’ masterpiece were made today, the left would love it. It’s the right who would recognize, slowly and dimly, that they were being insulted, and howl in rage. The best way to honor “Blazing Saddles” is to offend some racists."

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/07/opinions/blazing-saddles-50th-anniversary-politics-berlatsky/index.html