I always found it crazy when this would play on network television, they would not censor any instance of the N-word, but would completely remove the campfire fart scene.
Curious, in contrast I remember when they aired A Fish Called Wanda (that was a long time ago), they censored John Cleese’s response to one of Otto’s inarticulate verbal insult streams: “How very interesting… you’re a true vulgarian, aren’t you?”
…so as to not offend… people from Bulgaria, I guess? They might confuse the V with a B, then write strongly worded letters to the head of network programming?
I always found it crazy when this would play on network television, they would not censor any instance of the N-word, but would completely remove the campfire fart scene.
Fun fact, that scene was the first audible fart joke in film, so it being censored originally makes a little sense.
Curious, in contrast I remember when they aired A Fish Called Wanda (that was a long time ago), they censored John Cleese’s response to one of Otto’s inarticulate verbal insult streams:
“How very interesting… you’re a true vulgarian, aren’t you?”
…so as to not offend… people from Bulgaria, I guess? They might confuse the V with a B, then write strongly worded letters to the head of network programming?
Vulgarian sound like “vulva.” It was probably that weak similarity to dirty, evil sex that got the line cut.
It’s entirely possible that the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles is the straw that broke Hollywood’s fetish for westerns.
If so, Mel Brooks did the world a great service.