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In other news of the day, Facebook is demonetizing The Babylon Bee (albeit temporarily) for creating a spoof news story where The Bee likened the Amy Coney Barrett Senate hearings to the witch scene in Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975). The offending phrase seemed to have been flagged by an automated system, objecting to the admonishment to “burn her” (Barrett, not Hirono), but appeal to an actual human did not change the verdict. This all seems too absurd to even wrap your head around but it reminds me how much of the humor from the 1970s wouldn’t go over very well at all, these days.

In related news, over on Netflix streaming, Netflix is poised to remove The Naked Gun from their service. This was a 1988 big-screen follow up to the six-episode TV series Police Squad!, airing originally in 1982. That, itself, was something of a follow-on to the 1980 movie Airplane!. I decided to watch both of these movies, even thought Airplane! is not due to expire in the immediate future.

Airplane! is now considered a classic film. I guess that can happen when the teenagers who found it so funny in 1980 grow up to become adults. It is ranked #6 on Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies of All Time and has been selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress, it being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It is, I agree, still pretty funny, even 40 years after it came out.

A film this old is going to show its age – that can’t be helped. The concept, for anyone who didn’t live through that time, is a spoof on the disaster movies of the 70s, particularly the four films in the Airport series. Other references are anchored in the cultural moment – for example, the lengthy disco dancing/bar fight scene. Finally, though, the comedy itself is something unique to that time.

Airplane!‘s best lines still get me today. “Don’t call me Shirley,” “let’s get some pictures,” and “that’s not important right now” are all timeless. They don’t rely on cultural references nor are they by any means off-color. The film also has its share of gratuitous sexual jokes, which I do consider a sign of those times. The 70s pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable to say and to show in media and Airplane! reflects that. In this, it is less a leader than doing what is expected of a hit comedy for teens – random exposed boobies and barely veiled sexual allusions.

What really stands out, however, are what I’ll call “identity” jokes. A good chunk of the humor is ethnic based with another running gag being a homosexual air traffic controller with hyper-exaggerated affectations. One bit, a lengthy piece about “jive talking” as a foreign language, I can still acknowledge the humor without actually laughing at it. Other items, say the Air Israel airplane that wears a beard and yarmulke, don’t seem that funny at all. In all cases, these ethnic jokes would not be acceptable by today’s standards. Expect a Tom Hanks -style disapproval rather than even the hint of a laugh.

Clearly an Airplane! or a Blazing Saddles or, really, at least half of those top-ranked comedies of all time, couldn’t be made today. What is our culture losing when the number of third rails grows exponentially? This cannot be a good trend.

After being entirely amused by Airplane! (although I probably saw the edited-for-TV cut), I eagerly anticipated Police Squad! coming on TV and watched all the episodes before it was discontinued. The cancellation was announced after only four episodes were aired, with the remaining two being shown during the summer rerun period. The explanation from ABC’s president was that “the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it.” Essentially he was saying that the humor required too much engagement, too much concentration, in order to be followed. If this sounds outrageous, it did back then too. TV Guide* called it “the most stupid reason a network ever gave for ending a series.”

I didn’t know the details at the time, only that my favorite TV show of the moment had been canceled. Thus is was that, when the movie version of the series came out, it was a must see. I honestly don’t remember my impression from the time, which probably says I wasn’t impressed. Nor was I that impressed with my current viewing of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! Not that it was bad – it had its moments – but I don’t see how it ranks as #13 on that funniest-movies list (above Napoleon Dynamite? Come on, man!). I do see that the six original TV episodes are posted on YouTube. Maybe it is time I rewatched those?

I never did watch the two sequels to The Naked Gun movie. One assumes, as with most sequels, that they didn’t live up to the first in the series. I was comforted by the fact that these were still available on Amazon Prime streaming but, wrapping up this article, I see that, they too, were due to expire at the end of October and are no longer included free with Prime. I don’t feel all that disappointed that I missed them but I might have liked to watch all three for the feeling of completeness.

It has always seemed that my life was lived in a time when comedy was intertwined with the defense of freedom of speech. Lennie Bruce’s death emboldened the George Carlins and then the Richard Pryors and then the Eddie Murphys to challenge the limits placed on artistic expression. To me, it is particularly horrifying to see proscriptions on what you cannot say even while, unironically, reveling in the shock value of obscenity for obscenity’s sake. We’ve saved the superficial trappings of freedom while tossing out its underlying substance. More’s the pity.

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*How old do you have to be to remember that every household had a subscription to TV Guide magazine or, at the very least, the equivalent published in the local newspaper and used it to plan their week’s television consumption.