BLAZING SADDLES IS LIKE OBAMA’S STAR WARS FOREIGN POLICY, YEAH?: So exactly how little power does Obama have over Hamid Karzai?: “‘You know that scene in the movie Blazing Saddles, when Cleavon Little holds the gun to his own head and threatens to shoot himself?’ asked Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan.” [New York Times]
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{ 76 comments }
Alfred E. Neumann’s brother?
No, Afghanistan is Mongo in this play. Utterly unstoppable. Immune to flatulence. Shoot him and he gets made. All we need is some smart guy to invent the candygram.
ZOMG!! Bitchincamaro is a PSYCHIC!
http://wonkette.com/412142/nidal-hasans-colleagues-were-cool-with-his-islam-which-by-the-transitive-property-is-very-significant#comment-456637
Is it just me, or would it perhaps have been a good idea to find an example in which the word “nigger” isn’t used?
*knock knock*
Karzai: Who is it?
Obama: Land shark.
Whenever Ronald E. Neumann is confronted with a black man in authority, he goes for the ‘Cleavon Little holding a gun to his head’ metaphor.
The President is a NIG…-”GONG”! Just say it already.
Today, we are all Cleavon Little.
It’s twoooo, it’s twoooo!
[re=456649]freakishlystrong[/re]: The sheriff is NEAR!
Ronald E. Neumann, former to Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Algeria? Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs?
One wonders why things aren’t going smoothly, why the “Sand Negroes” don’t love and admire us, in their towel-headed way?
We have such diplomatic diplomats, with diplomas for diplomacy.
He apparently forgot the part of the movie where it worked, so yeah….
GASP!!!
[re=456658]P Drizzle[/re]: I believe that should be “It’s twue, it’s twue!”
They talk of Byron and Shelley then jump on your belly and bust your balloons.
[re=456662]4tehlulz[/re]: He’s just crazy enough to do it!
BTW:
“Ronald E. Neumann (born 1945) was formerly the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (2005-2007) ”
2005-2007.
W’s man in Kabul when Afghanistan really became a quagmire thanks to Iraq. THANKS FOR NOT POINTING OUT THAT LITTLE GEM NYT.
[re=456644]user-of-owls[/re]: Insider trading???
You remember that scene in “American Pie” where that guy does that thing to that pie?
There’s only one reason that Obama would withhold money from Karzai: The President is a niggard.
And until Karzai learns where all the white wimmin at, it will remain this way.
*sigh*
Okay, explain it to me. In what way does the BS reference used by Neumann support his contention that Obama has limited power over Karzai?
Only apropos is the coda to that scene, as applied to most reactionaries:
Bart: Ooh, baby, you are so talented! [looks into the camera] And they are so *dumb*!
[re=456679]CycloneArmageddon[/re]: Apparently, Obama doesn’t have the power to withdraw troops and let Karzai fend for himself. This is too shocking to be told bluntly, so Mr. Neumann is trying to tell us the truth through a movie reference.
[re=456650]proudgrampa[/re]: I was thinking more along the lines of “Today, we are all Gabby Johnson.”
[re=456686]4tehlulz[/re]: *sob*
I get that. How does the reference explain it? *sob sob*
[re=456689]President Beeblebrox[/re]: It’s only a matter of time before somebody deep in the GOP redneck mushmouth bullpen treats us to some authentic prairie gibberish.
I’d like to thank Ronald Neumann for that authentic diplomatic gibberish.
I disagree. I think the foreign policy situation is most like that scene in Superbad where the fat kid says he had a problem with drawing dicks. George W. Bush is America’s weird kid phase, and Obama is the one who has to deal with the dick drawing embarrassment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29NmesM8a4
PULITZER, PLEASE!
Hello, handsome, is that a ten-gallon turban or are you just enjoying the show?
[re=456650]proudgrampa[/re]: I’ve always felt there’s a part of Cleavon inside me…..
[re=456644]user-of-owls[/re]: You mean Alfred E. Neumann is a PLAGIARIST!
[re=456660]What Fresh Hell is This?[/re]: With great respect, you have seen Blazing Saddles? The consensual and hallucinatory stupidity that is any culture*, and Rock Ridge culture is forgotten in a crisis. As far as we can observe, we might be the rarest of chemical epiphenomena, trapped together on this ship. No one even notices that they’ve lost their Rock Ridge tribalism momentarily. Alright, uh. Oh, and game theory is also. Game theory.
*We are often ironizing this word eg. the substitution for “Great art”.
Film analogy FAIL. The only pertinent example from which to draw is obviously STEAMBOAT AROUND THE BEND.
http://www.willrogers.com/new/articles/book_reviews/stepin_fetchit/M12A-76.jpg
*Piss on you. I’m workin for Mel Brooks.*
Come to think of it, Mel Brooks is seriously my favorite person in the whole freakin world.
[re=456660]What Fresh Hell is This?[/re]:
[re=456724]Sleeves[/re]:
Um . . . what?
A better metaphor is when Lando Calrissian is getting bitched around by Darth Vader.
OR when Darth Vader is getting bitched around by the Emperor Palpatine.
But never anything to do with Mace Windu, because Sam Jackson doesn’t get bitched.
RockRidgeiStan?
[re=456738]Gumboz1953[/re]: I’m disagreeing with someone I assume to be twice my smarts.
Also a fan.
[re=456689]President Beeblebrox[/re]: Revre!
Didn’t there used to be a “This Thing is Like That Thing” tag? You guys should bring that back.
While “Blazing Saddles” had absolutely no resolution or ending, however intentional its absence, methinks the Prez will come up with one for Afghanistan. He is used to rising above corruption, remember, as a product of the Chicago Democratic organization. Karzai is the kind of miserable ward heeler that Barry grew up with politically. You can’t be the money guy and the power guy in that situation, because you have to give away power to get money. If Karzai’s the money guy, he’s dirty and could be easily replaced. If he’s the power guy, then Obama needs to find the money guy and move him away from Karzai. Not a huge deal. At the right time, Hillary should sing, “I’m Tired,” as wonderful a tune as Mel ever wrote.
[re=456738]Gumboz1953[/re]: …while babysitting one…tw…three goirls. (Counting their ages. Oldest wants the “horse pornologist” read to her. So I say “That was Sara. How about Juli!? Blazing Saddles Is Like Obama’S Star Wars Foreign Policy, Yeah?”)
( http://wonkette.com/401554/tim-kaine-talks-to-reporters-at-creepy-horse-drowning-festival )
[re=456730]Mr Blifil[/re]:
Right. See, it might have worked if *it had been Sheriff Bart holding the gun*. But it’s “not,” that’s the joke.
This Neumann person is some diplomat or government official and yet he can’t accurately quote Blazing Saddles. Disgraceful, sir!
Here’s a Blazing Saddles reference that works nicely to explain Tea Baggers:
Jim: [consoling Bart] What did you expect? “Welcome, sonny”? “Make yourself at home”? “Marry my daughter”? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
[re=456790]lawrenceofthedesert[/re]: Or we could get a bunch of gay guys to sing “French Mistake,” and high-kick our way right out of the Middle East. I’d say Dom Deluise could direct, but it’s too late for that.
[re=456807]Gumboz1953[/re]: Too late for Cleavon Little as well.
We had a whole big Blazing Saddles thing going on another thread the other day. Perhaps this Neumann has been reading the Wonkett? If so, hello ex-Bushie dickwad!
[re=456807]Gumboz1953[/re]: C’mon, admit that we all want to see Hillary in costume for “I’m Tired.” She could become the Liza Minelli of foreign policy, if she isn’t already. After that, I’m thinking her and Condeleeza in a State Dept. bus and truck show of “Chicago.”
It’s never too late to say that Dom DeLuise could direct; it’s just too late for Dom to. (I should be teaching Wonkette as a Second Language.)
[re=456816]lawrenceofthedesert[/re]: Ahahaha!
[re=456816]lawrenceofthedesert[/re]: What role would Condi play? Mama Morton? I can’t see her as either Roxie or Velma.
Or maybe she can be Billy Flynn.
Karzai only pawn in game of life.
[re=456659]Mild Midwesterner[/re]: You stole my line. Though “excuse me while I whip this out may be more appropriate.
[re=456814]imissopus[/re]: ::Smacks headphones:: “We’ll make Rock Ridge think it’s a chicken that got caught in a tractor’s nuts.” Tractor…did that one come out?
Of course the significance of that scene was what came next. “Oh baby you’re sooo smart” and they-the God fearing folk of white folk of Rock Ridge were “sooo stupid”. They were, as the Waco Kid pointed out so clearly, MORANS. Of course, candidate Obama pointed out that the archetype still exists, clinging desperately to their guns and bibles. Yeah the truth hurts. BTW Blazing Saddles is the greatest movie that ever was. Next to The Godfather of course. OK, I’m done.
[re=456844]Sleeves[/re]: Did this descend, I mean.
Actually, unfortunately, it’s too late for any of these “Saddles” folks to direct: Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Cleavon Little, Jack Starrett (who played Gabby Johnson, which was based on Gabby Hayes, the Western actor), Richard Pryor (who co-wrote the film), Slim Pickens, Robert Ridgely (a famous character actor and voice-over actor who played Boris, The Hangman), Liam Dunn (Rev. Johnson), and George Furth (Van Johnson). Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, John Hillerman and David Huddleston are still with us.
This is what Obama told his Afgahnistan advisers just today, in regards to shoring up security in the country:
“I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglars, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!”
–30–
No matter what the strategy, somebody needs to go back and get a shitload of dimes
[re=456856]thefrontpage[/re]: It should be “…ass-kickers, shit kickers and BLACKWATER!”
[re=456849]thefrontpage[/re]: When Mel goes, the fucking asteroid can hit. I won’t care anymore.
That whole generation of comics was irreplaceable. Ever see the Don Rickles roast of Ronald Reagan? Screamingly funny. And Joan Rivers did a routine on a trip to the gynecologist that nearly killed me, I was laughing so hard (“THERE’S Jimmy Hoffa!”).
National treasures. Nobody does it like that anymore.
[re=456856]thefrontpage[/re]: “Bushwhackers”? Eww.
[re=456849]thefrontpage[/re]: “Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Cleavon Little, Jack Starrett (who played Gabby Johnson, which was based on Gabby Hayes, the Western actor), Richard Pryor (who co-wrote the film), Slim Pickens, Robert Ridgely (a famous character actor and voice-over actor who played Boris, The Hangman), Liam Dunn (Rev. Johnson), and George Furth (Van Johnson).”
Done Too Soon.
[re=456849]thefrontpage[/re]: fuck. that is one awesome list.
[re=456894]CycloneArmageddon[/re]: The only ones missing were Burt Mustin, Allen Melvin and Bernardn Fox. Those Mofos were in EVERYTHING!!!
[re=456845]thesheriffisnear[/re]: On the DVD commentary, an exquisitely depressed sounding Mel Brooks describes the “pitch” to a dozen executives at Warner. After the screening was “ten minutes of silence” broken by actuarial talk. We can run it to half-expenses in New York and Los Angeles…that kind of thing.
Hillary: More Schnitzengruben?
Obama: No thank you, fifteen is my limit on Schnitzengruben!
[re=456872]Georgia Burning[/re]: Now what’ll those ASSHOLES THINK of next.
The other remarkable thing is that Brooks, Wilder, and Kahn (and Liam Dunn, and perhaps others from the Brooks stable) also did Young Frankenstein the same time. Don’t know which was shot first, but I think they were both released in 1974.
*. . . Dey darker dan us. Whoop!*
Neuman, you’re a dipshit, but thanks for this thread, you moran.
[re=456907]Sleeves[/re]: Saw it, crackejack. Brocks knew he had a hit when the Friday night crowd fell over on ” dock that Chink a day’s pay…” The execs said too much “Nigger” in the movie. As if they didn’t throw “N” word around every other sentece. The best ever, PERIOD. BTW, did I mention that I was “Near?”
[re=456757]Tommmcatt[/re]: Check out “Its Good to be the King” and “The Inquisition” on the Youtubes. Slightly better than I’m Tired, I think. But what do I know about Jewish
schtick?:I’m Near.
That last reply is for LawrenceoftheDesert. Also the typos “Brocks” show that I don’t have this thing down yet. I don’t even like Cheetos.
Jesus, enough with the Blazing Saddles references. We might as well just give up Shakespeare, sports AND the Bible as a source of metaphors.
[re=456932]Gumboz1953[/re]: Actually they released Saddles in ’71; it was the movie that finally gave Brooks the clout to make a black-and-white parody of Frankenstein.
[re=457108]keepinitrealyo[/re]: Commence Spaceballs references in 5…4…3…2…
You remember that scene in that movie where the one guy goes “Throw me the whip!” and the other guy is like “Throw me the idol!” and the first one throws the idol but then the other guy just drops the whip?
Yeah, this is nothing like that.
[re=457153]snideinplainsight[/re]: Right, there was no controversy there. A death penalty was immediately served to satisfy the Natural Lawyers and, against the Foreign Languages of the European Beloch, we lost swiftly.
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