Blazing Saddles
If there's been a better comedy film than Blazing Saddles in the past 30 odd years - I've yet to see it.
Mel Brooks riotous western has a lot going for it - other than bean-fuelled cowboys - the story is overtly racist, sexist, offensive and way over the top - on just about every front imaginable.
But that's the whole point.
Because the film pokes fun at the establishment and stereotypes of all kinds - allowing people to laugh at the absurdities of the modern world - through the eyes of the Waco Kid and the Sheriff of Rock Ridge.
Imagine a society ruled over by religious fundamentalists - of any description.
A film like Blazing Saddles would be banned for being subversive - because that's exactly what it is.
Maybe that's why I like Private Eye so much - there's nothing quite like it for making fun of the 'great and the good'.
Here are a couple of items from the latest edition:
NUMBER CRUNCHING
15 months - Prison sentence of Timothy Harris, a thug from Northamptonshire, for benefit fraud which cost taxpayers £54,000.
1 week - Time for which David Laws, a former cabinet minister from Somerset, has been excluded (on full pay) from the House of Commons after paying back £56,000 he wrongly claimed from taxpayers in benefits.
-
Mel Brooks riotous western has a lot going for it - other than bean-fuelled cowboys - the story is overtly racist, sexist, offensive and way over the top - on just about every front imaginable.
But that's the whole point.
Because the film pokes fun at the establishment and stereotypes of all kinds - allowing people to laugh at the absurdities of the modern world - through the eyes of the Waco Kid and the Sheriff of Rock Ridge.
Imagine a society ruled over by religious fundamentalists - of any description.
A film like Blazing Saddles would be banned for being subversive - because that's exactly what it is.
Maybe that's why I like Private Eye so much - there's nothing quite like it for making fun of the 'great and the good'.
Here are a couple of items from the latest edition:
NUMBER CRUNCHING
15 months - Prison sentence of Timothy Harris, a thug from Northamptonshire, for benefit fraud which cost taxpayers £54,000.
1 week - Time for which David Laws, a former cabinet minister from Somerset, has been excluded (on full pay) from the House of Commons after paying back £56,000 he wrongly claimed from taxpayers in benefits.
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The Irish Banquet for the Queen
Menu in Full
Potato Soup
***
Baked Potato with Mash
Chips
Potatoes Dauphinoise
Sauteed Potatoes
***
Potato Ice Cream
***
Petit Potatoes
***
To drink:
Potcheen 1846
