Netflix’s upcoming Ridiculous 6 isn’t the first time Sandler has gotten into trouble.
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Adam Sandler’s latest film nobody will watch, the Spaghetti Western spoof Ridiculous 6, received some unwanted attention last month when a dozen Native American actors walked off set in response to offensive, racist depictions of their people in the film. Netflix, who will release Ridiculous 6 on its streaming site, quickly retorted, “It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only a part of — but in on — the joke.” The diverse cast must have missed the memo that they were in on it.
Never one to learn from his mistakes, Adam Sandler is doubling-down on his Native American racism.
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the film’s makeup department is “darkening actors of various ethnicities (including black and Asian talent) to make them appear Native American.” Happy Madison, Sandler’s production company, seems determined to characterize Native Americans in the most reductive way possible, crying “Satire!” when they receive negative criticism for racism that would feel right at home in the imagination of U.S President Andrew Jackson, the man responsible for the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Racism has been one of the more prominent components of Sandler’s films throughout the 21st century, peppered in since Billy Madison premiered in 1995. Not counting when he acts in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, Sandler’s lazy, unfunny, grating movies have devolved into straight up minstrelsy, demonstratating the pervasiveness of racism in popular culture.
So what are some of Sandler’s most racist films?
1) Blended
The film was widely panned for its offensive depiction of African culture, treating the continent as a monolith, packed with images of an anachronistic tribalism, wild animals, and crazy accents. South African movie critic Binwe Adebayo called the film “a shameless sequence of tired stereotypes made for a seemingly ignorant, borderline unconscious audience”:
[Sandler’s Africa] completely divorced from any urban or rural reality in this country. There is ostrich-riding and elephant-feeding, and large herds of giraffe and wildebeest walk gracefully across the ‘savannah.’ Similarly, the “native” people are divided into three categories: oversexed and leering, bumbling and inarticulate, or just bone lazy.
Whether meant for laughs or not, this brand of comedy reproduces discriminatory ideas, and considering the treatment of black culture in the U.S. today, maybe Sandler should have maybe asked anybody before making a movie about Africa.
2) Jack and Jill
In an hour-long, point-by-point takedown of Jack and Jill, Mike of Red Letter Media explains, “What we should mention is that Jack and Jill is the most racist film since The Birth of a Nation.” Is that a little too hyperbolic? You be the judge.
In a moment they refer to as “the most passively racist scene in movie history,” where Sandler’s Jill goes to a family picnic with Sandler’s Jack’s Mexican gardener, Felipe (Eugenio Derbez). The gardener makes self-deprecating jokes at the expense of Mexicans throughout the film that cover immigration and the name “Juan,” often “resolved” with a “Just kidding!” At the picnic, Jill accidentally knocks out Felipe’s grandmother, also played by Derbez, with a soccer ball. She can only be revived using the volatile scent of jalapeños. This gag happens twice in the movie.
Felipe continues to be the mouthpiece for unprovoked Mexican humor, that can in no way be classified as satire. For instance, one of the characters casually asks Felipe, “Oh, did you have a nice Thanksgiving?” He responds, “Yeah, I had the whole family come over. Even my Aunt Rosa snuck across the border.” It would be offensive if it weren’t so lazy and depressing.
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