Native Americans Walk Off Adam Sandler Movie Set Over Offensive Jokes
by Andy Neuenschwander
Adam Sandler hasn't been a big hit with movie critics lately, and now it seems that Native Americans don't like him much either.
A group of Native American actors working on the set of Sandler's upcoming movie "The Ridiculous 6" walked off the set this week after hearing the offensive jokes written into the script.
Netflix, who is funding and distributing the film, defended the movie as being a "broad satire" of westerns, and that the Native Americans in the story and in the cast would be "in on the joke." However, pieces of the script leaked today, and it really seems that they're being laughed at, not laughed with.
For example, all of the Native American characters have names like "Beaver Breath" and "Sits-On-Face." Here's an excerpt:
And here are more names, as spoken in broken English by one of the characters:
There are more excerpts, all of them offensive in some way. The problem here is twofold: the jokes are offensive, and they're also just not funny. Some comedies and comedians get away with racial humor because it's well thought-out and says something about the state of racism; "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" is a good example of how to do Native American jokes properly, since they mocked the white people who oppressed them instead of mocking Native Americans themselves.
It will be interesting to see how Netflix continues to respond to the outcry here. Thus far they've been on a roll with their original programming, and this is their first major misstep...though "Kimmy Schmidt" also faced a bit of backlash over its treatment of black and Asian characters.