It’s no secret that a number of comedies from the ‘80s and ‘90s have aged about as well as a carton full of eggnog sitting in a hot car that’s being driven by Mel Gibson. Still, some movie fans were seemingly shocked, appalled and enraged by the mere suggestion that 1998’s Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, doesn’t 100 percent hold up today.
Social media users complained en masse that a recent airing of the film on the USA Network contained a pre-show disclaimerm which many people labeled a “Trigger Warning,” purely “because of Gen Z.” And if there’s one thing we know about Gen Z, it’s that they have a stranglehold on the cable TV industry.
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“We all love our ‘90s buddy comedies… but this movie was created in a different time,” the oddly chill warning read. “FYI: Certain depictions, language and humor may seem outdated and at times offensive.”
Seeing as how the movie is chock-full of racist slurs, having a warning when it plays on TV doesn’t really seem all that shocking, to be honest. And spending a few seconds reflecting on the fact that mainstream pop-culture mores have evolved in some respects over the past quarter century doesn’t seem terribly onerous.
Still, a lot of commenters blasted the “weak” and “soft” folks who would dare to tarnish the artistry of a Brett Ratner movie playing on cable, and called out the powers that be for censoring the movie.
A similar controversy erupted last year when folks accused HBO Max of “censoring” Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles by including a three-minute intro featuring film professor and Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart. Even though it should be pretty obvious that providing context and analysis for a film that’s then presented in its entirety is by no means censorship.
This is especially dumb in the case of Rush Hour considering that basic cable channels have a long history of actually censoring content. The USA Network only began allowing the F-word in 2018. And anyone who ever watched Die Hard 2 on TBS spent the climax of the movie wondering who the hell “Mr. Falcon” is.
Not to mention that culturally-sensitive content warnings for movies airing on television are hardly a new phenomenon. When The Godfather first aired on TV in the ‘70s and ‘80s, NBC cautioned viewers that the film is about a “small group” of criminals and not “representative of any particular ethnic group.”
Damn you Gen Z! Why did you have to ruin The Godfather when you were just negative-20-old?!?!
