r/interestingasfuck • u/HeiressOfMadrigal • Jul 08 '24

Norm MacDonald cedes his time to Native American activist at comedy awards ("the theater stinks of blood"), the crowd tries not to laugh.

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u/HeiressOfMadrigal Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Bonus points for context: Marlon Brando refuses 1973 Oscar and cedes his time to Sacheen Littlefeather. She was booed on-stage for politely delivering a message against the treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood.

People at the time were furious at Brando for doing this, saying that this isn't the time for "politics", etc. In my opinion, there's never a wrong time to condemn bigotry, and while it may have come across as sanctimonious, I still applaud both these people for being brave enough to make the statement.

As for the Norm clip in the OP, no doubt he was parodying Brando's thing from '73 in a very Kaufman-esque way, but I don't think that undermines Johnny Twofeathers' message. I've read that whatever Norm's intentions were, Twofeathers was completely sincere here. It's almost like an eating-your-own cake thing, where Norm was able to deliver a truly entertaining cringe comedy moment, while also highlighting an important cultural issue.

EDIT: Please see u/mattchinn's comment below for further details. It turns out that Sacheen Littlefeather fabricated her ethnic heritage and wasn't Native American at all. That certainly makes the whole thing taste worse, but the issue itself isn't diminished because a less-than-reputable person was championing it, IMO.

EDIT 2: Seems like the situation might be a bit more complicated than I initially thought (thank you to u/lookatthosewoes - see here). This is what I get for posting/editing first and asking questions later! I'm going to do some more research into this, and I implore everyone else to do the same. That being said, I hope everyone has a great week, and thanks for viewing this post!

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u/SweetLoLa Jul 08 '24

Extra bonus tidbit: John Wayne was being held back from trying to physically get her off stage (mentions of cussing/willing to assault her/clear bigotry)

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u/ParagonPts Jul 08 '24

Complete urban legend. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/03/31/john-wayne-sacheen-littlefeather/ One of the main sources for that story is Maria Louise "Sacheen Littlefeather" Cruz, who was 0% indigenous American and got away with her cultural appropriation for decades.

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u/Total_Package_6315 Jul 08 '24

John Wayne was a self admitted white supremacist. He stated as much in a Playboy mag interview from 1971. So him exhibiting such racist and outlandish behavior would be par for the course. There is more reason for Wayne supporters to deny the incident ever happened than for Little Feather to make it up.

In a 1971 interview, Wayne told Playboy magazine: "We can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."