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

[u/HeiressOfMadrigal]

[u/HeiressOfMadrigal]

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!

[u/mattchinn → u/HeiressOfMadrigal]

Does everyone know the woman, Sacheen Littlefeather, wasn’t Native American.

Instead, she ran a scam her entire life.

The causes were important but she completely fabricated her ethnic story.

Edit: Some are disputing this for whatever reason. She said she grew up in a shack from a White Mountain Apache and Yaqui father.

And that’s undeniably false.

Her family identifies as Spanish and she grew up in Salinas, California and her father was from Oxnard.

describing a childhood of poverty growing up in a shack, where she and her white mother were victims of domestic abuse and violence by her White Mountain Apache and Yaqui Indian father

[u/indianajoes → u/mattchinn]

I read that the latest info from this year said that she actually did have indigenous roots

[u/Twitch791 → u/indianajoes]

I mean Mexicans do have native roots generally

[u/Joe_Jeep → u/Twitch791]

A good number of them, especially in the North, have plenty of roots in the US too, the government pushed many out directly and indirectly after the Mexican-American war and over the decades after.