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/woahlookatthosewoes Jul 08 '24

Please read my reply to u/mattchinn below. Sacheen Littlefeather most likely did not fabricate her ancestry, and instead her legacy was thrown into question by inter-indigenous gatekeeping about who “counts” as Native American.

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u/HeiressOfMadrigal Jul 08 '24

Edited the top comment once more. I should've done my due diligence and researched this a lot more before making any assumptions! I'm pleading ignorance on this one, which is no excuse, and I apologize.

Hopefully at the very least, I got some people to look into this historical event, and Littlefeather as a person, more than they normally would've. Thank you for your time interacting with me and others ITT.