Groucho Marx criticizes blackface comedy (1967) 

The entire episode of this hour long talk between Groucho and Buckley is highly recommended and can be seen in its entirety here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cXlIZBZpkoA.html

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read a book." - Groucho Marx

I remember Robin Williams doing a skit on SNL where he played Buckley. I had no idea who Buckley was but thought the character was hilarious. Now that I see the real person I realize Robin Williams impersonation was almost perfect.

He acknowledges that even though he enjoyed a piece of media, it was still problematic and he could still criticize it? This is something people struggle with today!

"I liked this because it was what I knew, but now we have a different understanding, and it's time to leave it behind," is a concept so many people TODAY seem to have such a hard time grasping.

If that interviewer was any more laid back, he'd be a liquid! 😂

Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra - people you don't realise actually stood up or spoke against against racism in the 60's.

Why does Buckley constantly look like he’s melting?

I never saw a tv host reclining and slouching like Buckley.

People today unironically say "you couldn't make X today because we're too PC", not even stopping to think about why.

Groucho, a comic genius and thoroughly decent and thoughtful man.

As a Jew living in the 20st century, Groucho was very familiar with bigotry. He knew what he was talking about.

Groucho was no ignorant fool stuck in the old ways of the past. He realized the culture had changed immensely since his turn-of-the-twentieth-century youth, that what had been a popular form of entertainment was becoming widely regarded as offensive and demeaning to black people, and he admitted this fact up-front to Buckley without any sign of regret or bemoaning. This shows great maturity and wisdom, and a capacity for accepting change!

The people arguing that they should be allowed to be offensive, are making a bad faith argument. What they are actually arguing, is that they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions.

This man understood the meaning of a struggle, but today when people ask for certain jokes not to be told because they're offensive they get called "snowflakes"

"Well.." *HOLD ON THERE PARD'NER.*

Billy needs a double espresso,

That "Well..." at the end is Buckley's entire being in one word.

I wish more people would be honest eaters like this, sometimes you tell a joke and you didn’t mean anything by it but it was far too hurtful to someone so you don’t tell it anymore. People clinging on to these old hateful ways is really deranged

This is basically what Tom Petty said about the Confederate flag. He was raised in Florida where it was everywhere but he came to realize that African Americans see it the same way Jewish people see a swastika.

Always liked Groucho. Like him even more now!

If he said that today you'd have a lot of grifters making living out of drama calling him woke, sjw and other demented terms.

groucho always ahead of his time.

“I liked blackface shows because I was brought up on it, but it’s wrong today and I don’t think it’s appropriate because of the struggle they face”. Humble and principled response, no pretentious narrative or excuses to defend something he now knows is harmful.

When you look in the dictionary of the phrase "Lean Back, Lean Back"... You don't see Terror Squad... you see the OG 'WILLIAM BUCKLEY'🤣🤣🤣......

Man people would call him woke now

so apparently the algorithm has, in the last few hours, brought us all to a 3 year old video of an interview that took place in 1967 because...ALL HAIL THE ALGORITHM!!

Buckley should have sat up and spoken clearly. He was in the company of royalty.

I think William F. Buckley is trying to take a nap in his chair! LoL.

I have never seen anyone sit in a chair like that before. Lol.

Interesting that he said that before the heyday of the _Black and White Minstrel Show_ on the BBC in the 1970s, the decade that taste forgot.

“you can’t joke about anything anymore because of woke” has been around for at least 60 years

Comedians today are making careers whining about wokeness and political correctness; meanwhile Groucho himself had the right idea all along

Interesting that minstrel shows were frowned upon in 1967 in the USA, when I remember minstrel shows were shown regularly UK television. As a child I always found them really boring, lol. But I was only a very young child.

What happened to the painting back there?

William F Buckley always looked like he was moments away from sliding out of his chair.

The main thing I learned from this is that Right Wing commentator's have literally been making the same complaints for 50 years. Wah wah, the world is changing and we don't like it.... Nothing new.

Bill Buckley leans right, literally - anon

0:12 Maybe not on American television in the 60s, but believe it or not there was a British tv show called "The Black and White Minstrel Show" which ran from 1958 to 1978.

Everything is so woke, we can't have comedy. I wish we can go back to the old days like the 60s where we can have comedy like....oooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Nowadays lots of comedians push back in the idea that something funny in the past couldn’t be accepted today. Marx understands things change, thus comedy and whats considered “bad taste” changes. Wish more comedians had this kind of maturity, they’d be funny for a longer time!

Anyone disagreeing with Grouch Marx needs to go away and have a little talk with themselves

"Well ..." Buckley was a master at ignoring the clear point people made, as any proper regressive would do. It's easy to fill in the rest, because we still hear it today. Goes like this: "Well, because it was OK then, isn't it OK today for us to say it was OK then?" aka "It's our *heritage*. And _heritage_ can't be bad. We're not bad people, right?"

Lot of old people can learn something from this man

Groucho had 10x the intellect and empathy of Buckley.

"how dare he go woke"

That’s not the answer the host was after 😂

We have the same debates, over and over and over again. First time I have seen Groucho without his makeup tho. Such a difference

Buckley putting on an epic display of aloofness.

To put this under modern context: one of my favorite sitcoms growing up was Married... with Children. One of my favorite anime ever is Cromartie High School. An episode of the former closed out on the punchline that one of the few women to legitimately have feelings for Bud Bundy(whose running gag is that he always failed at getting a girlfriend) was born a man. The Dub of Cromartie tried to mimic the lingo of High School delinquents in the 2000s, and in one of the jokes from the dub they dropped the hard "f" word to mock some characters. These shows are still funny for me, and among my faves, and still give me chuckles. But what I enjoyed 20 years ago isn't automatically stuff that folks from 20 years later would appreciate, so I have learned not to go full Dickwolf if something I enjoy can occasionally be seen as an issue by others. It's just like how the FGC(fighting games community mind) eventually grew out of using the phrase of r-ping an opponent when beating them in a match- so too can we adapt our forms of humor from time to time too.

I wouldn’t join any club that’d have me as a member.

Ken Burns' documentary Jazz claimed that minstrel shows had been the primary American form of entertainment for 80 years (~1840-1920). Meaning, the entertainment most Americans saw when they went to a theater as opposed to playing an instrument at home. Unlike vaudeville, these shows had a stock setting, stock characters, stock jokes, stock everything, all dedicated to the certainty that Blacks were stupid, lazy and unwilling to place work over entertainment, relentlessly drummed into the heads of five generations of Americans North and South. This aligned with the national racist narrative to explain Black poverty and powerlessness. The fact that such a mass indoctrination happened at all is more disturbing than the blackface, but the blackface is the shorthand for all that baggage because it is the repetitive coding that signals the audience that this is the accepted wisdom of their society.

If Groucho were alive today the right would have called him woke

And there’s still people who do black face today

I read somewhere that (Al Jolson) admitted that doing Black-Face was wrong.

Bill buckley sitting overly comfortable lol

Buckley was certainly one of the greatest pretentious prigs in US history……

Where is his cigar?

But what does Groucho think about moustache face comedy?

A mature man being questioned by a permanent infant. What a contrast.

This statement shows how views change gradually and honestly over time. Even though Groucho is clearly expressing a positive and progressive idea for the time, he still used the term "colored people", and meant absolutely no disrespect when saying it.

Now people would complain he's woke

Moe Howard of The Three Stooges literally started his comedy career by doing live, minstrel show-type blackface performances. There is even a Stooges short which feature them doing blackface (Uncivil War Birds). When Curly and Shemp died, however, Moe offered black comedian Mantan Moreland a chance to join the act. The studio refused though. People aren’t perfect. They make many mistakes and sometimes don’t even realize it. What ultimately matters is if they learn from them and change themselves for the better. The fact that Groucho and Moe did tells you what kind of person they were. May they Rest In Peace.

Buckley seems to be the Forrest Gump of interviewers. The guy has had an audience with every old school famous person.

Sooo woke, oh wait that word didn't exist then, it was called decency

I love Groucho Marx’s answer. He’s not defending blackface comedy per se. He’s acknowledging that yes, it may have been funny back when he was coming up as a comedian but now, it’s not funny today. He doesn’t regret it but he just wouldn’t do those kinds of jokes today. And that’s what most comics should say: It may have been funny (and maybe wrong) back then and I don’t regret it (depending on the joke or act) but I wouldn’t do that today. (Which is different from a lot bitter old “comedians” who would rather bitch and moan about “political correctness” and “wokeness”.)

Buckley always looked like he was one with the furniture.

Groucho is saying with zero subtext that jokes shouldn't punch down.

They've really been doing the "Society's too woke!! you can't make these extremely racist jokes anymore!!!" shtick forever haven't they

Can’t ask for a whole lot more than that. Flat out honest. I’m not mad at that. Self aware. Considerate of others.

Yea, but he never saw tropic thunder

Groucho would be condemned as "WOKE!" by the blathering idiots today.

William Buckley was a mass of pretentiousness and affectations. Classic right winger who'd smile and suck up, sneer and punch down.

Buckley alway looked like he was on the other side of half dozen gin and tonics. Because he was.

Groucho: ... I don't think there should be any jokes connected with them. Buckley: Well, ..........

Buckey's leaning so much backwards, waving his hands around as if he had a cigarette there. His whole body language is "and who do you think YOU are?" and he's talking to a real legend. I have absolutely no idea who he is, but he's clearly used to being the big fish in a small pond.

Buckley would have to be the most polarizing figure of his profession in their day. It upsets me just to see him, much less slouched as he is and rampantly superior in this vid. Disgusting human being.

Why is he in a disguise

What a surprisingly nuanced take. This is the most sincere I've ever seen Groucho be.

Buckley loved calling himself an intellectual. Nothing could e farther from reality.

Buckley in his disguise as an intellectual

That interviewer's about to fall off the chair.

"When did Groucho Marx turn woke???" / sarcasm

damn, who went back in time and started wokeness. Oh wait, you mean wokeness just means being respectful and informed about the issues of p.o.c?

Mocking people based on their physical attributes is never acceptable, IMO. Carictures can be fine they aren't mean-spirited and are simply an avatar (with slight necessary exaggeration), but saying, "The fact that you have this physical trait is inherently funny," is not okay.

Reminds me of some of the things my grandad would say.

I love Groucho so I say this with some reverence: Says the guy who did All God's Children Got Rhythm ".

So a person can do something offensive in the past, grow, and still have a career.

"William Buckley screams internally in eternal agony." Seriously, this was woke before woke was even a thing

Intelligence wins through.

Trudeau must be like this guy ,wait noooo

Interviewer has the most bisexual sitting posture Ive ever seen in old tv recordings

Nowadays, Republicans call this "woke" and "CRT"

Groucho outclassed Buckley the entire interview

Sheriff Wydell did not like groucho. Even in skidoo where grroucho played the role of god. Hehe

Wow..Groucho spot on in 1967. Ahead of his time.

"Back in my day, we could joke without the woke mob getting offended." This video should go in my bookmarks. It would probably get used often on social media.

Yet for some damn reason, this opinion will get you fired in the conservative comedy sphere.

I was so ready for this to be mocking black people and Groucho be in make up. I am so sorry Mr Marx. You are gold.

It's not that you can't say racist jokes anymore. You're free to be and say racist and bigoted jokes. It just that society no longer accepts that behavior and a small percentages of ppl are pissed about that. To whom I say, Too bad.