Including blackface, which other threads are suggesting is just totally impossible to pull off. The reality is it's perfectly fine to do anything offensive so long as the the joke isn't just reinforcing those beliefs.

Not any different than the very common older, white racist character in sitcoms today. They're funny! Not because racism is funny, but because the unacceptability of their racism is funny.

those episodes aren't on any streaming service nowadays though

Its also tv's longest running sitcom.

Really? I would have guessed Seinfeld or something in that vein.

I think it's actually pretty debatable, depending on what you count "longest running" to mean. Curb Your Enthusiasm has been on since 2000 but has taken years-long breaks. Is that longest running?

FWIW It's Always Sunny is, I believe, considered the longest running live action sitcom. Longest running sitcom overall is The Simpsons.

Simpsons is not considered a sitcom, but it is the longest running show, period.

Sitcom: a television series that involves a continuing cast of characters in a succession of comedic circumstances [Merriam-Webster].

The Simpsons is most definitely a sitcom, just one that happens to be animated.

I can't see a critic taking that dictionary definition very seriously. If you had looked at Wikipedia instead, you'd see no animated show is discussed in the article on sitcom, suggesting animated shows are considered a separate genre.

If you opened a textbook on mass media, it might have a definition of sitcom that is more culturally relevant.

From The Simpson Wikipedia page: "The Simpsons is an American adult animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company." The sentence links to the "Animated sitcom" page, which states, "An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animated instead of live action that is geared toward adult audiences in most cases. South Park and The Simpsons are two of the longest running animated sitcoms."

A square is also a rectangle.

Not the longest running show... soap operas, and possibly some news programs, hold that title. For example, the soap 'Days of Our Lives' has been running since 1965.

> but it is the longest running show, period.

I guess soap operas don't count?

Longest running prime time show?

> Longest running prime time show?

I'm not sure it's our job to keep adding qualifiers to the OP's bold statement that "Simpsons is not considered a sitcom, but it is the longest running show, period." until it's finally accurate.

In any case... PBS' Nova is 47 years old. Frontline is 37. I believe those are aired in prime time. And they are "not considered a sitcom" either.

Yup.

I think the problem is that a lot of the humor in Airplane has aged like sour milk - it's not a comedy made to stand the test of time. Consider "Blazing Saddles", which does not suffer from this problem nearly as much and is 6 years older. I could see it getting made today just fine with a few tweaks.

Airplane will always be hilarious, fight me.

And Blazing Saddles is the poster child for "could not get made today" arguments.

> And Blazing Saddles is the poster child for "could not get made today" arguments.

Blazing Saddles was the poster child for that when many of the movies that argument is now made about were made, too.

Because its the kind of movie that could never be made, except that it was. And if there was a Mel Brooks-in-his-prime now, the modern equivalent (which, presumably, Blazing Samurai this year will not be) could get made today.

Going from a cowpoke to a bushido setting? How very Westworld.

> Going from a cowpoke to a bushido setting?

That's not the biggest change:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Samurai