Oh man, this year has been just plain nuts. In April I tried to have a little fun to forget the virus for a minute, to mixed results, but another issue has come up this year that I feel needs to be really discussed. With racial tensions up thanks to that horrible murder a month or so ago, and yes it was murder, suddenly everyone is extra sensitive to anything that might be offensive. And that includes the appearance of black face in sitcoms.
Yeah. this is one article I’d had preferred not discussing. But not discussing something doesn’t make a problem go away. So, let’s discuss it. In the 80’s and 90’s a few shows did episodes that involved a character wearing black face. As hard as it is to believe, this is a very common occurance a long time ago. Go hunt down the movie “Holiday Inn” for instance. There is a Presidents Day scene that is just plain AWKWARD. However, in that movie it was done legitametely but usually sitcoms do it as a joke.
Let me make one thing clear, in my opinion blackface is not acceptable. Especially the stereotyical blackface design (if you don’t know what that looks like look it up). This is because these “minstrel shows” often evoked slavery imagery too. The same way Aunt Jamima originally did (though taking that away may be pushing it). But as I said, it was used in comedies. Usually due to a misundertanding or as a way to bring up the subject and how offensive it is. And no one complained then, because people understood that it was just a gag. But why is that different now? There are two series that recently had episodes pulled from Hulu because of this joke, and I am sure more will be coming. And yes Saturday Night Live did this a lot, as we know Jimmy Fallon apologized for one sketch where he did this. But he was playing a black actor, and that’s satire, so isn’t it ok? Jimmy Kimmel did blackface but he was making fun of spcific player, isn’t that different? Eddie Murphy wore white face, was that wrong? is it possible Sarah Silverman may not have had as much hate if she hadn’t used minstrel style makeup when she wore black face. This is why this issue is complicated in the world of comedy. Are we assuming people will be offended without actually finding out if anyone is?
So here are six episodes of sitcoms that did this joke, some to make a point and others as a cheap gag. This is all my opinion of course. Taking these episodes down doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. And usually I post pictures and/or video clips, but in the interest of decency I will not share any images from these shows. They’re easy to find online if your curious.
The Golden Girls
The episode is called “Mixed Blessings” and we find that Dorothy’s son is dating a black woman. A B story involving Blanche and Rose getting mud facials ties in when they walk into a room filled with the girlfriend’s family. But Blanche and Rose immediately explain that it’s mud, not blackface. This episode hits so many other racially related gags, the blackface gag is barely worth a mention. It was mud and quickly explained, so yeah I don’t see the issue here.
Gimmee A Break
One episode that should be called out. Even though it deal’s with the issue head on rather than just make a joke about it. Joey is singing at Nell’s church and Samantha is angry at Nell. So angry, she decides to get back at Nell by dressing Joey up in blackface. Yikes. And I mean stereotyical, minstrel show style black face! This was the first time I had ever heard of this issue and Nell has a great speech about how offensive that is to black people. And t isn’t glossed over Nell chews out Samantha
Designing Women
This is another I am surprised has never come up. When the four girls decide to be the Supreme’s in, something, (I don’t feel looking the details up) Suzanne is playing Diana Ross and decides to wear blackface to be authentic. And yeah, Delta Burke did just that. The episode does dive into the issue as the other three are morified saying it’s always wrong no matter the context. I like how they have Anthony point out it’s complicated depending on why it’s being done.
Seinfeld
This is another that no one has brought up yet, but it’s in the same vein as the Golden Girls episodes. Kramer gets a tan in a tanning booth. But falls asleep and the tan is a little dark. He goes to visit his girlfriend’s family, who are black of course. The joke is very broad, it doesn’t explain why the family is outraged and all we really get is the father yelling that Kramer is a “damn fool”.
And yes Friends did an episode about Ross getting a tan but that show never tried a black face gag, it was always just a ridiculoys tan.
Scrubs
Hulu tried to remove a couple episodes that did this. I found two, and one was such a lame joke about JD imagining if Elliott and Turk were morphed into one person. The other is a flashback to college days, and we see Turk in white face and JD in black. The idea being that as long as Turk is in white face, and stays by JD’s side, his friends will all see it as a gag. Then Turk is distracted and JD is standing alone when the door is open. Causing the black fraternity to beat the crap out of JD. Most of the gag is subtle, JD expresses concern and JD getting beaten up kind of drives home that this isn’t ok.
30 Rock
Tina Fey herself came out and apologized for the use of blackface on this show. I couldn’t find many clip so I can’t descibe the context. One was a live show where John Hamm was in a bit that was supposed to be an homage of the early days of TV. So as a case of historical fiction, is it really bad? It’s like saying “Gone With the Wind” was racially insensiive. Yeah, the movie is set in The Civil War!. Of course it’s going to discuss slavery. It’s one thing to remove the amazinly racist images from Disney works like Fantastia, but if you’re going to show history you need to achnowledge the good and the ugly. That’s how we learn.
The Office
This was the punch line to an episode where Dwight dons a different kind of offensive costume. After Dwight realizes this he calls away a fellow co-worker waring black-face. It’s so quick it’s barely worth a mention.
These were all I could find. If there were others let me know. I about “Always Sunny” but that show is so dark I’d be amazed if they hadn’t done that joke. As we can see, this is a seriously complicated issue. When this issue flared up I thought this matter died with the 80’s and no ever did it anymore, but as you can see shows are still trying to get away with this gag from time to time. Is it offensive when used as comedy?
What are your thoughts about this? Comment and let me know. And the fact it is the 4th is just a coincidence but as long as it is, Happy 4th of July!
No comments:
Post a Comment