[interesting trope]Jokes about blackface that avoid actually doing blackface

[u/DifficultHat]

1. In Zoolander when Hansel and Derek are in disguise, they are played by other actors. Derek removes his face makeup off screen so Ben Stiller is never seen in blackface except for his neck and ears

2. In The Neighbors the Weaver family is picking a Halloween costume. During the montage of them trying on options the parents and both daughters are wearing semi formal clothing (business suit, pantsuits etc) looking in the mirror looking disappointed, while Max is dressed as a dog. After a beat one of them says “No one is going to be able to tell we’re the Obamas”. The youngest daughter innocently suggests painting their faces and the parents immediately tell her no. (I hate that I couldn’t find a clip or a picture of this)

3. One episode of Ellsbeth included a plot point about a model being blackmailed with the negatives from a “cultures around the world” photoshoot where she was in makeup to portray multiple races. The photos are discussed but never seen.

4. In an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show, Rob and Laura accidentally dye their hands black the morning before attending a gala for “The Committee for Interracial Understanding”. They wear fancy gloves to hide it but then reveal their predicament when Rob is giving a speech.

5. Similar to Zoolander, in Master of Disguise when Fabbrizzio is disguised as Michael Johnson, he is played by Michael Johnson & his exit from the disguise is covered in a camera flash as he holds up the constitution he just stole.

[u/Urvilan]

Though in the very same movie, Dana Carvey does black face of an Indian guy. You can make the argument “Indians aren’t black” but it’s still a white dude doing a pretty offensive portrayal of another ethnicity.

[u/Ok-Detective-2059 → u/Urvilan]

In the show community, one of the best episodes got removed because a character dresses like a drow elf for a game of dnd. He even gets called out for doing black face and corrects them saying he's an elf.

In a later episode, another character wears a full stereotypical east Indian outfit complete with turban, brown face, and accent. That episode never got removed

Now while I don't think either episode should be removed, it's still an odd double standard.

[u/DifficultHat → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

Weirdly, the D&D episode is the only example I can think of a literal black face (outside of Varville menstrual shows vaudeville minstrel shows) while not actually being an example of blackface

Edit: autocorrect

[u/Eugene-V-Dabs420 → u/DifficultHat]

"Varville menstrual shows" is the best autocorrect error I've ever seen. I'm going to assume you meant "vaudeville minstrel shows", but thank you so much for this laugh 🤣

[u/Jurgan → u/DifficultHat]

While I wouldn't be surprised if Pierce staged something called a "menstrual show," I'm pretty sure that's an amazing typo.

[u/PunishedTlacuache → u/DifficultHat]

*Vaudeville Minstrel shows

Altho I suppose some folk would got to a menstrual show

[u/Great-and_Terrible → u/DifficultHat]

I know there are more examples, but I'm blanking on them now. There's at least a few where the person is trying to camouflage themself and then gets in trouble for it.

[u/Hamblerger → u/DifficultHat]

From Soap, with four of the main characters sneaking into a building, three of them wearing camoflauge makeup: "We're the Step Brothers. Where's the audition?"

[u/orange_sewer_grating → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

A lot of the confusion about this is because people forget why blackface is so offensive. Obviously just doing the impression is offensive in its own right, which is true for all races, and is what you're picking up on. But that's not why blackface is so uniquely unacceptable. It's because white America spent about 100 years making blackface (specifically about African Americans) a big, common thing. They were doing it while slavery still existed and then kept doing it in the immediate aftermath. It was a huge part of racial discource during extremely formative years of American racial history, and it was such an ingrained, overly offensive thing that basically every attempt now, no matter how well intentioned, brings it to mind.

It's sort of like how all racial slurs are bad, but there's a reason the N word is the absolute most unacceptable (at least in America). Considering the context and history, blackface is uniquely offensive compared to other racial impressions.

[u/santa_obis → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

The elf episode being removed is pretty outrageous. I think it's odd that this topic seems to be devoid of any and all nuance.

[u/Jurgan → u/santa_obis]

Same with the episodes of 30 Rock where the joke is clearly "can you believe these assholes are doing blackface?"

[u/thorpie88 → u/Jurgan]

BBC did the same for The Mighty Boosh and removing episodes with The Spirit Of Jazz. The character is a Voodoo ghost in the show but they kept they guys in brown face playing the Latino characters Rudi and Spider

[u/Rich_Abrocoma6727 → u/thorpie88]

The entire character of Naboo also seems super racist?

[u/Banes_Addiction → u/santa_obis]

It's an absolute fucking classic of American political discourse that in response to protests against police violence, police got more violent and pancake syrup got a new name.

[u/pichael289 → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

I saw change as the drow, I think that was on dvd though. He's not even doing blackface, drow are not black like black people they are a black well beyond what akon could be if he lived on the fucking sun. No human being even remotely looks like a drow. The joke was he accidentally did it, I see people at comic cons all the time who are basically dying because of the makeup it takes to get that unnaturally dark and it's never an issue.

[u/mdr1974 → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

The D&D Episode is available on Disney+ actually. In the US at least. I watched it recently.

[u/CaptEpicFail1 → u/mdr1974]

Peacock, too

[u/boccci-tamagoccci → u/CaptEpicFail1]

and hulu. It was only ever briefly removed from platforms.

[u/jamesbondq → u/Ok-Detective-2059]

In a bit of brilliance, not only does he get called out by everyone for being distasteful, but he immediately dies in the campaign and is forced to leave. It's like the universe itself is punishing him for his hubris.

[u/UndeniablyMyself → u/Urvilan]

Brownface would be the term.

[u/Missing_Username → u/Urvilan]

Similar thing in the Short Circuit movies with the character of Ben

[u/ConsciousStretch1028 → u/Missing_Username]

Learning as an adult that he wasn't actually Indian blew my fucking mind, it also begs the question of "why?"

[u/Forsaken_Ad203 → u/Urvilan]

The term people currently use for that is brownface,

[u/Helota_Keksz → u/Urvilan]

You've just reminded me of Carrot Top from Dennis the Menace 2.

[u/PuzzleheadedEssay198 → u/Urvilan]

Brown face is the term for this. Kal Penn’s competition for the role of Taj Mahal (istg that’s the character’s name) was just a white guy in brown face.

[u/Urvilan → u/[deleted]]

Something tells me you don’t hate being him enough.

[u/saskwatzch → u/Urvilan]

We got rid of a white guy doing the Indian accent for apu just to find out that white people raised in India sound like that too. So the problem with apu wasn’t the voice, it was that he wasn’t yellow to match the skin color of his voice actor (who, coincidentally is also not yellow)

[u/DifficultHat → u/saskwatzch]

Apu didn’t have the wrong skin color, he is a character who is from India. He is not white. In the Simpsons universe white people are yellow, but POC characters have skin color that is more accurate to real life.

[u/saskwatzch → u/DifficultHat]

No no no. I’m saying that I’ve always been told that “the problem with apu” is that the voice apu did was stereotypical - but it actually is just they way anyone from Indian talks, regardless of skin color.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Norway/s/wzSPcR1c8i

It is however a valid criticism that a white guy did the voice for a non white character - but that isn’t directly tied to being Indian.

My yellow skin comment is purely to point out the absurdity of requiring an animated character to look like their voice actor when 90% of the simpsons are a skin color that doesn’t exist in real life. Almost none of the voice actors resemble their characters

[u/DifficultHat → u/saskwatzch]

The physical resemblance doesn’t matter. Jon Benjamin looks nothing like Archer for example.

It’s not about the actor looking like the character it’s about avoiding a white person doing a POC accent.

It’s not even about the actor’s natural accent. It’s ok for a Hispanic person with a neutral American accent to voice a character with a Mexican or Spanish accent.

[u/saskwatzch → u/DifficultHat]

Whatever man, I’m gonna go watch South Park’s white guys still do caricature stereotype asian voices in 2026 because none of this actually matters.

[u/DifficultHat → u/saskwatzch]

FWIW they retconned the City Wok guy. He’s not actually Asian, he’s actually just a white guy with multiple personalities. His accent is so stereotypical because he’s always been a white guy doing a bad Chinese accent.