[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/saskwatzch]

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.