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How racist/controversial would this skit from the 90's be today? (feddit.nl)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by neidu@feddit.nl to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

To summarize, this scandinavian comedy trio from the 90's made a parody of Miami Vice. This being 90's scandinavia, you can probably guess that the actors/comedians didn't exactly have the melanin-credentials of parodying the black guy from Miami Vice, so one of them instead wore blackface (well, brownface would perhaps be a better description, due to the color tone).

As far as I can recall, the skit didn't really make race much of a punchline, except from when they're fixing their hair before the final showdown (which one of course have to do, this being a Miami Vice parody), and the white guy asks the black guy to borrow some hair gel but gets the response: (roughly translated) "I'm black, I don't use hairgel. I use chocolate pudding."

So yeah, asking because I'm a middle aged extremely white guy, and I found this skut funny as shit when I was a kid, and I stumbled across it recently, and I got curious.

EDIT: Found it. Turns out it's from 1989. https://youtu.be/GDpLUXtA-4M
I can't be arsed translating, because in retrospect it's not really that good, but you can see the blackface and its origin in the beginning.

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[–] neidu@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It should be noted that I'm not 100% sure of the definition of blackface, so I may have used the term incorrectly. In this specific case, it is makeup applied in a manner so the actor appears somewhat realistic as being african american (as opposed to the minstrel-show-makeup). Please see the first few seconds of the youtube link and help me clarify.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is blackface, yes.

[–] neidu@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

Noted, thank you. Editing the original post accordingly.