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

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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). I think theybwere trying to have him look like the actual Miami Vice guy, this being its parody. Please see the first few seconds of the youtube link and help me clarify.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That is blackface, yes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Noted, thank you. Editing the original post accordingly.