History Main / TokenTrio

* The Cool Kids from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' form a trio like this, with Sour Cream (white male) and Buck Dewey (AmbiguouslyBrown male), although in a twist, the girl of their group, Jenny is Ghanaian, and Buck is their de facto leader, not Sour Cream.

* The Cool Kids from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' form a trio like this, with Sour Cream (white male) and Buck Dewey (AmbiguouslyBrown boy), although in a twist, the girl of their group, Jenny is Ghanaian, and Buck is their de facto leader, not Sour Cream.

* The Cool Kids from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' form a trio like this, with Sour Cream (white male) and Buck Dewey (AmbigiouslyBrown boy), although in a twist, the girl of their group, Jenny is Ghanaian, and Buck is their de facto leader, not Sour Cream.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'''s party stays true to the trope-- Ash fills the male TokenMinority slot, Iris is AmbiguouslyBrown and Cilan rounds the trio out. Conversely, the group dynamic part of the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], since Ash is the hero/leader.
* ''Anime/SonicX'' had Chris Thorndike's (presumably a white male) two friends be a black male and a white female in a wheelchair.

* ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' uses a Japanese variant, Takato is the Japanese boy leader, Ruki is the Japanese token girl, and Jenrya is the half-Chinese token minority.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode, "The Haunted Train", Arnold (white male), Gerald (black male) and Helga (white female who becomes a LoveInterest later in the series) come together and form this dynamic.

The end result manages to combine TokenMinority and TheSmurfettePrinciple: the Token Trio. Implicit in most cases is that the white male is the ''de facto'' [[WhiteMaleLead head]] of the ThreeAmigos--at the least, he'll play a more prominent visual or verbal role in the commercial. Only on rare occasions will the girl be recognizably a third race, such as Asian.

This trope is common in kids' advertising. If you want to sell a product like, say, [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets]] to kids, you put kids in the commercials. That's basic [[{{demographics}} demographic]] appeal. But you can't cast just ''any'' kids-- you want [[ThreeAmigos three]], all implied to be friends, and for a mix of reasons-- political correctness, as well as representing the largest target demographics in the Western world with a minimum of actual effort.

Even outside of advertising, this is an incredibly frequent attribute of the ThreeAmigos, where the white guy's status as TheHero is essentially [[WhiteMaleLead guaranteed]]. Larger variety is FiveTokenBand.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', back when Clark, Chloe and [[TokenBlackFriend Pete]] were the ThreeAmigos. Pete had even undergone a RaceLift for the series!

* ''Series/HankZipzer'' has the ThreeAmigos team of Hank (white male) and his two best friends: Ashley (Asian female) and Frankie (black male).

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has the somewhat refreshing variation of having the main character of the all-TotallyRadical ThreeAmigos be half-Chinese, with a [[SassyBlackWoman sassy]] female TokenBlackFriend and a GeniusDitz [[GRatedStoner faux-stoner white guy]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has the somewhat refreshing variation of having the main character of the all-TotallyRadical ThreeAmigos be half-Chinese, with a [[SassyBlackWoman sassy]] female TokenBlackFriend and a GeniusDitz faux-stoner white guy.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' has the somewhat refreshing variation of having the main character of the all-TotallyRadical ThreeAmigos be half-Chinese, with a [[SassyBlackWoman sassy]] female TokenBlackFriend and a GeniusDitz [[AcceptableTargets faux-stoner white guy]].

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Tim's high school friends when Tim's not hanging out with them, which is usually since he's rather busy saving people as an extracurricular, are generally grouped as Ives (white male), Callie (white female), and Hudson (Latino male). Originally Ives spent more time with Kevin Hud''man'' (black male) than Hud''son'' but later writers and artists merged the two into one character.

* There's an advertisement for a particular doll out there that comes in three versions. They are, shot for shot, identical; the only difference is that the child and the doll the child is playing with are, respectively, white, black, and [[ButNotTooBlack light-skinned Hispanic]].

[[folder:Film]]

* The poster party in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games tends to be male Shepard, female human party member, and male alien party member. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' directly invoke this trope though. In both games, your starting party consists of a white female and a black male, with the assumption that your hero would be a white male. However, this can be averted since your character is fully customizable, possibly leaving the white girl as the TokenWhite and/or the black guy as the only male, at least until other party members are discovered.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceSentinels'' was one of the earliest in WesternAnimation. One team member was Asian and the woman was African-American.

* ''Series/Glee'''s Blamtina, to an extent. Sam is a straight white male, Tina is a straight South Korean woman, and Blaine is a gay man who is also Asain (Although the character isn't mentioned to be such)

* The main trio of the movie ''Film/{{Stealth}}'' included a white guy, a black guy and a white girl. Before the movie was half over, [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the black guy had died]], and the white girl ejected over enemy territory, leaving the white guy to [[DistressedDamsel heroically rescue her]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''

* ''WesternAnimation/RamboTheForceOfFreedom'', the Eighties attempt to sell Rambo toys to kids, featured male African-American Edward "Turbo" Hayes, female Asian Katherine Anne "K.A.T." Taylor, and, of course, some white dude named John Rambo.

* a [[TheChick white female]] (rarely a [[TwoferTokenMinority female of yet another minority]])

* ''Film/HomeAlone 5'': Sinclair's group of burglars is made up of a white man, a white woman, and an African-American man.

* a [[TokenBlackFriend black male]], or other visible minority, or in some cases a friend of another species

* a [[TokenBlackFriend black male]], or other visible minority

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode, "The Haunted Train", Arnold (white male), Gerald (black male) and Helga (white female and who becomes a LoveInterest later in the series) come together and form this dynamic.

* The original judge trio on ''Series/AmericanIdol'': Simon (white male; bonus points for being a MeanBrit), Paula (Jewish female), and Randy (black male).

* ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'': Esteban, Zia and Tao.