History Main / WhiteDudeBlackDude

Over time, this style of comedy has become an UndeadHorseTrope, and [[OverlyLongGag still it continues to live on, and on, and on]] as a StockSchtick. Successful comedians like Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/DaveChappelle have become very successful with their own take on the format, often taking great care to find fresh new angles that work off of audience expectations. Younger and less talented comics, however, play the trope very straight to create cliche jokes for cheap laughs. If a fictional comedian starts employing material like this and plays it all straight, it is more often than not a shorthand for him being a milquetoast performer who deliberately appeals to the LowestCommonDenominator or even an outright lazy hack.

** [[Recap/CommunityS3E15OriginsOfVampireMythology "Origins of Vampire Mythology"]] had a ''very'' odd version of this in TheTag: Abed does an [[UpToEleven extremely]] [[PeripheryDemographic specific]] StandUpComedy bit about differences in the way he and [[TokenBlackFriend Troy]] brush their teeth. Naturally, only he and Troy get it.

* ''Film/DownToEarth'' starred Chris Rock as a Black comedian suddenly reincarnated in the body of a wealthy old white man. This proves to be an obstacle when he tries to win audiences over with his trademark racially-based comedy.

* Creator/BoBurnham generally makes fun of everything, but one of his bits criticized the trope for reinforcing reinforcing tensions between the races.

* Steve Harvey was another early adopter of the trope, though in his case it's an instance of UnbuiltTrope; he always made sure to show that the Black guy was just as screwed up and idiotic as the white guy, being so focused on doing things the "Black way" that he screwed himself over.

Over time, this style of comedy has become an UndeadHorseTrope, and [[OverlyLongGag still it continues to live on, and on, and on...]] Successful comedians like Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/DaveChappelle have become very successful with their own take on the format, often taking great care to find fresh new angles that work off of audience expectations. Younger and less talented comics, however, play the trope very straight to create cliche jokes for cheap laughs. If a fictional comedian starts employing material like this and plays it all straight, it is more often than not a shorthand for him being a milquetoast performer who deliberately appeals to the LowestCommonDenominator or even an outright lazy hack.

Generally, [[NWordPrivileges only minority comedians]] [[DoubleStandard really can get away]] with using this trope without massively offending people.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''[='=]s "Black Jeopardy!" sketches often rely on this, with the TokenWhite contestant on a Black version of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' (or a non-American Black man like Music/{{Drake}} or [[Film/BlackPanther2018 T'Challa]]) getting the answers comically wrong. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk One version]] featuring Creator/TomHanks, however, subverted it, with Hanks' blue-collar, [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump MAGA-hat-wearing]] white guy getting a lot of the answers right and the Black host and fellow contestants often echoing his bigotry and LowerClassLout behavior so long as the subject of race relations never came up. The joke is that, save for the racial divide, many Black people are NotSoDifferent from white Trump voters in terms of their religious and cultural attitudes.

** Eddie had actually touched off some minor controversy with his ''Film/{{The Nutty Professor|1996}}'' remake, in which the Richard Simmons {{Expy}} (played by Murphy) was so convincing, people were accusing him of "reverse Blackface."

This trope is when a comedian takes a mundane activity, like driving a car or dialing a phone, and describes how one group of people stereotypically performs it differently than another group. The different ways they approach the activity are supposed to humorously highlight the cultural differences between the groups. A typical example of the trope compares white and black people, as suggested by the trope name.

Historically, a lot of black comedians based routines on this format, which was shocking, transgressive and deeply satisfying for black audiences when they first heard it in the late '70s and early '80s. As part of the "blaxploitation" movement where black people started reclaiming and accepting certain black stereotypes as positive rather than negative portrayals of black culture, especially of black masculinity, male black stand-up comics [[{{Reconstruction}} started to turn white stereotypes of blacks being "uncivilized" and "dangerous" on their head]], recreating the stereotype as white men being over-civilized, timid and cowardly while black men were [[SoulBrotha powerful, independent and cool]]. Comedians such as Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/SteveHarvey were early pioneers of the trope, and later comedians followed suit.

* Creator/RichardPryor was an originator of the trope, one of the first comedians to make it big while mocking white people. He frequently invoked his NWordPrivileges, even releasing albums called ''That N***r's Crazy'' and ''Bicentennial N***r''. Pryor stopped using the word following a visit to Africa, where he realized that this was just making the divide between white people and black people worse. (Pryor's love of the word "motherfucker", however, remained undiminished.)
* Steve Harvey was another early adopter of the trope, though in his case it's an instance of UnbuiltTrope; he always made sure to show that the black guy was just as screwed up and idiotic as the white guy, being so focused on doing things the "black way" that he screwed himself over.

** Eddie had actually touched off some minor controversy with his ''Film/{{The Nutty Professor|1996}}'' remake, in which the Richard Simmons {{Expy}} (played by Murphy) was so convincing, people were accusing him of "reverse blackface."

---> "That voice makes all white people sound like British detectives. I feel sorry for the one guy in the world who talks like that." Then, in voice: "This is preposterous! Wait till I get my hands on that black fellow! But first, I gotta dance!"
*** He also speaks of [[NWordPrivileges objecting to a black man trying to call him a cracker]].

* Creator/JimGaffigan has a variant making fun of his whitebread background, saying that when people see a black guy they think "Wesley Snipes, Creator/SamuelLJackson", but when they see him they think "I gotta do my taxes."

* ''Film/DownToEarth'' starred Chris Rock as a black comedian suddenly reincarnated in the body of a wealthy old white man. This proves to be an obstacle when he tries to win audiences over with his trademark racially-based comedy.

* ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'' had a variation where two cast members go to see a black comedian that is supposed to be a rising star in the stand-up scene, hoping to add more diversity and a new viewpoint to the predominantly-white writing staff. Unfortunately, his act is nothing but black stereotypes and cliches, including outdated White Dude, Black Dude jokes, and they leave in disgust that he is just [[StopBeingStereotypical reinforcing the stereotype]].

-->"When white people's power goes off, they panic...but when black people's power goes off, they ''plan it''!"

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''[='=]s "Black Jeopardy!" sketches often rely on this, with the TokenWhite contestant on a black version of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' (or a non-American black man like Music/{{Drake}} or [[Film/BlackPanther2018 T'Challa]]) getting the answers comically wrong. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk One version]] featuring Creator/TomHanks, however, subverted it, with Hanks' blue-collar, [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump MAGA-hat-wearing]] white guy getting a lot of the answers right and the black host and fellow contestants often echoing his bigotry and LowerClassLout behavior so long as the subject of race relations never came up. The joke is that, save for the racial divide, many black people are NotSoDifferent from white Trump voters in terms of their religious and cultural attitudes.

-->'''Roland:''' So black bears be walkin' all like ''this''! But brown bears be walking all like ''this''!\\

* Mocked in [[http://chainsawsuit.com/comic/archive/2008/03/26/strip-344/ this early strip]] from ''[[Webcomic/ChainsawSuit Chainsawsuit]]''. Apparently white people and black people make different sounds while eating, and simply ''pointing this out'' is the "greatest comedy ever" and will earn you a giant pile of money.

** Has an early parody of the trope, in which Homer watches a typical stand-up special featuring a black comic in front of a brick wall delivering trite impressions of how black and white people drive. Homer bursts into hearty laughter, shouting, "It's true! We're so lame!"
** Homer tries his own hand at this style of comedy in another episode, saying, "See, white people have names like Lenny, while black people have names like Carl." He laughs hysterically, while no one else reacts.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (from "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story"): UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi is a stand-up comic, and says, "...and the black people are always like 'Hey, bitch!' and the Indian people, we do not call our women in such a way." In some syndicated airings, "black people" is {{Bowdlerised}} to "Americans".
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' had Bobby copy the routine from a black driver's safety course instructor who taught through comedy, voiced by none other than Chris Rock. Rock's character advises Bobby to find humor from his own life as a white kid, however his research leads him to a white supremacist website and things go downhill from there.

-->"When white man wets his bed, it's just 'oh he wets his bed', but when a black guy wets his bed, they say he's ruining the bed!"

Over time, this style of comedy has become an UndeadHorseTrope, and [[OverlyLongGag still it continues to live on, and on, and on...]] Successful comedians like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle have become very successful with their own take on the format, often taking great care to find fresh new angles that work off of audience expectations. Younger and less talented comics, however, play the trope very straight to create cliche jokes for cheap laughs. If a fictional comedian starts employing material like this and plays it all straight, it is more often than not a shorthand for him being being a milquetoast performer who deliberately appeals to the LowestCommonDenominator or even an outright lazy hack.

--> "That voice makes all white people sound like British detectives. I feel sorry for the one guy in the world who talks like that." Then, in voice: "This is preposterous! Wait till I get my hands on that black fellow! But first, I gotta dance!"
*** He also speaks of objecting to a black man trying to call him a cracker.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' had Bobby copy the routine from a black driver's safety course instructor who taught through comedy. Voiced by none other than Chris Rock.

Historically, a lot of black comedians based routines on this format, which was shocking, transgressive and deeply satisfying for black audiences when they first heard it in the late '70s and early '80s. As part of the "blaxploitation" movement where black people started reclaiming and accepting certain black stereotypes as positive rather than negative portrayals of black culture, especially of black masculinity, male black stand-up comics [[{{Reconstruction}} started to turn white stereotypes of blacks being "uncivilized" and "dangerous" on their head]], recreating the stereotype as white men being over-civilized, timid and cowardly while black men were [[SoulBrotha powerful, independent and cool]]. Comedians such as Creator/RichardPryor and Steve Harvey were early pioneers of the trope, and later comedians followed suit.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (from "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story"): Gandhi is a stand-up comic, and says, "...and the black people are always like 'Hey, bitch!' and the Indian people, we do not call our women in such a way." In some syndicated airings, "black people" is {{Bowdlerised}} to "Americans".