Line #35 Main/WhiteDudeBlackDude


1	->''"Yo, white dude runs for president like this..."''
2	-->-- '''Jon Stewart''', ''Series/TheDailyShow''
3
4	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.
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6	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.
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8	Over time, this style of comedy has become an UndeadHorseTrope, and [[OverlyLongGag still it continues to live on, and on, and on]] as a {{Stock Joke\|s}}. 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.
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10	Generally, [[NWordPrivileges only minority comedians]] [[DoubleStandard really can get away]] with using this trope without massively offending people, unless maybe the white dude is using it for SelfDeprecation or to call out racist attitudes.
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12	Not to be confused with WhiteBreadAndBlackBrotha, which is about {{Odd Couple}}s featuring a straight-laced white guy and a streetwise black guy.
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14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
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19	[[folder:Comedy]]
20	* Creator/BoBurnham generally makes fun of everything, but one of his bits criticized the trope for reinforcing tensions between the races.
21	-->'''Bo:''' Here's some racial humor for you guys. White people are like this: "Ah!" Black people are like this: "Uh!" We're destined to fight forever! ''[[MoodWhiplash Blood in the streets.]]''
22	* 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.)
23	* Creator/SteveHarvey 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.
24	* Creator/EddieMurphy used the trope occasionally in his stand-up, and in some of his movies actually plays white characters with the use of makeup.
25	** 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."
26	** It may not be the first example, but when he was a regular on SNL he did a bit where he got made up (pretty well, actually) in "whiteface" and went "undercover". One memorable bit was him attempting to pay for a newspaper, only to be told by the (white) shopkeeper "What are you doing? There's nobody around, just ''take it''."
27	* Dave Chapelle is noted for using this trope. His "white guy" voice is lifted from previous comics such as Pryor and Harvey.
28	%%* Creator/ChrisRock
29	* Mike Birbiglia, a white comedian, makes fun of this trope by inverting it, using the slur Cracker as a replacement for the N word.
30	--> In his high pitched, lame "white people voice": "So me and my cracka friends were drivin' down the street in my Volvo station wagon when I'm like, "Hey cracka, pass the Sun Chips!' And he was all, 'Not 'til we get to the picnic cracka!' And I'm like, 'Cracka please!' And he's all, 'Cracka whaaaaat?!"
31	** He goes further to state his love of that joke because of the voice.
32	---> "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!"
33	*** He also speaks of [[NWordPrivileges objecting to a Black man trying to call him a cracker]].
34	* Creator/RussellPeters' act tends to go along the lines of "white people are like this (insert lame stereotype), but Indian people are like this (even lamer stereotype)".
35	* The comedy team of "Tim and Tom" (Tim Reid, later famous as Venus Flytrap on ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati,'' and Tom Dreesen, still a working standup) not only used this trope, but ''embodied'' it. Performing in the late '60s and early '70s, they were the first -- and last -- "interracial comedy team" in America. Reid and Dreesen told the story of their brief career as "Tim and Tom" in a 2008 book, ''Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White''.
36	* Creator/MargaretCho does a variation which could be accurately described as "Gay Dude, Straight Dude". Bonus points in that she is herself bisexual.
37	* 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."
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* Johnny Ryan did a parody of this trope with ComicBook/{{Magneto}} doing a stand-up routine about "mutants do it like this". Ending with him getting carried away and blowing up the Earth.
42	[[/folder]]
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44	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
45	* ''Film/DownToEarth2001'' 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.
46	[[/folder]]
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48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has this as the staple of Tracy Jordan's comedy. Also used as parody once to illustrate how Tracy was growing distant from his fanbase:
50	-->"Have you ever noticed St. Bart's people be eating their lobster like this ..."
51	* ''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]].
52	* ''Series/TheDailyShow'' featured Jon Stewart trying it, inspired by Barack Obama's debate comedy.
53	* While ''Series/ChappellesShow'' did this straight on occasion, one particular skit parodied the concept, with Dave telling his White Dude, Black Dude comedy routine through interpretive poetry:
54	-->"When white people's power goes off, they panic...but when Black people's power goes off, they ''plan it''!"
55	* Carlos Mencia plays this trope straight, in-your-face, crude and often at the expense of Latinos to the point where it's a tad uncomfortable for some people.
56	* ''Series/InLivingColor'' made use of the trope. In one sketch, it lampshades the trope as one of the quintessential types of stand-up comedy, along with "Old Guy Who Complains About the Present", "Self-Deprecating Woman" and "Crazy Prop Guy".
57	* Hanna-Barbera's ''Legend of the Superheroes'' (a rare live-action show for HB) featured a superhero roast attended by Ghetto Man (Brad Sanders) who made such observations as "White superheroes have magic words like 'Shazam.' Black superheroes have magic words like 'Kareem.' " It was even less funny than it sounds.
58	* In an episode of ''Series/GoodTimes'', J.J. dreamed that he'd been replaced by a white guy. Said white guy wanted eggs benedict for breakfast, wore a pullover sweater, and said things like "Surely you jest!".
59	* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
60	** [[Recap/CommunityS3E15OriginsOfVampireMythology "Origins of Vampire Mythology"]] had a ''very'' odd version of this in TheTag: Abed does an extremely [[PeripheryDemographic specific]] StandUpComedy bit about differences in the way he and [[TokenBlackFriend Troy]] brush their teeth. Naturally, only he and Troy get it.
61	** Another odd variant is used in "App Development and Condiments". Jeff's comedy routine is all about how "Twos", "Threes", and "Fours" act differently from each other.
62	* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet:'' After forgetting Bayliss's grilled cheese, Pembleton justifies it by claiming that a grilled cheese is a stereotypically bland "white guy" food.
63	* Parodied on ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'', in his segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pz3syET3DY the War on Drugs]].
64	-->'''John Oliver''': That reminds me of a joke. Black people who commit drug offences, ''[makes hand gesture as though he's in handucffs]'', they go to jail like this, whereas white people don't go to jail at all.
65	* ''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, [[NotSoDifferentRemark many Black people aren't so different]] from white Trump voters in terms of their religious and cultural attitudes.
66	[[/folder]]
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68	[[folder:Web Comics]]
69	* [[http://www.daisyowl.com/comic/2008-08-19 This]] strip from ''Webcomic/DaisyOwl'':
70	-->'''Roland:''' So Black bears be walkin' all like ''this''! But brown bears be walking all like ''this''!\
71	'''Mr. Owl:''' Whoa, whoa, whoa. ''Whoa''. Are you using bear color as a proxy for human race? Because that is ''not'' cool.\
72	'''Roland:''' I have no idea what you're talking about, but you just ruined a perfectly good joke about bears.
73	* Parodied in ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness''. "White guys walk like this. Black guys walk like this. Zarcbukloids walk like this."
74	* 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.
75	[[/folder]]
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77	[[folder:Web Videos]]
78	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oonrujQJKEI Black reporters be all "I ain't got no prompter". White reporters be all "I don't have a prompter".]]
79	* A part of the humor between Mario and Black Yoshi from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' is that Mario is never certain what to do while Black Yoshi often has a bad or destructive idea that may or may not work in the end. Furthermore, as much as Mario gets annoyed with Black Yoshi, Black Yoshi often is treated as the more outgoing and powerful of the duo, where Mario is (prior to Rosalina's appearances) more of a coward who cries.
80	* Spoofed (but also pretty much summed up) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slVqNISUAWY in this flash animation]]. (Epilepsy warning: bright flashing letters)
81	[[/folder]]
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83	[[folder:Western Animation]]
84	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
85	** 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!"
86	** 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.
87	** Groundskeeper Willie did a stand-up routine comparing how people from North and South Edinburgh play golf. He ''does'' get a laugh from the lone Scotsman in the audience.
88	* 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".
89	* ''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.
90	* Done on the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "My Three Suns" with a Trisolian comedian doing a routine about the difference between those who live under the yellow sun and those who live under the red sun. Fry laughs his ass off and agrees, despite having been on the planet for about half an hour. Which tells you oh so much.
91	* An episode in ''Gary And Mike'' featured a [[FiveTokenBand typecast reality TV Show]], with Mike's brother as one of the contestants. There was also "The Black Stand-Up Comedian", whose shtick is these jokes, in a MalcolmXerox vein.
92	-->"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!"
93	* Basically the plot of the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E31MermaidManAndBarnacleBoySquirrelJokes "Squirrel Jokes"]]. Nervous first-time comedian [=SpongeBob=] kills with jokes about how squirrels are dumb, much to the chagrin of his squirrel friend Sandy Cheeks, who happens to be the smartest person in town. At the end of the episode, he realizes it was wrong to single out Sandy and indulges in stereotypes about every different type of creature in the audience.
94	[[/folder]]
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96	[[folder:Real Life]]
97	* Reverend Jeremiah Wright, while drunk on the spotlight of the 2008 American presidential elections, went on a racial tirade that included a bizarre Black Dude, White Dude performance. Conservative news pundits nearly vomited with rage.
98	-->'''Rev. Wright:''' [[MemeticMutation If you got some white friends... they'll be clappin' like this, y'all.]]
99	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WhiteDudeBlackDude