Black Best Friend - Television Tropes & Idioms

Don't leave home without it.

"Some of my best friends are sassy black people!"

So, you're hip. You're smart. You've got class. What's the best way to show it? By having a black best friend! But Not Too Black, of course.

Your black best friend is sassy. She's never too busy to lend an ear, or come along on your wacky schemes. She is flawless to the point of being unreal. Is it because she has no love life, no apartment, and no family? It's hard to say, but there's one thing for sure. She has a cell phone, and never ignores your calls.

See also Magical Negro, Token Minority, Satellite Character. May also be Black And Nerdy.

Examples:

Anime

A rare anime example is Tapp Oceano from Metal Armor Dragonar. In a strange twist, he is a rather grounded individual who came from a childhood of relative poverty living in New York, compared to his friends Kaine Wakaba, the somewhat overzealous hero who grew up in a strangely traditional Japanese village, and Light Newman, The Smart Guy who happens to be a certified British nobleman (he doesn't like to talk about it).
What, you guys forgot Misa Hayase's Cool Big Sis Claudia LaSalle /Grant from Macross / Robotech?
- In Robotech continuity, there's also Dana Sterling's childhood friend (and Claudia's nephew), Bowie Grant.
Bob Makihara from Tenjou Tenge.
Brock in the Pokémon anime is pretty much Ash's best (human) friend, having been traveling with him since the beginning, except his short stay with Professor Ivy during season 2. Of course, that is if you consider him to be black, but this Troper considers him to be a little bit of everything, so yeah.

Comic Books

Jim Rhodes: friend and employee of Tony Stark aka Iron Man. The personal pilot of the billionaire who became the second Iron Man and then got his own armor as War Machine. Even before he got the suit, he still managed quite well as a Badass Normal in Stark's adventures.
Davida Kirby, from Spider-Girl: Surprised this troper by turning subversive! Sure, she's a great friend who's hip and always willing to lend an ear, but also... almost lost her friends due to anger and jealousy, strings boyfriends along, and is a little insensitive and pushy sometimes. Plus she's getting suspicious of her best friend's lame excuses.
John Stewart of the Green Lantern Corps is sort of this for Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner, but he's come into his own thanks to his role on Justice League.
- John Stewart received a fair amount of Character Development during Kyle Rayner's tenure on Green Lantern before he got a new Green Lantern Ring or Kyle was forced out into space to let John be the Green Lantern in the Justice League.
- John Stewart actually received a fair amount of character development during the late 80s and early 90s when he replaced Hal Jordan full time and got married, then subsequently lost his wife and accidentally caused the destruction of a planet, driving him insane. These experiences made him a more down-to-earth, intellectual Green Lantern than his predecessors, but were all forgotten post-Emerald Twilight when they basically him his cartoon counterpart.
Subverted in Captain Atom with Sgt. Jeff "Goz" Goslin. Goz is black, and is Cap's best friend, but he is a fully realized character, and he certainly has a love life. At one point, in fact, he was involved with Cap's daughter, a plot-line the writers used to explore Cap's attitudes about race.
The heroine of the western manga Rhysmith has one of these. Or So I Heard.
Machiste who, despite being king of his own land, spends most of his time as the loyal companion to Travis Morgan in The Warlord.
Captain America had the black hero, The Falcon. They were so tight in the 1970s that Cap's series was retitled as Captain America and the Falcon for years.
- When Cap quit being Cap and a new one was appointed by the US government, the replacement John Walker, in that brief interlude before he started getting evil, also had a black best friend, who was given the costume of and codename of Bucky, Original Cap's World War Two sidekick. The comics people rapidly realized that there were Unfortunate Implications, and in an unusual move addressed these within the comic, as the friend explained to Walker that 'Bucky' was an unfortunate slang term for black men, and there was something demeaning about a grown man being named after a dead white teenager, so he'd like to pick a new codename. Walker agreed.
In the Mysti comic books, Mysti has a black best friend named Peaseblossom (though for the first few volumes, she is a white best friend).
The Badger's best friend, Riley Thorpe, hits on most cylinders of this description, but he is given a good bit more personality and independence than the average black best friend.

Film

Michael, for SJ, in The Blind Side.
Lily, Andy's best friend in the movie The Devil Wears Prada.
Lynette from the film version of The Nanny Diaries.
Annie from the Sandra Bullock vehicle Premonition.
Bob Parr & Lucius Best from The Incredibles.
Sithandra from Aeon Flux, who unfortunately has monkey-like hands/feet.
- Said character in the cartoon was white, so...yeah. But then again, a lot of stuff was changed for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Trey in Superhero Movie.
Brenda Meeks from the Scary Movie series is a send-up of this trope.
In The Proposition, the only cop other to be trusted by Cpt. Stanley is Jacko, an Australian Aborigine. On the other side of the law, Arthur Burns' right-hand man is another Aborigine named Two-Bob. Two-Bob considers Jacko to be a sellout, and knifes him to death.
The High School Musical TV and big screen movies have Chad as Troy's Black Best Friend and Taylor as Gabriella's.
D.E.B.S.. Amy regards her team captain Max as her best friend (though as it turns out, not as friendly as some).
Max: "Who's your best friend?"
Amy: "You are my best friend."
Max: "And what did I say to you the very first day at the Academy."
Amy: "That's my bunk, bitch."
Gina, Honey's best friend in the movie Honey.
In District9, they are not exactly friends, but Wikus' African bureaucratic co-worker got along well enough with him. Furthermore, that co-worker is so inspired by Wikus' sacrifice that he investigated and exposed MNU's evil scientific experiments on the aliens to the world to strike his own blow and willingly pays the price doing so.
A variation: Ella's Asian Best Friend in Ella Enchanted. The character is played by Parminder Nagra (of E.R. fame), which makes her painfully obvious sidelining all the more so.
Op
Hallie, new BFF to Sidney Prescott in Scream 2. This troper assumes it's because the first Scream was filled with white people that they felt compelled to make half the cast of the sequel black.
Lando Calrissian

Literature

The Silence Of The Lambs features two of these — Clarice's roommate Ardelia and the orderly Barney, who appears to be one of the few people Hannibal Lecter respects.
The Stephanie Plum novels have Stephanie teamed with black ex-hooker Lula.
Somewhat parodied in the Johnny Maxwell Trilogy with Yo-less, who is "technically black".
- Yo-less was once asked if it was racist for him to be Baron Samedi for Halloween. He says no, it can't be racist if it's him doing it.
Jim from The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn might be the original Black Best Friend, from way before it was cool. Older Than Radio, of course.
- On the other hand, Jim and Huck don't always see eye-to-eye on some issues, such as their discussions over the wives of Henry the Eighth, the many different languages in the world, or the Solomon's decision to cut a child in half.
Jessica, from the Undead and... vampire series. She is undeniably sassy, and despite having no supernatural powers (unlike many other characters in the series), she is something of a Magical Negro, due to her stupendous (inherited) wealth.

Live Action TV

Wonderfalls has an odd case with Mahandra, who, unlike other examples, has a love life and the occasional wacky subplot.
Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Dreama from (Also a Token Black.)
Thats So Raven: (inverted, token white)
Scrubs:Parodied with J.D. and Turk. J.D. is a total dork whose best friend is a black guy, but Turk is only slightly less, if not equally, dorky despite also possessing several jock characteristics.
- Generally said, Scrubs is one of the rare shows that handles the topic "racism" openly, and isn't afraid to do so. Examples are jokes about the white, geeky stereotype or the black Surfer Dude stereotype.
The Colbert Report: Parodied. Stephen would frequently would show a single picture of him with a black staff member named Alan. (No longer used, and Colbert is now searching for a new black friend.)
- If memory serves, Stephen also has a Jewish best friend (Jon Stewart), an Asian best friend, and a Mexican best friend
  - There was a montage. He has a lot of these. In all cases, the "friends" are wearing the same resigned expressions in the picture at the top of the page.
- Some minor irony: they actually had to hire an actor to portray a black staff member, since the Colbert Report didn't have one. The man in question, Jordan Carlos, wrote an article for the Washington Post about the situation. Executive summary: He doesn't seem angry, but he wrote an article for the Washinton Post about the situation.
  - What, Larry Wilmore wasn't available?
Clueless: Dionne "Dee" Davenport in the sitcom version (and the movie).
Rita Rocks: Patti
Felicity: Elena Tyler
Ramona Platt in Less Than Perfect.
Francie, Sydney Bristow's best friend, on Alias. She had her own plot about a cheating fiance that only served to show Sydney had a normal non-spy-related friend. In the second season, she had a restaurant startup subplot, and even interacted with people Sydney knew outside of their mutual friend Will. But then, she ends up killed and replaced by someone who's been genetically altered to look like her.
Ally Mc Beal: Renee, until they Brother Chucked her.
Andrea Moreno is the black best friend of Melinda Gordon in Ghost Whisperer.
Summerland; had Susannah, the black best friend of Ava.
Nick on the 2007 Flash Gordon, though thus far he's functioned mostly as a Butt Monkey.
- If you count Dale Arden's cameraman/confidant, there are two of these.
Stephanie, played by Kellee Stewart, on the TBS series My Boys.
Honest features Reza, a South Asian Best Friend. Subverted in that he's not all that smart.
In an episode of 30 Rock, Tracy's wife Angie asks if Liz is only helping out because she's "been looking for a sassy black friend," Liz tries to defend herself until Angie says, "Because you just found one, girlfriend!"
Pete in the early seasons of Smallville. The first character outside the Kent family in whom Clark confided about his powers.
- Made all the more transparent by the fact that Pete Ross was a blond, blue-eyed white boy in the comics.
- Regrettably, the writers never gave him anything to do, even after he learnt about Clark's powers, and the role of Clark's best friend was quickly assumed by the much more interestingly written and acted Chloe Sullivan. Pete Ross became an achingly obvious Token Minority and was eventually Put On A Bus.
Original Cindy from Dark Angel; she's also a lesbian, giving you a twofer.
One of Michael Scott's quirks from the US version of The Office is his bizarre belief, in the face of all evidence, that sales rep Stanley Hudson is a stereotypical "sassy black mentor" and that Stanley is therefore one of his best friends from work (since Michael is, of course, the protagonist of his little pop-culture fantasy world). Michael has a magical ability to completely ignore all of Stanley's real personality traits while imagining him as a Black Best Friend, imagining him as a wisecracking happy-go-lucky athletic "urban" man with working-class roots , when Stanley is in fact sedentary and out of shape, laconic to the point of catatonia, frequently depressed, raised in a small town and just as if not more solidly upper-middle-class as anyone else in the office.
- Bizarrely, this is why Michael, despite his blatant racism, seems to genuinely like Stanley to the point of being willing to fight Corporate to keep him as an employee, even though everyone else sees Stanley as one of the less likable (or even memorable) people there, and Stanley himself has nothing but disdain for everyone around him.
- The thing about Michael is, he's not a racist out of bigotry — he's a racist because he's an idiot.
Gus on Psych, though he exerts a lot of effort into not getting involved in Shawn's latest case. He's also probably a subversion, considering his general dorkiness, especially when compared to Shawn. What's his normal day-job when he's not helping Shawn solve crimes? He's a pharmaceutical sales rep.
La Donna Frediricks of Square Pegs was valley girl Jennifer Di Nuccio's best friend and shared the "most popular girl" mantle with her. In spite of her clichéd sassy blackness, she thankfully never fell prey to the more boring Positive Discrimination laws of the day that would've castrated her Mean Girl evil. While proving marginally smarter and more accomplished than the other popular kids, La Donna was a bully at heart, and was just as cruel, selfish, and shallow as the rest of her clique — La Donna's catchphrase was an always uncalled for "I hate that," and she routinely referred to the two protagonists derisively as "that fat girl" and "that fat girl's friend".
The Hamiltons of Seventh Heaven, an entire family with a black best friend for every Camden family member.
Deacon on The King Of Queens.
How I Met Your Mother: Lily's best friend from high school in the episode "Sand Castles in the Sand".
Wallace on Veronica Mars. He gets his own story in season 2...which results in him leaving the show for several episodes...and is promptly written into the background of season 3. Weevil might also count as a sassy latino associate, but he's got enough of his own motivations that he might count as independent of Veronica...except he needs her help frequently to get him out of jail.
- Wallace got a few storylines in Season 3. I think the show tried a little harder than most shows to make the minority best friend more three-dimensional.
Not a perfect example, but the trope is played for laughs in Father Ted where, in an attempt to appeal to the Chinese people of Craggy Island when they all start to believe he is a racist, Ted organizes an event to celebrate their culture. A slide-show is the main event where, before he gets to a cringe-worthy display of examples of "Chinese culture" (including Ted claiming that you can see the Great Wall of China "from anywhere in the world" and Mr. Miyagi) he shows a picture of himself with his arm around a black man and the pair smiling. To this he says "I forget his name now, but I got on very well with him..." before moving on.
- Zero Punctuation did the exact same joke in his review over 50 Cent's game, just a lot quicker.
In My Boys, uh, this happens. Somewhat subverted because the main character is the hip one and her black best friend is overly feminine.
Avoided in Eureka: Henry is Carter's best friend, but he has his own subplots, his own agenda, and his own secrets. A typed BBF would never erase memories from the white protagonist.
- And considering that the woman that Carter is in love with is black, uh, yeah. Henry's as far from a token as can be.
Kenny on Til Death
Tara and Lafayette (who is gay and black, so he gets the twofer label), Sookie's best friends on True Blood, though Tara falls more into the catagory.
On Las Vegas, we have Mike Cannon, who is pretty much cool personified, and frequently chases tail. He's also an MIT graduate, idolizes Stephen Hawking, and is one of the smartest guys on the show. (James Lesure and Josh Duhamel are actually real-life friends.) There's also Detta, who was Delinda's British BBF, and Sam Marquez, a sassy Hispanic woman(And I use the word "sassy" generously).
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode that features the movie Werewolf mocks this when the only black person in the film, seen for a few seconds, is introduced at a party as "my good friend Elgin."
Mike: Elgin is my black friend.
The titular Jimmy of Out Of Jimmys Head has a Black Best Friend.
Alex Mack from The Secret World Of Alex Mack has Raymond as her black best friend.
Jay Leno of The Tonight Show regularly exchanged banter with Kevin Eubanks.
Barb (played by Wanda Sykes) on The New Adventures Of Old Christine
For the first eight or so seasons of Married With Children, Al worked alone in the shoe store. Starting in season 9, his friend and fellow NO MAA Mer Griff became his co-worker. In many respects, Griff was a black version of Al, with a bad car and an even worse job, their major difference being that Griff was divorced. Al would probably consider him better off, but as Griff told Bud in one episode, she got the car, the dog and the money. I got the right to remain silent.
Made fun of on "The Sarah Silverman Program". In the episode "Batteries" Sarah meets God who is depicted as an African-American man she asks "Are you God's black friend?"

Newspaper Comics

Marcus on Fox Trot is both Jason's Black Best Friend and Black And Nerdy.
Franklin on Peanuts.
Prince Lothar from Mandrake The Magician. He became an Ensemble Darkhorse and got more Character Development than usual, though.

Video Games

Nakili Abuto in the Purple Moon verse hits every note of this, save for not being your best friend — instead, she's part of a social clique that the player character wants to join. You know, girl?
8-Ball, Lance Vance, and Little Jacob in Grand Theft Auto. 8-Ball is probably the least stereotypical of the three, unfortunate since he's the oldest character (they first appear in GTAIII, Vice City, and GTAIV respectively).

Web Comics

Alice in Loserz is a Black Girlfriend. See this strip.
intoducing, the new friend................ GEROMY◊

Web Original

At the start of the Zero Punctuation review of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Yahtzee explains that he's not a racist. This photograph◊ flashes up for just one frame.
- Then flashes up again. And again. Including after the last line of the video, which cuts off a... not very nice word for black people.

Western Animation

Carver in The Weekenders.
Happens a lot in animated shows. The rich white girl always has a black friend, either straight out sassay or the more bookish type.
Monique from Kim Possible.
Libby Folfax from The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.
And let's not even get started with Trixie of American Dragon Jake Long. Hell, if the race wasn't off, Jake himself would qualify.
All around cool kid Gerald Johanssen in Hey Arnold. Though unlike most examples, it didn't consume his entire character.
Danny Phantom has this as part of a typical Token Trio set-up; Tucker is a Techno-Geek, and they're all Cool Losers.
Daria subverts this a bit too. Although Daria gets along better with the two major black kids, Jodie and Mack than almost anyone else besides Jane, they are much more mainstream than the lead characters, although they envy Daria and Jane's iconoclastic manner.
Abby in The Replacements.
Possibly parodied with The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, where Billy's Black Best Friend Irwin tries to be cool, but is a complete and almost hopeless dweeb with an obsessive crush on Mandy.
- His relatives are even worse. His dad is even more of a nerd then he, but fails to realize it. His Grandma is a Sassy Black Woman who can out funk anyone. One of his Grandpas is...well, a senile old Blacula. His other Grandpa is a Jewish Mummy which doesn't quite work out. His mom is a hideous corpse mummy, about which nobody needs to ask any questions.
Terry McGinnis' friend Max in Batman Beyond, one of the few besides him and Old Man Wayne who know his secret identity.
- That said, alot of fans wished they were more than that.
Jonathan Reed is one of the earliest examples of this trope in Davey And Goliath
Jamie James from Carl Squared.
In Static Shock there's what you could call an inversion. The protagonist is black, but there's nothing wrong with it. He's just a normal teenager kid, for whom his skin color is only an actual issue when the show is actually talking about racism. However, his best friend is Richie, who you could call... 'White Best Friend'. Richie is, perhaps deliberately, as white as a character can be. Being a geek, completely uncool and utterly... well, white.
- And gay.
AJ on The Fairly Oddparents is the black friend to both Timmy and Chester, though in a bit of a subversion he's probably the smartest and most level-headed of the three.
Quincy from My Dad The Rock Star is this to the male lead Willy. Unique in that he is not portrayed as cooler than the already nerdy-looking Willy. In fact, he's a subverted Jive Turkey who tries to talk in street slang and appear hip hop, but comes off as a clear poser to everyone else.
Discovery Kids' animated series Growing Up Creepie has Beuregard "Budge" Bentley III, though like many black characters on shows aimed at younger kids, he's not overly portrayed as black.
Iron Man Armored Adventures has Rhodey, who's Tony's best friend, confidant, and moral compass for most of the series. He is by far the most calm and mature out of all the main characters. He's also the only person who calls Tony out when he does morally/intellectually questionable things and is basically the main cast's voice of reason.

Real Life

A parody website called Black People Love Us. It goes on about how "well-liked [they are] by Black people," and hangin' out with their black friends.
Devin Freidman wrote an article called "Will You Be My Black Friend?" on how he realized at a cocktail party that most of his friends were white. He tried to remedy this by putting an ad for himself on Craigslist for a black friend. Oprah's producing a movie with Chris Rock based on it. So Yeah.
This probably happens a lot IRL. We should really have a Troper Tales Page for it.
The recent case of a justice of the peace in Louisiana who refuses to perform interracial marriages (out of concern, he says, that mixed-race children have no real place in society). His justification has to be read to be believed:
"I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."
Chris Rock makes fun of this in one of his standups when he says "I've got lots of white friends, and all of my white friends have one black friend".