I got this black chick that don't know how to act She's always talking out her neck, making her fingers snap She says, "Listen, Jiggaman, I don't care if you rap You better R-E-S-P-E-C-T me"
Since the era of Jim Crow, black people could be more outspoken — to a point, particularly if they were female. To illustrate this, sassy "Mammy" figures could scold the family they worked for and playfully berate their employers (to show that Blacks were not being oppressed). As the Civil Rights movement came up in the '60s, black people in media could be more outspoken. And because of feminism, the same thing applied for women. Combine these, and you get the sassy black woman. It started with the heroines of blaxploitation movies, like Coffy and Foxy Brown (both played by Pam Grier), and continued into the 1980s.
She's defined by her vivaciousness, humor and joie de vivre, and can make a good counterpoint to the more grim or snarky members of the cast. In complete contrast to her other variation, is not only a pleasure to be around, but is also so the go to girl for advice and help. These characters usually make good leaders, because though generally fun, insightful, they are still firm in decisions, trustworthy, and speak their minds. Also like the Spicy Latina, the character will usually be sexually liberated and have no qualms acting in a sexual manner, though usually in a less pronounced manner. The positive version is now portrayed a lot more than the negative version, mainly because of the Unfortunate Implications, that portraying black women in only this way had. It's also rather common for the positive variant to be the Only Sane Woman of a group, in which case her "sass" will be more like "exasperated sarcasm".
The odds that she's a Fag Hag are directly proportionate to her weight. Arguably the Distaff Counterpart to the Scary Black Man, though she can be quite scary herself when pissed off. Might also be a white character's Black Best Friend. Close cousin to the Spicy Latina.
It's quite easy for the character to become an Ethnic Scrappy, especially if she is the Token Minority.
And no real life examples puh'leese, 'cuz I ain't accepting them, a'ight?
Strong, Independant Examples That Don't Need No Man! *snap*
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A fried chicken restaurant in Philadelphia invokes this trope by having the cashier be a sassy black lady who'll insult you if you take too long in ordering, amongst other things. The place has loyal customers, and tourists go just for the experience.
Queen Latifah in most of her roles. Hell, make that every female rapper who ever appeared in a movie.
However, this is Inverted in the start of Last Holiday. Georgia Byrd is shy and timid, and it's her petite (white) friend, Rochelle, that is constantly trying to push her out of her shell with antics like yelling her crush's name across the department store. Once Georgia's Character Development kicks in, though, this trope is in full swing.
Domino had a whole crew of bank-robbing sassy black women.
This was played deadly straight with the health insurance lady in 2004's Crash (played by Loretta Divine, another actress famous for this role). Granted, the way the racist policeman treated her, this wasn't "sassyness" so much as perfectly reasonable behavior. However, even the most enlightened viewer couldn't help but wince at the name "Shaniqua Johnson".
Wanda Sykes in any role she's ever played. She's a lot like this in real life as well.
Abernathy and Kim from the latter part of Grindhouse: Death Proof qualify, Kim more than Abernathy.
Don't forget Jungle Julia.
The 2008 drama Fireproof has an entire posse of these characters working at the hospital. Of course, they spend an inordinate amount of time gossiping about the (white) heroine's love life.
Possible early example: Annie the maid in It's a Wonderful Life, who certainly wasn't shy about speaking her mind. "I heard it; it's about time one'a you lunkheads SAID it!"
Mammy, as played by Hattie McDaniel, from Gone with the Wind. She does such an awesome job as Mammy that she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year. What a character.
Lula in the Stephanie Plum novels is a fellow bounty hunter. She's a larger woman who wears tight, brightly coloured spandex, and tends to provide running commentary on what's going on. Her attitude can annoy Stephanie at times, but she's always there when the chips are down.
Older Than Print: Perhaps the most unlikely example of this is the eponymous Brunhild the Moor, official prosecuting attorney for the goddess Venus, in a 15th century German poem, Die Mörin, who spends most of the poem shamelessly abusing the author-hero, Hermann von Sachsenheim.
Ray Epps' wife in the novelization of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen fits this. Also a bit of a Crowning Moment of Awesome in that she managed to get the good guys a piece of very vital, hard-to-relay-without-getting-caught information under the guise of wanting her husband to pay for plastic surgery.
Kyra Davies from the Allys World series fits the trope, but is portrayed almost unwaveringly positively.
The Jeffersons: Florence Johnston (Marla Gibbs), who was outspoken and not afraid to speak her mind ... especially to her boss, George. Much of the humor came from the chemistry between Sherman Hemsley and Gibbs. To a lesser extent, Louise (Isabel Sanford) also stood her ground, particularly to George.
There was a Saturday Night Live skit about The View where "Barbara Walters" was calling out all the stereotypes that the hosts fit into. Star Jones was "a sassy black woman like I've seen on TV."
Maya Rudolph has been known to play this type of character. She tends to go beyond merely being "sassy" and just be downright rude.
Harriet Winslow, the elevator operator, in Perfect Strangers. Family Matters was originally supposed to be a show centering on her, since she was a particularly popular Sassy Black Woman. Itdidn'twork. Seems to be a family trait, because both Estelle Winslow ("Mama" Winslow) and Laura are textbook examples of the Sassy Black Woman Syndrome.
Rochelle, the mom, from Everybody Hates Chris. Tichina Arnold's character on Martin was pretty much the same.
Heylia in Weeds. One episode begins with her busting Conrad's balls about something and segues directly into Nancy lecturing Shane. It's made clear that Heylia gives Conrad less space than Nancy gives Shane, even though Shane's eleven and Conrad's a grown man.
Rosita from the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special.
Destiny in One Life to Live; one of the more positive examples as he was introduced as a Foil/girlfriend for Matthew just as he's going through a very grim plotline.
Prosecutor Caroline Julian on Bones, in all her scene-stealing glory, is very much this.
Two episodes of Frasier feature "Dr" Mary Thomas, initially hired as a part-time producer for Frasier's own show but whose witty interruptions, humorous asides and home-spun wisdom quickly come to dominate his show. Much mileage is wrought from Frasier's procrastination over putting a stop to this as he's terrified of being thought of as racist.
Arguably, Clarice from Boston Legal - even though Clarice was just a persona (and costume) adopted by super-shy manClarence, Clarice was pretty much a stereotype of a sassy black woman.
Shirley in Community (when she's not overdosing on cute). Unlike most Sassy Black Women, she's quite well-rounded (especially for a half-hour Sitcom). Referred to as such in S01 E22 . "Oh No! Sassy Black Schmitty is out of the group"
Angie, Tracy Jordan's wife on 30 Rock, is one in spades.
Do you really want to use that particilar phrase to describe a Sassy Black Woman?
Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, although more when she was played by Janet Hubert-Whitten than when she was played by Daphne Maxwell Reid. Never as much as her sister Helen, played by Jenifer Lewis:
Aunt Janice:(about her white fiance) I guess I was hoping...no one would notice? Aunt Helen: Honey, who'd you think you was bringin' him home to, Stevie Wonder?
Roz of Night Court partially subverted this, being, basically the Scary Black Woman. She was more of a Deadpan Snarker, but could be quite sensitive and shy compared to Cloudcuckoolander Bull.
From what little we see of Doakes' family (his mother and sisters) in the TV version of Dexter, they're all sassy.
One of the earliest examples on TV was Geraldine Jones, a recurring character played by Flip Wilson (in drag) on his 1970s sketch comedy show. She originated the expression "What you see is what you get."
Tasha Mack on The Game. In a rare display on this trope, she's repeatedly called out and mocked for her behavior. Though everyone who does is only doing it in jest, there is at least one example of her sassyness causing her multi-episode relationship to fall out.
Also to be noted is that Tasha Mack is easisly the most negative version of this trope there is. Not only is she loud, she's also negative, jeolous, profane, ignorant, racist, over bearing, and generally a Bitch, as stated above.
Pretty much any sitcom with a predominently African-American cast(I.E.-Moesha, All Of Us, Eve, My Wife And Kids, The Bernie Mac Show, The Hughleys, For Your Love, One On One, Half And Half, etc) has at least one example of this trope.
The black women on Reality Shows tend to be of this variety, especially those on MTV (Gladys from Road Rules: Latin America stands out in particular, as she was booted early in the show for fighting). It's harder to find black female roommates/contestants who don't fit this stereotype.
Alicia Calaway from Survivor is another notable example. This famous scene pretty much exemplifies her sassiness.
Other Survivor alums of note include Sherea of China, Ghandia of Thailand, Candace of Tocantins, Yasmin of Samoa, and three-time competitor Cirie, though Cirie tends to be portrayed more often as friendly and sweet but quippy than outright sassy, and is also given considerable character depth.
Naonka of Nicaragua is one of the extreme negative versions, having taken an instant and vocal (to the Confession Cam) dislike to Jud (dubbed "Fabio" by his tribe, a male Dumb Blonde but a nice guy) and Kelly (who had her leg amputated at birth).
Mother and daughter Mary Lou and Ivy are both Sassy Black Women on Good Luck Charlie though Ivy has a bit of an edge on her mother since Mary Lou likes jigsaw puzzles and likes to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in German.
Cheryl, Kenan's mother on Kenan & Kel is fairly mellow but she shows signs of this in the episode where Chris moves into the house.
In "Kill the Messenger" we get a grandmother who's this.
Monday Mornings: One Patient of the Week from the pilot episode is an obese black woman, and very outspoken, sometimes downright rude. It seems she's a hypochondriac and a chronic complainer, but Dr. Napur, who is a surgeon and doesn't really have to deal with this case, pushes doctors into other tests or looking for possibilities. The sassy patient was indeed seriously ill. She thanked Dr. Napur for saving her life before the surgery, but was as outspoken and rude-ish as ever.
Music
The band role of Scary Spice aka. Mel B of the Spice Girls.
Musical
Bloody Mary from South Pacific is an example of this trope before it became popular. She speaks in You No Take Candle, but she's very spunky!
Queenie from Show Boat, originally portrayed in blackface.
Sophia from The Color Purple. She even has a song titled "Hell No!"
Sister Chantelle from Bare A Pop Opera The Virgin Mary who is also portrayed by her is played as this as well.
Professional Wrestling
Sharmell Huffman, Booker T's wife, was this in her initial face persona. "Can you dig it, sucka" sounded so much better when coming out of her mouth.
This made it all the funnier when, after Booker became King of the Ring, the two of them tried to pass themselves as Upper Class Twits.
Naomi Night on NXT season 3 who went so far as to call out Michael Cole. This was later flanderized at FCW in their latest effort to turn the fans against the popular wrestler, partnered with Tough Enough loser Cameron Lynn(previously described as a valley girl) for good measure. Never mind the attitude got Naomi over in the first place.
Jacqueline Moore, when she actually spoke, managed the cigar smoking, beer chugging, poker playing APA and joined in just as well. In TNA she was also with their carbon copies Beer Money Inc.
Jazz, who was inspired to become a wrestler after watching Jacqueline and was just as hammy and sassy.
Black Rose in the WWC, during her role as a rude one anyway. Since joining the NWA it has started to bleed into her face persona as well.
Video Games
ToeJam & Earl III features Latisha, who's a Sassy... Blue Alien, which is close enough, since she's from a planet whose hat is Funk/Hip-Hop culture.
Sagitta Weinberg/Cheiron Archer from Sakura Wars can be this at times.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream has Ellen, whose sassy vernacular creates considerable cognitive dissonance in an incredibly bleak game about the end of the world. When confronted with a disembodied jumpsuit taking on the identity of her former rapist, Ellen calls him a "muthuh" and punches him out, to considerable Narm effect.
In Baten Kaitos OrginsHalf of Guillo's voice is composed of one, the other half being a Samuel L. Jackson sound-alike. This works rather well for Guillo's near constant snark.
Jade from Mortal Kombat can be a variation of this, especially in the ninth installment.
Webcomics
Tigerlily Jones in Skin Horse. "When she goes into the truck, she's in Institute Grey. We let her out, she's Foxy Brown. We have no idea how."
Trixie in American Dragon Jake Long.note Odd bit of background on this one: the executives tried to tone her down, but most of her characterization came from her voice actress, Miss Kittie. The execs didn't have the sheer Balzac it took to ask a black woman to act less like herself to her face, and dropped the issue.
The Muses in Hercules fit this trope: especially Thalia, the short comic relief.
Lana Kane of Archer Sassy? Yup. Black-ish? Yuup. Can snap your neck with her man hands? Yuuuuuup!
Lance gets one of these as a driving instructor in Sym-Bionic Titan when he is trying to get his license. Hilarity Ensues as he has to not only keep her happy, but deal with the gang leader harassing him in the middle of the test, then the Monster of the Week trying to kill them. However, she has nothing but praise when Lance manages to survive all this and keep her alive in doing so, and passes him.
In the shorts show on T.V. now, they at least dub over her voice, making it more of a current example, just barely.
Even though Witch Lezah on The Looney Tunes Show has green skin, she still has the mannerisms and personality of a sassy black woman, right down to a Mammy Two-Shoes -esque voice.
Eema the Styracosaurus from Dinosaur, right down to her accent (compare hers to that of Baylene's, who is supposed to be British).
In an episode of American Dad, Roger pretends to be one.
Roger: What's goin' on? I can't hardly see! Hey Easter Island, move your fat head!
Also in an episode, they made fun of the sassy black woman in the workplace stereotype. An overweight black woman named Lorraine, displays all the negative stereotypes in an extreme sense, resulting her throwing acid in Francine's face.
Donna and Roberta of The Cleveland Show. While Donna is a more straight example, Roberta is more of a variation.
Lampshaded in one episode of Batman Beyond, Terry's best friend Max gets kidnapped by Kobra (No not that Cobra). And Terry, in camouflage, overhears Max's kidnappers:
Kobra Advisor: She's rude, she's sarcastic, and she has absolutely no respect. Terry:Gotta be Max.
Cake the cat in the gender-swapped episode of Adventure Time.
