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" — Jay-Z, "Girls, Girls, Girls"
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. Since the creation of this trope, it's degraded more and more into stereotypical territory, especially in movies.
The positive sassy character, on the other hand, is 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. Can also be a subtrope of Angry (and/or Scary) Black Woman. Often also a white character's Black Best Friend. Close cousin to the Spicy Latina.
And No Real Life Examples, Please, cuz' I ain't acceptin' dat, aaiight?
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.
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.
The Dynamites and Motormouth Maybelle from Hairspray. Extra points since the latter is played by Queen Latifah in the latest film.
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.
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.
While only half black, Kyra Davies from the Allys World series fits the trope, but is portrayed almost unwaveringly positively.
Live-Action TV
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.
I have to disagree. While both characters are both sure of there selves and on occasion argue. Pam, the character from Martin, was much more of a positive example than Rochelle is. Being a more well rounded and likable character, than Rochelle is.
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.
Also, the hosts of Reality Check and the mother from That's My White Mama.
Rose, of Lost.
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 man Clarence, Clarice was pretty much a stereotype of a sassy black woman. Referred to as such in S01 E22 . "Sassy Black Shmitty is out of The Group!"
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"
Judy, Robert's partner on the police force in Everybody Loves Raymond, is an example of this trope.
Monk had Sharona get a friend from her creative writing class to replace her temporairly while she was suffering from a murderer's plot to make her think she was crazy. This woman was a bitchy sassy black woman who came almost close to be on the level of The Scrappy for being so damn annoying and unaccommodating to Monk and the rest of the cast.
Basically everyone on Girlfriends at one time or another, but mostly Toni.
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.
Jacqueline Moore, when she actually spoke, manged 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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
