IDRIS ELBA FOR PREZ!!!
the “black people are scared of supernatural stuff” thing… uh… that seems like digging up a real old stereotype. Really?
Or indeed RED - since these were productions of the Americas, rather than Europe or Africa…
Video link for those who need it.
Next up, How Flubber would have been if it had featured Jeff Goldblum…
The (also hoary, but not very old) joke is that white people in horror movies tend to act out of a sort of oblivious, blinkered self-confidence that leads them to do stupid stuff, like, say, grab a flickering flashlight and march down into the basement from which they heard the horrifying scream, whereas a black person would be sensible enough not to do that (which is why the Clarice analogue zipped away from Hannibl Lecter - no supernatural element there, just a person recognizing a threat and putting distance between themselves and it).
It’s still a lazy, well-worn joke that relies on tired racial stereotypes, but not quite the ones you seem to be thinking of, I don’t think.
I actually thought the stereotype was Black people are magic. In all honesty though, I just interpreted it as “Black people have more sense than to be in this movie.” Which is not really a salient point about race, and was just supposed to be funny.
I think the idea is more like this.
Ok, now let’s put white actors in famous black roles and watch the hilarious results! Don’t miss it. Right after these important messages…
Now do Gone With the Wind!
Ted Danson is gonna be turning down a lot of roles.
Good deals on haunted real estate is just one of those things white people like.
Hey, eventually all properties will be “psychologically impacted”, and the atheists and rational people will buy them up and have some great cheap housing.
It’s much funnier when the joke is about how they’re being treated rather than how they’re acting.
I like to imagine that Ronald McDonald is really different non-white actors pretending to be generic white people. Yeah, smile all the time! Eat that cheap junk food!
Or at least fucking Batman. He’d be such an amazing Batman…with Ruth Wilson as Poison Ivy or Cat Woman…I mean, Luther satisfied a lot of this itch, but c’mon, it needs to happen.
Ruth Wilson as Cat Woman…excuse me, I need some time alone.
