I was offended but not surprised. What did surprise me was how accurate his Jamaican Accent was!
Well, you're a wanna-be, wanna be better than me!
Offended? Please.
Two words:
Soul Man.
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Can anyone actually explain what was offensive about that scene in that context? It's become sort of taken for granted that "BLACKFACE = BAD RACIST", but it's one of the few complaints that doesn't really make sense to me. I know all about the black & white minstrel shows, but it's hardly comparable.
These bastards!
Aside from being hilarious the reason it doesn't offend is because Beeks sees through it. Contrast this with a movie like SOUL MAN which tries to make us believe people would be fooled by the white main character's disguise.
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Eddie didn't play the rasta because it's a comedy.
And .....all you racist conspirators out there would simply have said 'oh, i see they got eddie murphy to play the rasta, that's just racist, man'
I'm black and laughed my ass off at Ackroyd in blackface. I simply put it into the context of the film and bought it.
"I'm in such bad shape, I'm wearing prescription underwear." Phyllis Diller 1917-2012
I agree, we suck today...we are so uptight these days but we think we are so progressive and hip. We are these days the uptight nerdy kid that thinks hes some kind of rebel. Dan Akroyd was pretty damn funny in that scene as was Murphy. It is a shame we view everything as racist today without looking at the context.
shareI agree, we suck today...we are so uptight these days but we think we are so progressive and hip.
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A: I bet you didn't like Robert Downey Jr. in blackface in Tropic Thunder either?
B: Dan Aykroyd can do some AMAZING things with his voice! Look up his screen test for Saturday Night Live! Or anything you can see where he plays against Steve Martin as a Czech man. Danny is HYSTERICAL and yeah, I'm a fan. :)
B: Dan Aykroyd can do some AMAZING things with his voice! Look up his screen test for Saturday Night Live!
If you were offended then you need to get a life. PC whiney crybabies have to go.
sharehe's in blackface in order to entrap the villain. he doesn't want to be recognised. i can't see anything offensive about it.
shareIt wasn't meant to be offensive - The purpose of the scene wasn't to insult African Americans or somehow mimic their perceived “inferiority”.share
It came late in the film and it wasn't repeated - It was part of the denouement of the film and it wasn't used throughout the entire production.
Eddie Murphy apparently didn't have a problem with it - While Aykroyd was the “star” of the film, people went to it to see Eddie Murphy. If he'd had problems with it, then it probably wouldn't have happened.
It was the 1980s - Unfortunately Black performers were rarely getting work, so worrying about a minor scene in a film wasn't a priority; surviving as an actor was. No one was going to complain
There were more blatant forms of racism going - MTV refused to play the videos of Black performers who topped the pop charts at the time. The major Black performers of the day were cast in roles that made them appear to be buffoons. And every Black comedic performer was expected to wear drag at some point. Dan Aykroyd was a minor blip on the radar, if that.