Whoopi Epiphany Speech

""Now that black girl knows something you don't!""

- The Onion News Network video, The Strong Women in Film Award for Most Extraordinarily Intuitive Black Woman in a Motion Picture

Profoundly wise, life affirming short speech given by the poor, oppressed minority, uneducated, or mentally challenged character to the more-educated protagonist. Thus, perhaps, clearly distinguishing between the "Intelligence" and "Wisdom" attributes in Dungeons and Dragons.

Forrest Gump spoke almost exclusively in these.

Named after actress Whoopi Goldberg, whose character Celie in The Color Purple is an uneducated, viciously oppressed farmgirl who famously stands up for herself with such a speech. Her later character Guinan from Star Trek: The Next Generation, a wise, mysterious and Really Seven Hundred Years Old alien bartender, may have helped cement the trope name, though Guinan's life affirming speeches tend to be more erudite.

Subversions are frequent too. Usually takes the form of some person interrupting a fight with a comment on why they shouldn't be fighting. Instead of stopping as expected, the rioters just continue fighting.

Frequently utilized by the Magical Negro. See also Waif Prophet, Book Dumb, Simpleminded Wisdom, Wisdom from the Gutter. Note that just because the character is black, and is giving a speech, doesn't make it a Whoopi Epiphany Speech--if the character is powerful, intelligent, and respected, they don't fit this trope.

Comic Books

 * The famous "You've done a lot for the purple skins, but what have you done for the black skins?", speech delivered to Green Lantern in the '70s.

Film
"Samwise: Because there's something good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for! Faramir: It seems at last we understand one another... Release them!"
 * Um... Whoopi Goldberg tends to do this.
 * Forrest Gump.
 * In the Robert Altman film Gosford Park, the maid Dorothy delivers a speech about what's really important to a discontent aristocrat.
 * Celie aside, Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act films consist almost wholly of such speeches.
 * In the end of the recent remake of Bedazzled, when the hapless hero is stuck in jail with the prospect of having sold his soul to the Devil and only one wish left to make it worthwhile. His cellmate, a young, gentle black man (the polar opposite of Elizabeth Hurley) reminds him with a smile that he can't sell something that doesn't belong to him - in this case, his soul. This man and the Devil (Hurley) are later seen playing chess.
 * Lord of the Rings (see below). But special marks for the following end-of-film summation speech:

"Wallace: Yeah, I'm kinda banking on you moving in with Ramona so I don't have to feel guilty for kicking you out."
 * Spoofed in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where Wallace (Scott's gay roommate) delivers a dramatic speech about chasing true love... only to reveal that it's just to get him to move out of the apartment.


 * Nell Kellty does a very quiet one of these in the courtroom scene.

Literature

 * In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, it sometimes seems like this is Sam's main purpose.
 * Jim from Huckleberry Finn has many of these, although they are rarely understood by anyone other than the reader. Even he doesn't realize he says them.
 * The trope is Older Than Steam at the very least. Speeches of this kind were very widespread in Spanish Golden Age literature. The Trope Maker must have been Antonio de Guevara, famous for his Danubian Farmer anecdote, where a lowly peasant eloquently criticizes the Roman Empire.
 * In Robert J. Sawyer's WWW Trilogy, Hobo (a chimpanzee bonobo hybrid) addresses the United Nations General Assembly, and tells them that the reason why they can't solve problems is that they're a room full of "thump chests" (alpha males).
 * Gosh, whenever Scout or Jem say anything at or near the end of a chapter, it's one of these. Often, it's really hard-hitting too.

Live Action TV
"Guinan: "Consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do, because it's too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable? You don't have to think about their welfare; you don't think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people." Picard: "You're talking about slavery." Guinan: "I think that's a little harsh." Picard: "I don't think that's a little harsh, I think that's the truth. But that's a truth that we have obscured behind a... comfortable, easy euphemism. 'Property'.""
 * "When you can feel, that's when you know you're alive." Nelson the bartender from the British Life On Mars.
 * Baldrick's cry of "Why can't we just stop, sir? Why can't we just say, 'no more killing, let's all go home'? Why would it be stupid just to pack it in, sir? Why?"
 * Ellen's teenaged ex-boyfriend delivers an odd example in the Season Two finale of Slings and Arrows.
 * As noted above, the character of Guinan delivered a good many of these. She was the bartender in the crew's social lounge, and the main crew would often speak to her when particularly perplexed. She would usually provide the gentle push to send them off to do the right thing, most notably in "Measure of A Man", one of her earliest appearances, where she points out to Picard exactly what Data's loss of rights would be the equivalent of.


 * Guinevere (black and a servant) from Merlin gives one of these to Merlin after King Uther has had her father executed, during a stage when Merlin is considering letting Morgana go ahead with her assassination attempt on Uther's life. On asking Gwen what she would do if she hypothetically had control over Uther's life, she says that she wouldn't kill him as that would make her no better than he is, spurring Merlin into trying to stop the hit from going ahead.

Newspaper Comics

 * The "It's a very good day to me," speech by the Ethiopian taxi driver in an old strip of For Better or For Worse.
 * Also done more recently, with vaguely mentally disabled character Shannon delivering a rousing speech about tolerance to an entire high school from atop a cafeteria table.

Web Comics

 * In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob, pretty much Bob's whole shtick is that (in Dungeons and Dragons terms) he has a low Intelligence score but a high Wisdom score. He's particularly good at Talking the Monster to Death, mostly using words of one syllable. Probably the best example is when he calms down an angry hyper-intelligent Ubermensch, here.

Comic Books

 * In the winter of 1995, Bongo Comics (the company responsible for comic-book adventures involving characters from The Simpsons) presented a three-part story entitled "The Rise and Fall of Krustyland." It recounts how Krusty the Clown let everyone - and that means everyone, from ordinary citizens to the Mob - for miles around get into his amusement park free on the day that it opened. Two of the groups that attended were a troupe of Boy Scout-like youths called the Junior Campers (with Ned Flanders as their leader) and a contingent of violent inmates from the local insane asylum. Both groups somehow get trapped inside the watery funhouse ride "It's a Tiny Yet Annoying World" (obviously a No Celebrities Were Harmed send-up of Disneyland's "It's a Small World") when divine windstorms and wildfires (Krustyland had been built on a cursed Native American burial ground) break out in the park. The Tastes Like Diabetes song performed by the animatronic dolls nearly drives everyone berserk....until one of the asylum inmates attempts to mediate, urging everyone to listen to the lyrics and "join together and sing!" Both the campers and the inmates look at this guy in disgust for a beat before erupting in anger and screaming for his blood. Fortunately, the boats on the ride bust their way out of the tunnels before anything really bad can happen.

Film
"Brian's mom: He's not The Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!"
 * Life of Brian - Brian's girlfriend, an Expy of Mary Magdalene, tries to convince Brian's mom that he is special (while naked, as she had barged in on the two of them). It doesn't work.


 * Brian tries it too: two factions of Jewish anti-Roman agitators have met up underneath Pilate's palace - two different factions planning the same thing (to kidnap his wife), so they end up fighting each other. Brian pipes up with an inspiring speech about how they should be focusing on their common enemy (not the Judean People's Front, the Romans)... and after politely hearing him out, everyone starts right where they left off, until everyone's dead except Brian. To top it off, the whole thing is silently observed by two very amused Roman guards.
 * There's also Brian's desperate attempt to convince his unwanted multitude that they don't need to blindly follow him or anyone else... only for them to end up doing nothing more than parrot his statements about how they're all individuals and need to think for themselves.
 * I'm not!
 * In Team America: World Police, a homeless and possibly drunk man gives the hero some sage advice about assholes, pussies and dicks. This seemingly mindless rant becomes important later.
 * Subverted beautifully in the movie Deep Blue Sea when Samuel L. Jackson, whose character is the Decoy Protagonist and Sacrificial Lion of the film, gives a powerful "we've got to all pull together people if we're going to survive" speech, right before he gets chomped; nay verily, he's right in the middle of that speech.
 * "I just wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school. I wish that I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles, and we'd all eat it and be happy."
 * "She doesn't even go here!"

Live Action TV

 * In the pilot episode of Community Jeff Winger sarcastically informs a cafeteria worker that TV has conditioned him to see "all middle-aged black women as cosmic mentors." She just wants him to pay for his damn tacos.
 * Subverted in Doctor Who when Rose Tyler tries it on her mother's analogue in an Alternate Universe while posing as a waitress at her birthday party, but Jackie just turns around and asks her who the hell she thinks she is.
 * Subverted in the first episode of The Sarah Silverman Program, where an old black lady gives sagely advice to Sarah.
 * "I've learned something today... Elderly black women are wise beyond their years, but younger black women are prostitutes. Good night?"
 * And let's not forget that said advice was delivered while Sarah was high on cough syrup. Or that the elderly black woman's head was attached to the body of her dog (Sarah dubs it "Elderly Black Woman Puppy").
 * In Wizards of Waverly Place when Alex gives a heartfelt speech about how you should be okay with yourself and not give in to the school Alpha Bitch, said Alpha Bitch promptly tells her that she still rules the school and orders everyone to leave, which they do.
 * The Trope Namer herself performs a subversion in "I, Borg". Instead of the typically enlightened speech, Guinan tries to convince Picard (via fencing) that the nature of the borg can never be altered and trying to show compassion to the one they've found is futile. Guinan has pretty good reasons to feel this way, but she eventually faces the borg individual and confronts this.

Western Animation
""Now, I may be blind, but I can see certain things loud and clear. This is a room full of scared people making decisions based on fear and ignorance. Now, when I left the house this evening, I intended to go to Giovanni's Italian Restaurant. I can tell I'm in the wrong place. So, if you'll excuse me, I'll leave and let you get on with your meeting.""
 * Recess, "The Great Can Drive": a bunch of kids are fighting over some geezer's can of food, as part of a contest to see who can get the most cans. TJ's class has just accumulated the exact same number of cans as the Ashleys' class (the scores were in the thousands), and TJ is teed off even more than if they had lost and contributed to the Ashleys' winning streak. As they fight. Mikey tells them that the true point of this whole contest is to get lots of food for the needy. After hearing this, they continue fighting over the can anyway, and the can somehow ends up knocking over the pyramid of cans they had collected, making Mikey both sad and mad.
 * Hey Arnold!!, "Heat": During a heat wave, Arnold points out to a bunch of kids trying to flip over an ice-cream truck is that they're getting cranky because of the heat. And then... they just keep trying to flip it over. Mother Nature has its own, more successful, way of intervention however - rain.
 * Actually...snow. Somehow. Amusingly, the next cartoon is a snow episode.
 * Subverted by Clone High, with Toots, the blind Jazz player. He'll start a speech that sounds like it'll be the voice of reason in troubled times, but instead decides to let everyone get on with their angry mob.

Real Life

 * "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?" -- Rodney King
 * "No, not really." -- L.A.
 * For context: King said his famous piece three days into the LA riots. They went on for three more afterward.
 * Actually, Whoopi herself does this in real life anyway...