Black Best Friend: Difference between revisions

[[File:stevenandalangc3.jpg|link=The Colbert Report|frame| "Can I keep him? I'll feed him!"]]

 

 

"Some of my best friends are ''sassy'' black people!"

 

{{examples}}

* A rare anime example is Tapp Oceano from ''[[Metal Armor Dragonar]]''. In a strange twist, he is a rather grounded individual who came from a childhood of relative poverty living in New York, compared to his friends Kaine Wakaba, the somewhat overzealous hero who grew up in a strangely traditional Japanese village, and Light Newman, [[The Smart Guy]] who happens to be a certified British nobleman (he doesn't like to talk about it).

* Misa Hayase's [[Cool Big Sis]] Claudia LaSalle /Grant from [[Macross]] / [[Robotech]]. In [[Robotech]] continuity, there's also Dana Sterling's childhood friend (and Claudia's nephew), Bowie Grant.

* Machiste who, despite being king of his own land, spends most of his time as the loyal companion to Travis Morgan in ''[[The Warlord]]''.

* [[Captain America (comics)]] had the black hero, [[The Falcon]]. They were so tight in the 1970s that Cap's series was retitled as ''Captain America and the Falcon'' for years.

** When Cap quit being Cap and a new one was appointed by the US government, the replacement John Walker, in that brief interlude before he started getting evil, also had a black best friend, Lemar Hoskins, who was given the costume of and codename of Bucky, Original Cap's [[World War Two]] sidekick. The comics people rapidly realized that there were [[Unfortunate Implications]], and in an unusual move [[Author's Saving Throw|addressed these within the comic]], as the Lemar explained to Walker that 'Bucky' was an unfortunate slang term for black men, and there was something demeaning about a grown man being named after a dead white teenager, so he'd like to pick a new codename. Walker agreed and Lemar became Battlestar.

* In the ''Mysti'' comic books, Mysti has a black best friend named Peaseblossom (though for the first few volumes, she is a white best friend).

* Wes and Gunn on ''[[Angel]]'' for a while.

* This was actually the ''plot'', or at least part of it, of the Lifetime original series ''Any Day Now''. Despite their racial differences, Mary Elizabeth (Annie Potts) and Renee (Lorraise Toussaint) became best friends while growing up in 1960's Alabama, and the show jumped between their present-day lives and flashbacks to their childhoods.

** Tigh to Adama

** Boomer to Apollo and Starbuck

** And considering that the woman that Carter is in love with is black, uh, yeah. Henry's as far from a token as can be.

* Not a perfect example, but the trope is played for laughs in ''[[Father Ted]]'' where, in an attempt to appeal to the Chinese people of Craggy Island when they all start to believe he is a racist, Ted organizes an event to celebrate their culture. A slide-show is the main event where, before he gets to a cringe-worthy display of examples of "Chinese culture" (including Ted claiming that you can see the Great Wall of China "from anywhere in the world" and Mr. Miyagi) he shows a picture of himself with his arm around a black man and the pair smiling. To this he says "I forget his name now, but I got on very well with him..." before moving on.

* ''[[Felicity]]'': Elena Tyler

* Nick on the 2007 ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]'', though thus far he's functioned mostly as a [[Butt Monkey]].

* In ''[[Glee]]'', Mercedes is this to Kurt.

* Ivy Wentz on ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' is Teddy's [[Recursion|black best friend]]. Also P.J.'s best friend Emmett is [[Black and Nerdy]].

* ''Honest'' {{spoiler|features Reza, a ''South Asian'' Best Friend. Subverted in that he's not all that smart.}}

* [[How I Met Your Mother]]: Lily's best friend from high school in the episode "Sand Castles in the Sand".

* On ''[[Las Vegas]]'', we have Mike Cannon, who is pretty much cool personified, and frequently chases tail. [[Hollywood Nerd|He's also an MIT graduate, idolizes Stephen Hawking, and is one of the smartest guys on the show]]. (James Lesure and Josh Duhamel are actually real-life friends.) There's also Detta, who was Delinda's British BBF, and Sam Marquez, a sassy Hispanic woman(And I use the word "sassy" generously).

* Ramona Platt in ''[[Less Than Perfect]]''.

* Malcolm's best friend in ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' is Stevie, who is also [[Black and Nerdy]].

* For the first eight or so seasons of ''[[Married... with Children]]'', Al worked alone in the shoe store. Starting in season 9, his friend and fellow NO-MAAMer Griff became his co-worker. In many respects, Griff was a black version of Al, with a bad car and an even worse job, their major difference being that Griff was divorced. Al would probably consider him better off, but as Griff told Bud in one episode, ''she got the car, the dog and the money. I got the right to remain silent.''

* The ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode that features the movie ''Werewolf'' mocks this when the only black person in the film, seen for a few seconds, is introduced at a party as "my good friend Elgin."

{{quote|Mike: Elgin is my ''black'' friend.}}

* Barb, from ''[[The New Adventures of Old Christine]]'' is this, and it's constantly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Christine.

* One of Michael Scott's quirks from the US version of ''[[The Office]]'' is his bizarre belief, [[Selective Obliviousness|in the face of all evidence]], that sales rep Stanley Hudson is a stereotypical "sassy black mentor" and that Stanley is therefore one of his best friends from work (since Michael is, of course, the protagonist of his little pop-culture fantasy world). Michael has a magical ability to completely ignore all of Stanley's real personality traits while imagining him as a Black Best Friend, imagining him as a wisecracking happy-go-lucky athletic "urban" man with working-class roots , when Stanley is in fact sedentary and out of shape, laconic to the point of catatonia, frequently depressed, raised in a small town and just as if not more solidly upper-middle-class as anyone else in the office.

* ''[[That's So Raven]]'': [[Inverted]] with Chelsea who's the [[Token White|Best White Friend]]

* Lampshaded in ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]''. When Liz tries to make friends with Tracey's wife, Angie, she asks "Are you looking for a sassy black friend?" When Liz stumbles for words, Angie continues: "Because you just found one, girlfriend!"

* Jay Leno of [[The Tonight Show]] regularly exchanged banter with Kevin Eubanks.

** Eubanks was the replacement for original music director Branford Marsalis. The awkward and vaguely hostile relationship between Marsalis and Leno subverted this trope pretty effectively.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff|intoducing, the new friend................]] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/sweetbroandhellajeff/?cid=007.jpg GEROMY]

* Jivin in ''[[Asperchu]]''.

** They've also served as the [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Couple]], superseding even Daria Heroine herself. In one episode, Daria [[What the Hell, Hero?|is somewhat taken aback]] when Jodie uses her Dad's reputation to complete an economics assignment. {{spoiler|Daria is later forced to admit that [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|business people use the same tactics in real life]], and lets Jodie of the hook.}}

* Abby in ''[[The Replacements]]''.

** His relatives are even worse. His dad is even more of a nerd then he, but fails to realize it. His Grandma is a Sassy Black Woman who can out funk anyone. One of his Grandpas is...well, a senile old Blacula. His other Grandpa is a Jewish Mummy which doesn't quite work out. His mom is a hideous corpse mummy, about which nobody needs to ask any questions.

* Terry McGinnis' friend Max in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', one of the few besides him and Old Man Wayne who know his secret identity.

** [[Word of Gay|And gay.]]

* [[Alpha Bitch|Miranda]] on ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'' is Courtney's best friend. Miranda is extremely popular and generally very cool.

** AJ is definitely the smartest both academically (he gets LOTS of A's while Timmy and Chester pretty much fail exclusively) and in terms of common sense, though his attempts to get Timmy to not make ridiculously bad decisions don't really work.

* Quincy from ''[[My Dad the Rock Star]]'' is this to the male lead Willy. Unique in that he is not portrayed as cooler than the already nerdy-looking Willy. In fact, he's a subverted [[Jive Turkey]] who tries to talk in street slang and appear hip hop, but comes off as a clear poser to everyone else.

** [[Animals Hate Him|DJ]] to Geoff.

* In ''[[Stickin' Around]]'', Bradley is precisely this for Stacy.

* In ''[[Futurama]]'''s [[Show Within a Show]] ''All My Circuits'', Calculon's best friend is a human - who doesn't have a name and is only known as "human friend." Similar in spirit.

* Despite the fact that Tiana is the heroine of [[The Princess and the Frog]], Charlotte is so spoiled that she gets all the fairy tale dresses she wants and when her seamstress shows up she brings her black little girl to play with Charlotte.

* A parody website called [http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/ Black People Love Us]. It goes on about how "well-liked [they are] by Black people," and hangin' out with their black friends.

* Devin Freidman wrote an article called "Will You Be My Black Friend?" on how he realized at a cocktail party that most of his friends were white. He tried to remedy this by putting an ad for himself on Craigslist for a black friend. Oprah's producing a movie with Chris Rock based on it.

{{quote|"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, '''they use my bathroom'''. I treat them just like everyone else."}}

* Chris Rock makes fun of this in one of his standups when he says "All my black friends have a bunch of white friends, and all my white friends have one black friend!"

** Also inverted and parodied in "How To Not Get Your Ass Kicked By The Police" with this advice: "Get A White Friend."

*** "A white friend could be the difference between a ticket--" [black driver is handed a ticket as white friend watches sympathetically; arrow caption says "Ticket"] "--and a bullet in the ass." [black driver is forced to the ground and a pistol is pointed at his cranium; arrow caption says "Not A Ticket"]

{{quote|''No,no,no,no, you misunderstand. Some of my best blacks are friends!''}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Older Than Radio]]

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]