Scary Black Man: Difference between revisions

[[File:Jules_scary_9036Jules scary 9036.jpg|link=Pulp Fiction|frame|[[Samuel L. Jackson|"What" ain't no country I ever heard of.]] [[Deadpan Snarker|They speak English in What?]]]]

{{quote| '''[[Mr. T]]:''' Sucka, you have a choice: You can face prison or you can face ''me''.<br />

** It's also worth noting that, based on evidence from the movie ''Appleseed Ex Machina'', the artificial skin under Briareos's armor is ''literally'' black -- asblack—as in, the color of a car tire.

*** In that movie Briareos is more Asiatic than black, though - the artists wanted him to be a traditional pretty-boy, apparently.

* Killer Bee and Kidoumaru from ''[[Naruto]]'' are both this, but approached from opposite ends with some subversions thrown in for fun. Killer Bee not only looks the big and scary part right down to sporting shades and rapping, he also {{spoiler|beats the living tar out of Sasuke}}; then he turns around, {{spoiler|fools the Akatsuki, and fakes his death * all so he can go on vacation* }}. Kidoumaru, on the other hand, looks no scarier than the other members of his [[Five-Bad Band]], the Sound Four...right up until the retrieval squad members from Konoha have to face him alone and realize he's an amoral, easily-bored sadist gamer who thinks Knife-A-Naruto is a great pastime; he's also able to reason his way around the powerful Hyuuga clan's [[Achilles' Heel]] and start nailing the clan's prize genius, whom nobody but the Kyuubi vessel has been able to put the hit on in the manga up 'til now, with arrow nukes.

** The Raikage--KillerRaikage—Killer Bee's older brother--isbrother—is more of a straight example: he's [[Large and In Charge|huge]], intimidating, and [[Hair-Trigger Temper|seems to be angry most of the time]], which is manifested in his tendency to break furniture and [[There Was a Door|walls]] (granted his anger is shown to be fairly justified, and he did shed some [[Manly Tears]] when {{spoiler|trying to get a team of his to focus on saving his younger brother}}).

** In the anime, he's [[Race Lift|white]]. One of the lesser mafia members, though, is black.

* Subverted in ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'', where rookie boxer Jason Ozma has the perfect [[Scary Black Man]] looks... but a cheery and sweet [[Gentle Giant]] outside the ring. Hilariously lampshaded when they meet face to face: Ippo, [[Humble Hero]] that he is, is terrified at the prospect... and Ozma smiles widely before cheerfully speaking to him, leaving Ippo all dumbfounded.

* [[Gentle Giant|Simon]] from ''[[Durarara!!]]'' is a huge, black [[Husky Russkie|Russian]] man living in Japan that tends scare off people simply by existing. Damn shame, too, because he really just wants to sell sushi.

* [[Sailor Moon|Sailor Pluto]] has dark skin, which was initially meant to make her look scary in the manga, although she is very kind and friendly.

* James Ironside from ''[[Blood Plus+]]''. Scary enough when human, but gets a whole lot scarier when he transform into his chiropteran form.

* In the fifth season of [[Detective Conan]], an old man named Yoshifusa Yamauchi comes back from Brazil to claim his share of his deceased brother's huge inheritance and brings a SBM named Carlos as his bodyguard. {{spoiler|It's surprisingly averted: Yoshifusa is actually Dickson Tanaka, a [[Badass Grandpa]] who is [[Dead Person Impersonation|impersonating]] the deceased Yoshifusa ''and is Carlos's bodyguard'', since the supposed [[Scary Black Man]] was a harmless [[Gentle Giant]] - and Yoshifusa's son, whom Dickson swore to protect from his friend's [[Big Screwed-Up Family]].}}

* Parodied hard by the [[Show Within a Show]] in ''[[Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer|Gundam 00 a Wakening of The Trailblazer]]'', where the pilot of the [[BFG]]-throwing Gundam Seravee, Tieria Erde, is not the same slender white man wearing glasses but instead a muscular [[Scary Black Man]] outright, parodying the common racial stereotype of black men as big muscles in the entertainment media.

** And with his voice work as Commander Vachir in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'', he returns to being a [[Talking Animal]] version of this trope. Although the rhino's hubris and smugness end up rendering him a lot more impotent than most [[Scary Black Man|Scary Black Men]] tend to be. The fact [[You All Look Familiar|the entire contingent of guards at Chorh-Gom are based off of his character design]] only makes things worse, since it gives us a whole fleet of [[Scary Black Man|Scary Black Men]] who become [[The Worf Effect|cannon fodder]] for the resident [[Badass]].

** He was even the [[Scary Black Man]] in ''The Scorpion King'', an impressive feat given the main character is The Rock as an Akkadian killing machine.

** He guest-starred on an episode of [[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]] as Coach Little, a basketball coach who was both a [[Scary Black Man]] and a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] (Coach Type.)

** When he played a villain on ''[[Chuck]]'', his whole schtick was talking about how imposing he was.

** Fishburne as Ike Turner. 'Nuff said.

* Mr. T, although he is rather more outgoing than most [[Scary Black Man|Scary Black Men]].

** He parodies his scary black guy role in ''[[I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry]]''. This [[Scary Black Man]] joins the Fire Department and is remarked by others as [[Ax Crazy]] due to his [[The Stoic|silent and cold behavior]]. Later on he is inspired by Chuck and Larry's marriage to come out of the closet, from that point displaying traits of [[Camp Gay]].

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0340485/ Kevin Grevioux] was one of these in his role as Raze, the scary black werewolf, in ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]''. Most of his [[Scary Black Man]]-yness was due to his awesome voice, though.

** The eponymous ''[[Candyman]]''

* Ken Page, the actor behind the voices of [[All Dogs Go to Heaven|the Big Lipped]] [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene|Alligator]] and [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Oogie Boogie.]]

** "[[The Simpsons (animation)|Elmo knows where you live!]]"

* [[Ice T]], not only in his roles, but (for quite some time) in [[Real Life]]--he—he's a reformed pimp.

** In [[Joker]], he still is mostly just a [[Scary Black Man]] with a skin condition and sharp teeth.

* Thunderball of Marvel's Wrecking Crew. He's also the smartest of the group.

{{quote| '''Frank:''' Tell them to send the second toughest guy.}}

{{quote| '''Spider-Man''': Damn, Cage! You took that guy out with a look.<br />

'''Luke Cage''': That's my trademark.<br />

{{quote| "You're '''black?''' [[T-Word Euphemism|S-word!]]"}}

* Pictured above, Jules Winfield of ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''. In fact, if a movie (without [[Star Wars]] in the title) has [[Samuel L. Jackson]] in it (whether he's the hero or villain), chances are he will be playing one of these.

* In the film, ''[[Fly By Night]]'', The rap duo, King and Eye, try to make it on the local rap scene. Problem is, {{spoiler|while King is a decent all-around good fellow, Eye is a scary black man who gets off on control and starting trouble. Needless to say, he's the film's [[Big Bad]].}}

** In ''Raid on Entebbe'' Idi Amin comes across more as a pompous jackass who thinks he is more of a [[Scary Black Man]] then he is. He was probably scary enough to people who were kind of, well, someone besides [[Badass Israeli|Yoni Natanayu]] though.

* In ''Mississippi Burning'', the FBI brings in a professional [[Scary Black Man]] to intimidate the corrupt mayor into revealing who committed a hate crime.

* ''Kidulthood'' has Uncle Curtis, a cruel and terrifying Jamaican crime boss.

* A minor subversion of this character appeared briefly in ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy|The Dark Knight]]''. Towards the end of the film, the Joker sets up [[The Sadistic Choice|a prisoner's-dilemma-type situation]]: two ferries, stalled in Gotham Harbor, both loaded with explosives. One ferry is carrying prisoners, the other is filled with civilians. The captains of the ferries have the detonators--todetonators—to ''each other's'' boat. If one boat blows up the other, then it will go free. If neither boat destroys the other, they'll ''both'' be blown up in a few minutes. The captain of the prisoner's ferry is struggling with the decision, when a very large, very scary black man (Played by Tiny Lister) in prisoner's orange and chains comes over to him. He states that the captain knows what he needs to do, but doesn't have the guts for it -- butit—but ''he'' does. He convinces the captain to hand him the detonator, {{spoiler|[[Even Evil Has Standards|then immediately throws it out the window and into the water, then says they should've done that hours ago.]]}}

* Serrano from the ''[[Major League]]'' movies starts off as an example, then subverts it all to hell after becoming a Buddhist in the second film.

* If an interracial porno has a black man in it, he's guaranteed to be Scary, often with some sort of gangsta gimmick even if that just means wearing a bandana and/or a pair of Timberland boots while otherwise nude.

* ''[[Diary of the Dead]]''. The teenaged protagonists are captured by what appear to be black gang members led by a softly-spoken [[Badass]] who is the embodiment of this trope. The group are visibly nervous, with the [[Ms. Fanservice]] of the group pulling her coat across her cleavage for the only time in the entire movie. It turns out they're ex-National Guard who end up (after some aggressive negotiating) giving them the supplies they need -- whichneed—which ironically enough are stolen by a group of white National Guardsmen.

* Basically the entire oeuvre of Ving Rhames. Oftentimes, this will be subverted, as in the ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' movies, where he turns out to be a [[Genius Bruiser]] and a very nice guy. But just as often, it's played straight. Fully half of his film roles seem to be as violent criminals with names like "Animal" and "Diamond Dog."

* ''[[Blade]]''.

* The Zulus in [[Zulu]].

{{quote| '''Prison Counselor:''' Why do you say you feel "trapped" in a man's body? <br />

* The stewardess in ''[[Anger Management]]'' has one to back her up, and he has a taser.

* Kirk Lazarus in ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' acted like this but he's really [[WTH?What the Hell, Casting Agency?|a white Australian who was playing a black Vietnam Soldier.]]

* Chocolate Mousse in ''[[Top Secret]]'' is a parody of a [[Scary Black Man]], doing such "classically" [[Badass]] things as eating a cigar, drinking gasoline, and wielding a front-loader cannon as a sidearm. He's also an [[Improbable Aiming Skills|impossibly good shot]] with a machine gun.

{{quote| '''Thor''': " You're big. [[Badass Boast|I've fought bigger.]]"}}

* Literally with [[H.P. Lovecraft|Nyarlathotep]], though for [[Humanoid Abomination|rather unusual reasons]].

* Sagramore in ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' is a Scary Black Man... In 5th Century Britain. He's actually a friendly, if taciturn, man and a good friend -- butfriend—but he's also a terrifyingly effective warrior, and because of his dark skin his Saxon enemies believe him to be a demon.

* Thresh from ''[[The Hunger Games]]''. Katniss believes that he would be a nice guy if left to his own devices. Under [[Deadly Game|the circumstances]], however, he's not above {{spoiler|smashing people's heads in with rocks}}.

* In the live action ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'', American football player turned pro kickboxer Bob Sapp played a villain. At 6'5" and 375 &nbsp;lbs of muscle, the fact that he was black was a relatively minor component of his scariness. The fact that he was in a Japanese show made him look like a bleeding ''kaiju'' in comparison.

** Hooch is a bit of a subversion, since he is not physically imposing at all: short and kind of skinny. He only fits the trope because, well, [[Running Gag|Hooch is crazy]].

* Chris's father from ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'' (played by the aforementioned Terry Crews) is a [[Scary Black Man]]. Chris's mother is even scarier.

* Uriel on ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is a scary, black, evil angel. He [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|does not like humanity]] and he has threatened to go against his orders and destroy the Winchesters as well as an innocent town. He has also decided to side with Lucifer and was subverting his garrison one angel at a time, and killing the ones who said no.

** There was also Rufus Turner, old semi-[[Retired Badass]] and Bobby's former partner. Fairly scary, but on 'is a [[The Hunter|hunter]] and 'is a hard-assed old man' lines, more than [[Scary Black Man]] ones.

* Onyx Blackman in ''[[Strangers with Candy]]'', played by Greg Hollimon. Also a [[Bald Black Leader Guy]]. Paul Dinello describes [https://web.archive.org/web/20161119044040/http://www.pauldinello.net/pdnetinterview.htm suddenly being nose to nose with Greg] after a game where they all had their eyes shut.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'' has the Crocodile Orphnoch, aka Mr. J. Like above, he only grunts and like the former, had [[Unfortunate Implications]].

* Former WWECW wrestler Big Daddy V is 500 pounds(!) of half-[[Scary Black Man]], half-[[The Giant]]; of course, the one thing (well, two things... possibly three) that's even scarier than his power and his quietness are his gargantuan man-boobs. I tells ya, those things are just creepy... Nelson Frazier, the man behind V, has actually been in the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] off and on for 16 years, first as the rapper Mabel, then as the aristocrat King Mabel, then the gothic Viscera, and then as the world's largest love machine. However, he has always been a scary black man, as anybody who saw him break The Undertaker's face in 95 can tell you. Though at least, in those incarnations, he had a shirt.

* "[[Spell My Name with a "The"|The]]" Brian Kendrick had Ezekiel Jackson, a [[Scary Black Man]], as his bodyguard. So far it has been played straight, although he was shown reading ''The Cat In The Hat'' for no apparent reason. He has also quoted Sun Tzu, so take that as it stands. Zeke made it to the ECW brand and eventually joined William Regal's "Ruthless Roundtable", where he was pushed to the point of becoming the last ECW Champion, then alternated between inactivity and mostly squashing lower-midcarders as a face, before really resurfacing on ''Smackdown'' as a member of the Corre who would [[Holy Shit Quotient|routinely bodyslam and even once suplex ]]'''[[Holy Shit Quotient|THE BIG SHOW]]'''.

{{quote| God made the devil just for fun,<br />

* WWE wrestler Mark Henry is a few inches shorter and a 100 &nbsp;lbs lighter than Frazier, but, at 6'1", 380 &nbsp;lbs, he's still a whole lot of Scary Black Man. Not to mention he's the [[World's Strongest Man]] and is well aware of that fact. If he ever [[The Bus Came Back|comes back from an injury]], [[Heel Face Turn|turns face]], or [[Face Heel Turn|turns heel]], you better stay the hell out of his way for awhile. The latest and greatest example of this has been his "Hall of Pain" heel turn, where he has dominated several other big men, (kayfabe) broken their legs, tossed anyone of smaller status and stature around like rag dolls, effortlessly kicked out of [[John Morrison|Starship Pain]], and even beaten [[Randy Orton]] clean TWICE for the World Heavyweight title. Some would say he's WWE's best booked heel in years.

* Abdullah The Butcher, a professional wrestling pioneer. He had scars on his forehead from frequently being cut and since he hailed from Sudan, he doubled as an [[Evil Foreigner]]

* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has a Space Marine chapter that's an entire army of [[Scary Black Man]] called the Salamanders. They have expertise with fire weapons, also making them an example of [[Kill It with Fire]]. All fire based weapons (flamers and meltas) and hammers are master-crafted because they're also trained as black smiths. That means that you're also better off running from their Assault Terminators (who's armor makes them even larger and scarier than a normal Space Marine) who wield Thunder Hammers. These guys are actually one of the nicer chapters around.

* Dr John of ''[[Gabriel Knight]]'' seems to be a subversion at first - he has the build to be a [[Scary Black Man]], but not the personality. {{spoiler|Until you discover he's in fact a [[Psycho for Hire]]}}

* Garcian Smith from ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]''.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' mixes it up a little with the [[Scary Black Man|Scary Large Grey Qunari]] [[Deadpan Snarker|Sten]], who tends to [[Terse Talker|speak very little]] and [[BFS|utilize a very big stick]].

* Potemkin from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is black (or at least very, very dark-skinned), enormous, and hugely strong -- hestrong—he sketches in his spare time, but needs special supplies, as he breaks ordinary pencils just by trying to use them, applying several ''tons'' of pressure. He's also [[Gentle Giant|one of nicest guys in the entire series.]]

* The Demoman from ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' is a [[Crazy Awesome]] mix of this trope and [[Violent Glaswegian]]. Although when he's not drunk off his head and [[Punch Clock Villain|blowing people up in armed combat]], he's a very nice guy who dotes on his [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas|old blind mother.]]

** And the big honkin' knife on his pauldron.

* Kold from ''Tomb Raider: Anniversary.'' He's an extremely large, extremely strong black man (the chief henchman of the main villain), he speaks in a gravelly, threatening voice, and he likes to stab people with his extremely large knife.

* Mr. Sandman from the ''[[Punch -Out!!]]!!'' series.

** Especially in his Wii rendition, which has been compared to [[The Incredible Hulk]].

** And of course, [[Mike Tyson|Iron Mike Tyson himself.]] in the original NES game.

* Gabriel Tosh from ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' ''2''. He's a big, scary, [[Knife Nut|wields a mean knife]], practices voodoo, and is an experimental improved [[Psychic Commando|Ghost]] who [[SchrodingerSchrödinger's Gun|may or may not]] be a [[Psycho Prototype]]. The only reason he joins Raynor is because he ''really'' hates Mengsk and the Dominion -- [[He Who Fights Monsters|his hatred of the Dominion is so strong]] it disturbs [[The Heart|Matt Horner]].

* Torque from [[The Suffering]] and its sequel The Ties That Bind is the very epitome of this trope. He is most certainly African-American (with some white mixed in). He practically never talks...except to those that he is particularly close to. Both games show that he can use weapons just fine... {{spoiler|not to mention turn into a Homage of the Incredible Hulk and tear apart anything with his bare hands}}! He also suffers from some form of dementia.

** And while we're on the subject, ''[[Tales of the Abyss: The Abridged Series]]'' has somehow turned ''[[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Mieu]]'' of all things into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F-DBVh37q8 this].

* Clancy from ''[[Plus EV]]'' knows about this trope, tries to use it, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130401054313/http://plusev.keenspot.com/d/20070824.html but doesn't really understand it.]

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has a few examples from versions one and three, most notably Marcus Roddy, Darnell Butler, and Bobby Jacks. Marcus Roddy and Darnell Butler are made slightly less scary by the fact they're [[Gentle Giant|Gentle Giants]]s, but Bobby Jacks is a professional boxer who has few qualms about playing the game to win, Marcus is one of the biggest students on the island during version one, and Darnell happens to be his school's most skilled fighter on top of being a star athlete, and strong enough that he is said to have once picked up a 6'11", ''300 pound'' player on an opposing football team and slammed him to the ground.

* Marcus from ''[[Darwin's Soldiers]]'' fits this trope. Huge, black, muscular and can take [[Made of Iron|ludicrous amounts of punishment]].

* Heavy Duty from ''[[G.I. Joe: Sigma 6]]'' (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in [[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra|the movie]]).

* Cobra Bubbles ([[Pulp Fiction|Ving Rhames]]) from ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|Liloand Stitch]]''. Not only is he a social worker who threatens to separate Lilo from Nani, he's also a hardcore government agent who studies alien activity in the United States.

** A straighter example would be Tombstone. Not only is he a scary black man, but he's ''also'' an [[Evil Albino]] with ''shark teeth''.

* In ''[[The Boondocks]]'' episode "A Date With The Health Inspector," Tom [[Du Bois]]DuBois has nightmares about being accosted in prison by The Health Inspector, a massively muscled and [[Biggus Dickus|massively well-endowed]] inmate voiced by (and visually based on) Terry Crews.

* Roscoe from ''[[Oliver and Company]]'' even has an African - American accent. His partner [[De Soto]]DeSoto is voiced by a white man.