# Guess who: Racism is funny **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996 "2005-04-06T04:38:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/1 "2005-04-06T04:38:55Z")
Stumbled across this from Yahoo movies: > [@](#): > > 1 hr. 37 min. Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is taking no chances with his daughter Theresa’s (Zoe Saldana) future. Even before he meets Simon Green, her latest boyfriend, Percy has him checked out. On paper, he passes with flying colors – great job, good investments and a promising future. But there’s one thing the credit report didn’t tell him: Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) is white. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Unless, of course, Simon wants to marry his daughter. Which he does. When a black family won’t accept a white into their family, funny shit. The reverse - crime against humanity. Yay for hollywood’s double standards. I’m sure at the end after lots of stupid contrived antics we’ll discover that whitey has some inner funk or something and is alright, but still. (Just happened to come across it and not know what it was, so I looked. I’d never see it - there’s not much more boring than comedies where the premise is “white people do this, black people do this HA HA HA HA”.) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/2 "2005-04-06T04:45:23Z")
To be clear, “Guess Who” is the title of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/3 "2005-04-06T05:15:40Z")
Guess Who is also an inverted comedic remake of the premise of the “race” film, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? with Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Pointier and some white girl whose name I seriously can’t remember. I think the premise is better suited to 21st century sensibilities played for laughs with a bigoted black male suspicious of a white guy’s motives for wanting to marry his daughter than the seriously overwrought drama that the original was. Many people find black predjudices “funny” for some odd reason. Most of the “white folks do this, black folks do this” observational humor was actually insightful 40 years ago when Richard Pryor innovated and capitalized on the schtick, but its largely been done to death. But it’s a part of the culture and its gonna die hard. Even exclusively black audiences won’t laugh at the stuff these days unless they’re drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/4 "2005-04-06T05:40:26Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? with Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Pointier and some white girl whose name I seriously can’t remember. Katharine Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton played her daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/5 "2005-04-06T05:53:15Z")
Thanks, **Walloon**. My brain fart was buggin’. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/6 "2005-04-06T06:08:24Z")
Well, I’ll be avoiding that one. Although Ashton Kutcher breakdancing and talking jive would be funny, in an embarrassing sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/7 "2005-04-06T06:13:54Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > When a black family won’t accept a white into their family, funny shit. The reverse - crime against humanity. Yay for hollywood’s double standards. I don’t know. The Bluth’s refusal to accept “Franklin” on Sunday night’s _Arrested Development_ was one of the funniest damned things I’ve seen on TV in years. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/8 "2005-04-06T06:15:09Z")
P.S.: [Everyone’s a little bit racist](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/avenueq/everyonesalittlebitracist.htm). ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/9 "2005-04-06T06:31:12Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > I think the premise is better suited to 21st century sensibilities played for laughs with a bigoted black male suspicious of a white guy’s motives for wanting to marry his daughter than the seriously overwrought drama that the original was. The original wasn’t a drama, especially not a seriously overwrought one. It was a very bizarrely paced (and not all that funny) comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/10 "2005-04-06T06:55:12Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > The original wasn’t a drama, especially not a seriously overwrought one. It was a very bizarrely paced (and not all that funny) comedy. Not overwrought? With [THIS](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/quotes) dialogue? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/11 "2005-04-06T06:57:24Z")
Slight hijack: the topic of this thread should’ve been **“Guess Who” thinks racism is funny?** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/12 "2005-04-06T07:02:09Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Not overwrought? With [THIS](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/quotes) dialogue? Yeah, but then there was the ice cream scene, which I just thought was the epitome of bizarre. Spencer Tracy just kept naming those flavors and it had nothing at all to do with the movie. I wonder if that scene is in the new version? Only I guess it’s probably something more updated like frozen coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/13 "2005-04-06T07:38:56Z")
Zoe Saldana’s in it? Damn, I may have to grit my teeth and see this at $2 movie night. What a FOX that woman is! ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/14 "2005-04-06T10:53:24Z")
I understand that it’s somewhat justifiable to assume that a Hollywood interracial comedy would be full of corny stereotype jokes, but I don’t understand assuming so to the extent of never even doubting your prejudice that the film _has_ to be racist. The OP doesn’t seem to be asking, he “knows” (and so do some of his respondents), yet there was nothing in the little blurb he found (or in the movie itself) to make him jump to his ignorant conclusions. As a matter of fact, this movie is by a black director who obviously (and naturally) finds the corny racial stereotype jokes found in standard white Hollywood fare unfunny. Funny, though, how you assume it’d work the other way aroun. And BTW, you guys are [late](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=309427). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/15 "2005-04-06T13:21:55Z")
I havn’t seen the film, and don’t plan to. However, I have read at least one review which claims that the central point of the movie is that the father doesn’t like the guy because he thinks he is a slacker horndog. The guy assumes that the real reason is that he is white. Thus, the central misunderstanding is the source of the alleged comedy. I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but if it is, then it is not a case of the movie thinking “racism is funny”. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/16 "2005-04-06T13:22:37Z")
Funny anecdote: I went to meet my (lovely and black) fiancee’s parents a few weekends ago. Only days before leaving, this movie was brought to my attention by a friend. I objected to Kutchner being cast in my role. Meeting them for the first time, we talked in the living room while the TV was on quietly in the background. While her mother was in the kitchen, her father was talking to us, his back toward the screen. What should come on a half-hour into the conversation but a spot for _Guess Who_. I thought I was the only one who noticed until my fiancee gave me that gentle nudge and grin. For the record, my encounter went very well. Surely this is meta-ironical-something-or-other. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/17 "2005-04-06T13:59:30Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > Yeah, but then there was the ice cream scene, which I just thought was the epitome of bizarre. Spencer Tracy just kept naming those flavors and it had nothing at all to do with the movie. I wonder if that scene is in the new version? Only I guess it’s probably something more updated like frozen coffee. He’s trying to avoid naming his favorite flavor: “hot mochacchino love”? I’m not ashamed to say that I usually partake of the Ashton Kutcher movies, and I will probably partake of this one too. I cringed at the corny idea of “reversing” the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner thing since it’s been my experience that racist dads lead to less laughing and more crying in the bathroom. But I like Bernie Mac and I trust him to ferry the whole thing to a satisfying conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/18 "2005-04-06T14:16:16Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Katharine Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton played her daughter. And she looked so much like Ann-Margret that I was astonished when the credits rolled and I learned it wasn’t her. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/19 "2005-04-06T14:29:51Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > When a black family won’t accept a white into their family, funny shit. The reverse - crime against humanity. Yay for hollywood’s double standards. This is perhaps the most ridiculous example of the ol’ “Everyone oppresses the white man, but if the tables were turned they’d cry racism!” I’ve ever seen. The reverse was done decades ago in the extremely well-known film **Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?** , about a liberal white family’s difficulty in accepting the idea that their daughter was going to marry a black man. I thought that everyone had heard of this movie and that everyone knew that the premise of the current **Guess Who?** was a race-swapped riff on the original, but I guess I was wrong. That’s the sort of thing one would usually want to find out about before spouting off about “double standards” though. > [@continuity eror](#): > > Yeah, but then there was the ice cream scene, which I just thought was the epitome of bizarre. Spencer Tracy just kept naming those flavors and it had nothing at all to do with the movie. That was the best scene in the whole movie! ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996/20 "2005-04-06T14:36:09Z")
The ice cream scene represents how far the world has changed since Tracy and Hepburn were young and the rules were “Black or White, Vanilla or Chocolate”. This theme is repeated with the Hot Rod versus Tracy’s traditional car AND Pointier’s Father’s disapproval of the marriage reflecting Tracy’s liberal racism on itself. People always have this idea that black people consider married a white person a great thing…yet here’s this black Mailman being as much against it as the white liberal elitist. Anyway, Tracy tries one of the “funky” flavours at Hepburn’s suggestion and likes it…cue sappy music to Tracy accepting Pointier (as if someone would turn a nose up at widowed Uber-doctor, dedicated to helping the poor…) Anyone comparing these two films and crying reverse racism should stick to watching Highlander 2 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-who-racism-is-funny/297996.md?page=2)