# Other Cringeworthy Blackface/Yellowface/Etc. movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 23, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135 "2026-06-23T15:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/141 "2026-06-25T16:46:16Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > She was playing a character based on someone Cameron Crowe met. The person he met was part Asian, had an Asian last name, talked a lot about her Asian heritage but looked like a blonde white woman. In other words she looked like Emma Stone. Having someone who looked Asian would defeat the purpose. Wasn’t there a joke on _Seinfeld_ where Jerry talked to a woman over the phone who had a Chinese-sounding last name and brought up things during their conversation that would seemingly indicate she had a Chinese-American background, only to find out she was white when he met her? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/142 "2026-06-25T16:55:42Z")
As did his SNL castmate Darrell Hammond when playing Jesse Jackson: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/a5BolP3qZ_A/maxresdefault.jpg "Martin Luther King Day: Jesse Jackson - Saturday Night Live") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5BolP3qZ_A) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/143 "2026-06-25T16:59:59Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Wasn’t there a joke on _Seinfeld_ where Jerry talked to a woman over the phone who had a Chinese-sounding last name and brought up things during their conversation that would seemingly indicate she had a Chinese-American background, only to find out she was white when he met her? I mean, it happens. I was watching an episode of Deadwood with a friend which had a minor guest role by the actor [Izabella Miko](https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/019/853/520/large_2x/los-angeles-mar-8-izabella-miko-arriving-at-the-battle-los-angeles-premiere-at-village-theater-on-march-8-2011-in-westwood-ca-free-photo.jpg) and they asked if I knew her name. I did from supporting roles in a cruddy vampire film and Coyote Ugly (also pretty weak) and after I told them they spent a couple of minutes being confused by her surname. Is she part Japanese? Does she have a Japanese husband? Nope, she’s Polish and Miko is just a stage shortening for **Mikołajczak** , which has few too many consonants for your average American to easily process. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/144 "2026-06-25T17:12:47Z")
This thread seems to have went way off topic on the (I’d argue unrelated) topic of “can actors play anyone but themselves”, which is no way blackface. That’s a whole other argument, and I do find it’s weird that people who’d argue they have to have a genuine cherokee indian to play that role, but are fine when they do a completely inauthentic cast on something like [The personal history of david copperfield](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439020/) and would also absolutely shit themselves on the idea that a gay man is not allowed to play a straight man. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/145 "2026-06-25T17:14:23Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Nope, she’s Polish and Miko is just a stage shortening for **Mikołajczak** , which has few too many consonants for your average American to easily process. Seeing the name made me think of when I learned Max Factor was not just a brand name, but a person (Maksymilian Faktorowicz). Now I’m wondering how much of his product was used for these Black and Yellowface works. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/146 "2026-06-25T17:16:00Z")
> [@f.coli](#): > > In “You Only Live Twice”, remember that Connery was not playing a Japanese character in the movie, he was playing a British man being disguised as a Japanese man. And to pile another layer of nuance on such distinctions: what do you think about white (Irish- and Jewish-American) actor Keenan Wynn, playing the racist white Senator Billboard Rawkins in the 1968 _Finian’s Rainbow_, who is magically (and temporarily) **turned into** a Black man by a wish-granting crock of leprechaun gold? ISTM it would have been kind of impossible to depict any such plot development **without** putting a white actor in blackface. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/147 "2026-06-25T17:48:40Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > ISTM it would have been kind of impossible to depict any such plot development **without** putting a white actor in blackface. No, you just hire a different actor to play the post-wish Senator. Kinda like there are two actors playing Joe Boyd in Damn Yankees - one pre-devil, one post-devil. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/148 "2026-06-25T19:46:49Z")
My high school presented Finian’s Rainbow. At the moment the wish took effect there was a puff of smoke and a Black actor replaced the white one. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/149 "2026-06-25T20:46:31Z")
Thanks @Dr.Winston_OBoogie and @Kent_Clark, that’s actually a much more interesting approach that also gives the second actor in the role a lot of opportunities for clever mimicry of the first one! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/150 "2026-06-25T20:48:31Z")
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_, and their “banned episodes” that feature blackface: [![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/psGTJ7lUAHMgf.pqvKorTg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/thewrap.com/7d849649484d8f192122cb6a3afabcdc) ](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/psGTJ7lUAHMgf.pqvKorTg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/thewrap.com/7d849649484d8f192122cb6a3afabcdc) Yellowface: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YiuwbxLBWPg/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLBu-dh5lnUn781I_dC_otE5mjdSog) ](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YiuwbxLBWPg/hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAxMIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLBu-dh5lnUn781I_dC_otE5mjdSog) And brownface: [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcScFjrA1W3gjZiz3uKhVjLCO4PWtCTsDY5-xGGTd8hAuqBJQZSB5MgkdcY&s=10) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcScFjrA1W3gjZiz3uKhVjLCO4PWtCTsDY5-xGGTd8hAuqBJQZSB5MgkdcY&s=10) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/151 "2026-06-25T21:09:04Z")
Mike Myers earned many a cringe for his performance as Guru Pitka in _The Love Guru_, though he at least had the good sense to leave his skin its natural color. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/152 "2026-06-25T21:56:36Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > At the very last second, the firing squad becomes a blackface minstrel show along with Elmer _and BUGS_! They all sing a few seconds of some song — fade to black. Jeez! That such a cartoon was made in the Jim Crow 1940’s shouldn’t shock anybody. What is mindblowingly astounding is that cartoons like these were broadcast on afterschool TV to me and my fellow 10-year-olds in the _1970s!_ ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/153 "2026-06-25T22:32:46Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Can’t believe no one’s mentioned _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_, and their “banned episodes” that feature blackface: A show about toxic shitty people not understanding basic social norms, and even discuss it, and have scenes such as in the shower where it rubs off. Are we living in a world there satirising something is now doing the thing? Community did it with “dark elves”, and even that, which is not “black face” as such, has the overreaction assuming it actually is black face. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/154 "2026-06-25T22:49:41Z")
I agree with your statement about satirizing someone. But those episodes are not normally available on streaming, and that’s why I included them. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/155 "2026-06-26T01:21:56Z")
Has anyone mentioned Jeanette Goldstein in ALIENS? Her skin looked much lighter in TITANIC. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/156 "2026-06-26T02:04:12Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > > At the very last second, the firing squad becomes a blackface minstrel show along with Elmer _and BUGS_! They all sing a few seconds of some song — fade to black. Jeez! > > That such a cartoon was made in the Jim Crow 1940’s shouldn’t shock anybody. What is mindblowingly astounding is that cartoons like these were broadcast on afterschool TV to me and my fellow 10-year-olds in the _1970s!_ I can relate to your namesake related discomfort Elmer. Hard to believe they were still willing to use Flip as a character in a Little Nemo movie made in 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/157 "2026-06-26T03:32:21Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Mike Myers earned many a cringe for his performance as Guru Pitka in _The Love Guru_, though he at least had the good sense to leave his skin its natural color. I don’t want to seem like I’m defending such an awful movie, but he is playing a white guy. The story is that he was orphaned in India as a child. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/158 "2026-06-26T03:37:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Hard to believe they were still willing to use Flip as a character in a Little Nemo movie made in 1989. Isnt Flip a green skinned frog like person? ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/159 "2026-06-26T13:04:24Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > No, you just hire a different actor to play the post-wish Senator. That’s the way it’s done now, if it’s done at all (_Finian’s Rainbow_ isn’t performed a lot these days–which is too bad, it has some good songs). Back when it was first created, and for quite awhile afterward, the transformed Senator was always played by the same white actor wearing black makeup. Full disclosure: my wife (who is black) directed a community theater performance of _Finian’s Rainbow_ about 25 years ago. That show did use a white actor in makeup for the post-transformation Senator. My wife cautioned him to make sure he didn’t change his voice or mannerisms in any way, that he didn’t accidentally slip into doing a “minstrel-show” parody, but just played him as obviously the same man, the only difference being in his skin color. I don’t think you could do it that way today, but my wife will defend that production if asked about it. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/160 "2026-06-26T15:49:09Z")
In _Black Like Me,_ the guy essentially hit the tanning salons (he may have added make-up, too) in order to darken his skin and theoretically be able to pass as Black. However, as a journalist, he did _not_ put on a performance or lie about his identity, so, in my judgement, there was no cringeworthy blackface. [The idea, and in the Deep South it evidently worked like a charm, is that people would assume things about him purely because of his complexion. I think this is worth bearing in mind.] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=9)