I think it was a little of both.
I think the part with Wayans in blackface was in his mind like when he thought the toy bank was working by itself.
Another thought (and I’m probably way off):
When Man Ray told the gang he was just singing and dancing and didn’t see anything wrong with it: could this be Lee’s way of saying some black entertainers sell out their race for money?
Close. I think it’s Lee’s way of criticizing some African-American entertainers for being willfully ignorant and blind about the negative connotations and cultural ramifications of coonery and buffoonery for paid amusement. YES… such things are wildly lucrative. But at what cost? It re-inforces a certain stigma and racial prejudice in Hollywood and makes it harder to have other stories greenlighted.
It’s 2005 and there’s not one successful mainstream black-themed TV drama? Black actresses still command the least respect? Halle Berry and Beyounce Knowles continue to work and Lynn Whitfield and Angela Bassett don’t?
No, that’s the same ending I saw. It just seemed that there were at least three possible endings to the movie but, rather than pick one, Lee chose to clumsily use all of them. For example, Lee could’ve ended the movie with Glover’s character walking off the show after having his epiphany about the damage his shuck-n-jive routine was doing. However, instead he then has Glover kidnapped and executed on live TV by the Mau Maus–a plot development that would’ve been effective only if Glover didn’t have his earlier conversion of conscience. Then, you have the whole melodrama involving the Pinkett’s and Wayan’s characters that ends in the latter’s murder. That seemed to be yet another ending from an earlier draft of the screenplay that Lee didn’t want to part with. The same is true with Wayans’ appearance in black-face and the black-caricature toy bank that took on a life of its own which looked like a last-minute attempt to inject a Twilight Zonish fantasy element into the movie. Everything seemed to be going in half-dozen different directions in the last 20 minutes.
Still, Bamboozled’s subject was certainly thought-provoking. I just think it would’ve been better served if Lee made a documentary about it using the same type of barbed humor approach that Michael Moore employs.