History Main / MinstrelShows

Minstrel shows were a type of entertainment that originated before the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar and continued to be popular throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. The show consisted of white performers appearing in {{blackface}}, often sitting in a semicircle on the stage and taking turns performing a variety of acts. The shows often had two emcees known as Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones, named for the percussion instruments they traditionally played: a tambourine and a pair of animal ribs. The shows were heavily based on mocking and lampooning stereotypical black culture, but the music was also taken seriously for its artistic merit.

[[caption-width-right:236:[[SocietyMarchesOn Neither fun nor famous these days.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:236:[[SocietyMarchesOn Neither fun nor famous these days.]]

* DudeNotFunny: There's no getting around the fact that the entire genre is based on racism and stereotypes. As well as the obvious racism throughout, the shows also often included misogynistic sexist jokes targeting Black women and suffragettes.

* {{Mammy}}: One of the stock characters, who sometimes went by the name "Aunt Jemima". [[note]]Yes, that's where the brand of pancake mix and syrup originally got its name. They finally rebranded in 2021.[[/note]]

* Creator/SpikeLee's 2000 film ''Film/{{Bamboozled}}'' is about a black TV producer who creates a modern-day minstrel show. The producer intends for it to be a satire but, to his horror, [[SpringtimeForHitler it becomes popular]].
* In the ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' episode "Birth of the Baby", Archie's lodge puts on a ministrel show. When Mike argues that this offends black people, Archie says that it won't, because they are not allowed in anyway.

* Given an oblique reference in ''Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark''. When the Banker is driven mad by the Bandersnatch, his face turns black and he 'rattled a couple of bones'. In other words, he is behaving like the Mr Bones character from a minstrel show.

* TheCoconutEffect: Black performers often had to use blackface makeup to accentuate their lips in order to look more like a blackface actor.

* DeadHorseTrope: While it would be a stretch to say that racism is completely extinct, the more overt displays of it are certainly no longer generally acceptable
* DelusionsOfEloquence: A common source of comedy in minstrel shows was portraying stupid and oafish black characters with delusions of sophistication, particularly in "stump speeches".

** As mentioned in ''Series/TheBlackAndWhiteMinstrelShow'' example, it was first broadcast in 1957 but continued to use blackface until 1978, long after the practice was considered unacceptable in most media.

* SpiritualSuccessor: {{Vaudeville}} followed many of the standards established by the Minstrel Show format, though abandoning most of the racial overtones. The racist elements, meanwhile, evolved into ModernMinstrelsy and UncleTomfoolery.

* GrandfatherClause: As mentioned in ''Series/TheBlackAndWhiteMinstrelShow'' example, it was first broadcast in 1957 but continued to use blackface until 1978, long after the practice was considered unacceptable in most media.

Because of the rather controversial connotations that minstrel shows carry to a contemporary audience, they're practically a DeadHorseTrope in modern entertainment and only appear in works set in the 1800s or early to mid 1900s to highlight the DeliberateValuesDissonance of those eras.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': The short ''Casanova Cat'' contains a scene where Tom blackens Jerry's face with cigar smoke and blowing it. Then, he forces Jerry to tap-dance for his girlfriend Toodles by lighting up the metal plate Jerry was standing on, like it was a little minstrel show.

* {{Mammy}}: One of the stock characters, who sometimes went by the name "Aunt Jemima". [[note]]Yes, that's where the brand of pancake syrup originally got its name.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': The short ''Casanova Cat'' contains a scene where Tom blackens Jerry's face with cigar smoke and blowing it. Then, he forces Jerry to tap-dance for her girlfriend Toodles by lighting up the metal plate Jerry was standing on, like it was a little minstrel show.

* Sir Roderick Glossop appears in blackface to entertain his fiancee's young son in one of Creator/PGWodehouse's Literature/JeevesAndWooster novels.

* In ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', Creator/AlJolson plays a young Jewish man who longs to be a popular singer instead of a religious cantor as his father wants him to be. The songs that Jolson sings, however, are minstrel show tunes sung on {{blackface}}. The most popular song is "Mammy," which was often parodied in [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment bizarre] cartoons of the time.

* In ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', Creator/AlJolson plays a young Jewish man who longs to be a popular singer instead of a religious cantor as his father wants him to be. The songs that Jolson sings, however, are minstrel show tunes sung on {{blackface}}. The most popular song is "Mammy," which was often parodied in [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment bizarre]] [[Franchise/LooneyTunes Looney Tunes]] cartoons.

* A variant in ''WesternAnimation/MississippiHare:'' Right after the ExplodingCigar fiasco in which he gets an AshFace, a banjo is put in Colonel Shuffle's hands while Bugs sings "Camptown Races" besides him.
!!Tropes:

* BleachedUnderpants: Many songs that were written for minstrel shows remain popular today, notably the works of Stephen Foster, but are generally described as "early American songs" without reference to their minstrel origins. Most of the racist language is quietly {{Bowdlerize}}d.

* GrandfatherClause: Despite the cringeworthy racism, there's no denying their historical influence on American theater and music.

* Creator/TheBBC ran its ''Black and White Minstrel Show'' on TV until '''1978'''. It continued as a stage show until '''1987'''. It's now pretty much '''the''' standard UK allusion for "embarrassingly racist past pop culture".

* DudeNotFunny: There's no getting around the fact that the entire genre is based on racism and stereotypes.

* In ''Swanee River'' (1940), Al Jolson plays 19th-Century minstrel-man E.P. Christie, introducing the songs of Stephen Foster to America. Watch Jolson in blackface, with a whole minstrel troupe, singing "Oh Susanna," "Camptown Races," "Old Folks at Home/Swanee River" -- practically every song Foster ever wrote was meant to be sung by white men in blackface, dressed like clowns. (In the case of "Old Folks at Home" one can tell from the lyrics -- "Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary." Never in American history did black people typically address each other as "darkies," they used [[NWordPrivileges the n-word]] a lot but never "darkies," that's a word you'll scarcely find outside of minstrel-song lyrics.)

* DelusionsOfEloquence: A common source of comedy in minstrel shows was portraying stupid and oafish black characters with delusions of sophistication.

* NWordPrivileges: Interestingly, the N-word itself didn't appear much. The epithet of choice was the admittedly not much better "Darkies"-- though as noted, it wasn't really ever used outside of the minstrel shows themselves.

* UnfortunateImplications: If "implications" is even the word. As well as the painfully obvious wall-to-wall racism, minstrel routines often included sexist material against black women and suffragettes.

* UnfortunateImplications: As well as the painfully obvious wall-to-wall racism, minstrel routines often included sexist material against black women and suffragettes.

* EarWorm: Some of the best-known and catchiest early American music was written for these shows. "Dixie," "Camptown Races," "Swanee River," "Oh, Susannah," "I Dream Of Jeanie"... The works of Stephen Foster are [[MusicOfNote particularly notable examples]].