minstrelsy and a 13" wang

Or:Bamboozled and Boogie Nights

Last night my friend had to watch Bamboozeled, a Spike Lee joint, for one of her papers so we did a double feature with Boogie nights. I'm sure a lot of people have, but I hadn't, seen bamboozled. If you are planning on writing your essay on minstrelsy it is a must. The central premise of the movie is a TV writer who pitches a new millennium minstrel show to the network he works for. Around the central device of the minstrel show orbit a host of people who represent different slants on the idea of the minstrel. The TV writer who describes himself as an Oreo: brown on the outside white on the inside. His boss, a high fiving, white, male with giant photos of exclusively black sportsman behind his desk. A white rapper in Mos Def's character's militant black rights group. an Italian who, in a really uncomfortable scene, claims he is more of a nigger than niggers before doing a rap. Each of these represent a different take on the idea of the minstrel. This list is probably not exhaustive either. Grotesque minstrel memorabilia is a key feature of the visual imagery coupled with ‘blackface’ that the show’s fans start adopting making for some really unsettling viewing. The film is largely satirical and if you need a definition of that there is one in the opening scene of the movie. There is quite a bit of historical information, some really intelligent discourse about race issues, and even a kind of ‘Thank you for Smoking’ look at using critical discourse to justify racism. There is a classic scene where a spin doctor tries to defend her right to address black issues by saying she has a PHD in African studies from Princeton. The ‘Oreo’ character responds by saying something like: ‘Ah, excellent, a niggerologist’. Anyway way it’s a really good/easy way to get background to the history and resent debate about minstrelsy.

We watched Boogie Nights second and there was a scene towards the end that struck me as quite a clear reference to minstrelsy. When ‘I like to fuck’ Buck is in the doughnut store hold up, the robber shoots the store keeper through the head covering Bucks face with blood. I realize that blood is red and not black but I think the image is heightened by his bright white suit and the fact he does this weird minstrel, jazz hands, thing near his face. Buck’s character is definitely used as vehicle to address race issues and maybe this just serves as a visual cue to remind us of this. Think when Buck is applying for a bank loan and his face and hands are again in stark contrast to his suit. The bank manager wants to say your black and a porn star but only says what he can say: you’re a porn star. Bert Reynolds’s character seems to have reasonably good credit if you see my point. Also Buck seems to have a sincere like for country music, which is of course a bastion of whitedom, yet another slant on the minstrelsy.


Probably my favorite scene was when Dirk Diggler meets his sidekick (shake n bake) for the first time and the sidekick says ‘a lot of people tell me I look like Hans solo’ followed by some silence. In the silence I couldn’t help thinking – well I guess we know who Luke skywalker is, because Hans doesn’t have a saber, if you get me. All it needs is a heavy breathing drug dealer in a black helmet for the star wars metaphysics to be fully instated. Dirks special gift from ‘the force’ stops working after too much nose candy.

Digital mysticz at gelatos sat night. Braaaaap