Laura Bell Bundy's racist(?) caricature

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 2:48pm

Please delete if this has been posted before, but I've searched every which way...

Every gay here in Nashville has posted this on their Facebook page, and it IS kinda funny, & borderline offensive too. The random editing is actually the funniest part for me, even more than her bizarre character.
Laura Bell Bundy's Pseudo-Blackface

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 2:55pm

It sounds like Laura Bell, but what the hell did they put on her face to make her look so... like that?

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 2:57pm

This is amazing.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 2:58pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0HwQ-Tm4s

[BroadwayBound115]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:01pm

She deserves a Tony for her work in this!

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:02pm

Who knew she was such a character actress?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:03pm

Oh she's not in blackface. And people need to lighten up if they're offended by this.

[morosco]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:05pm

Euneeda Bisquit

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:10pm

I'm not REALLY offended by it, but she's clearly doing an funny impression of an African-American woman/hairdresser. It doesn't come across a mean-spirited, which is what keeps it from being really offensive.

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:11pm

And no, it's not technically "blackface" but the enlarged brown lips are pretty damn close...

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:11pm

Shirley Q. Liquour could have done that a lot better.

[Almira]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:12pm

I find it funny, racist and disturbing the same way I find Shirley Q. Liquor funny,racist and disturbing.

I don't "feel" she intends to mock African-American dialect and culture. But she does.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:19pm

Yeah definitely not blackface (her lips are not enlarged, just a lot of lipstick), and hardly what I'd call racist. It is very much on par with a whole lot of what SNL does.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:33pm

agh! I called the number and it was legit.. or at least it was a legit message and then I got a text saying I had subscribed to her 'mob?'

Agree though: not blackface. Just southern beauty culture.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:37pm

I saw this when all her videos came out months ago. I'm usually the first person to cry racism, but I don't see it here. This is one of a series of videos she did for... her album maybe? about a fictional Cooter County. I thought they were actually funny, and as a general rule she annoys the hell out of me.

I see plenty of inner city white and Latina girls who look like LBB does.

I don't see this as being on par with Shirley Q Liquor (which is vile and racist) at all.

[TheKandyLife]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:48pm

hahaha that is hilarious!

i am so gonna use some of her phrases..."oh krr?"...."we cut you!"

omg Laura bell Bundy just went up in my liking (she was already pretty high! haha)

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:49pm

Very similar to Anjelah Johnson and her "Bon Qui Qui" video (which Bundy sorta references/copies briefly with "cut you.") Johnson is Hispanic/Native American and plays both black and asian characters.

Reminds me of Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph who are called on to play just about every race imaginable.

I wasn't saying she had collagen injections or anything... But you're telling me Bundy's lips aren't visually "enlarged" by that makeup? She actually has a pretty small upper lip...

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:51pm

Agreed about Shirley Q. Liquor... Briefly funny until his writing resorts to constantly referencing welfare, chitlins, etc.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:52pm

I'm not suggesting her lip wasn't made to look bigger, but I don't believe there was a racist connotation. Maybe, it's also because racially I would have thought she was mocking Latinas (if I thought she was mocking any race).

[matty159]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:52pm

jpbran, I was JUST getting ready to say that it reminded me very much of Bon Qui Qui (one of my favorite skits of all time).

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:55pm

It's racial humor...but not racist. I can't believe I'm going to make the comparison, but it's very much in the same vein as what Tracey Ullmann does. There's a specificity, wit and charm about it that keeps it from crossing into full-on minstrely.

[matty159]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:58pm

^ Well put, sonofrobbieJ!

[jpbran]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 3:58pm

Ms. Stone-- I was referring to jimmycurry's comment, not yours.

"her lips are not enlarged, just a lot of lipstick"

[CateBroadway]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 4:09pm

I don't think it has to be explicitly a black character she's playing. I've seen many a white girl at my salon in Queens who'd give her a run for her money. I was most shocked by was her hilarious sketch comedy skills. I laughed more than I do in the average episode of SNL.

[Almira]

Posted: 7/15/10 at 4:12pm

SonofRobbieJ,

Thank you for that comment. I questioned my being okay with Ullman's act vs. my my being squeamish about the Bundy video.

For me.. the distinction is .. and let me stress this is only my subjective reaction... Ullman plays a character.. who happens to be male, white, black etc. What Bundy is doing is playing a caricature of "black."

To me there is a distinction.

Again, I don't think Bundy intends to mock black dialect and culture.. but to me she does so inadvertently.

Updated On: 7/15/10 at 04:12 PM