Hollywood Shuffle: Hour long In Living Color

            Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle takes racism in Hollywood and dissects the exploitation of African-Americans through the roles actors receive as well as how each role is a perpetuation of stereotyping African-Americans.  An interesting aspect of the film is how Townsend takes a specific case, as the audience follows Bobby Taylor a self-respecting, intelligent African-American man who is forced to play dumbed down and offensive stereotypes of African-Americans in movies.  Hollywood Shuffle forces the audience to not only observe racist tendencies in Hollywood and general culture, but the film also provides a bench-mark in Hollywood equality.

            Hollywood Shuffle allows the audience to observe a case-study in Hollywood racism in the form of Bobby Taylor.  As the audience becomes acquainted to an everyman whose only dreams are to make it big and play important roles in Hollywood, we also see the inflicted limitations he has: the only parts for African-Americans in Hollywood films are pimps, gang members or prostitutes.  One of the most important aspects of the film is to ground the absurdity of Hollywood perceived realism of African Americans, with Bobby’s normality allows the audience to see the racially charged and offensive stereotypes media provides American consumers with.  Bobby as a person seemed as normal to anyone I had ever met, from the way he dressed, to his interactions with his siblings, to his demeanor and his way of holding himself, it appears that pretty much any viewer of Hollywood Shuffle could relate to Bobby Taylor in one way or another.  The idea that Bobby is indeed an everyman who struggles against a bias system, allows any viewer from any background to juxtapose stereotypes seen in media compared to the normal individual in the story.

            The comedic episodic quality Hollywood Shuffle maintains allows the audience to compare the absurd roles in films such as the zombie pimps or the ridiculous jive talking street members to Bobby as an off-screen personality.  It is this primary juxtaposition that allows the audience to not only laugh at the absurdity of the unrealistic film roles but also provides the audience a base of normality, in order to base conceptions and actualities of a contemporary African-American man.  Another interesting aspect to Hollywood Shuffle is the idea that the film is a comedy, which is a universal genre.  The fact that this is a comedic film allows for an audience to not only see the absurdity in Hollywood stereotypes comedically but also provides a viewer a light-hearted window in to the heavy handed subject of Hollywood racism and bias. 

            After the context of Hollywood Shuffle, and demonstrated in one particular sequence in the film where African American actors are taught how to be black by a white Hollywood executive, African American artists such as Kenan Ivory Wayans are taking the position of business executive and creative artist to provide contemporary audiences with entertainment.  Shows such as In Living Color, created by Kenan Ivory Wayans, provided America with not only the common denominator of laughter but also provided a skewering commentary on racism in America.

            Ironically, compared to the conclusion of Hollywood Shuffle where Bobby must sacrifice his dreams of making it big in Hollywood in order to maintain his dignity and not help Hollywood scorch society’s perception of African-Americans, Kenan Ivory Wayans (who co-wrote Hollywood Shuffle) in particular has launched the careers of many influential actors in Hollywood today.  Primarily from his sketch show In Living Color, Wayans has launched the careers of many actors such as Damon Wayans (My Wife and Kids), Shawn and Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie), Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura) and Jamie Foxx (Ray).  Also ironically, Jamie Foxx reached the critical acclaim Bobby dreams of by winning an Oscar and being a successful Hollywood actor.  It comes to show that films such as Hollywood Shuffle have become a contributing factor in providing America with a greater understanding across cultural boundaries and providing greater opportunity to African American artists in a Hollywood setting.

As Hollywood Shuffle uses comedy in order to portray the disconnect between the Hollywood representation of African Americans and the more realistic portrayal of African Americans as a society it provides us with a greater understanding of one another and to disenfranchise any potential racial stereotypes.  In Harriet Margolis’ article Stereotypes in "Hollywood Shuffle" and "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" she says “For example, by foregrounding stereotypes qua stereotypes, Hollywood Shuffle leaves those of us who watch the film in its entirety in no doubt as to how Townsend intends us to read its images.” To laugh at disastrous absurdity and observe greater reality.