Tar Baby In Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch
This is one of the best sketches ever performed on Saturday Night Live.
I know this because I’ve seen it before and loved it, and also because the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time just told me so (via Funny Pages 2.0. Thanks!).
Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase are obviously amazing. The flow, timing, and writing are tight and masterful. I wish they kept most sketches this short.
It’s interesting, however, that the drama hinges on the phrase “tar baby,” which may or may not be a racial slur. Tar is of course black, and baby is diminutive, so it’s been easy for many to assume that it is a racial slur.
For example, check out the end of this article, published yesterday, which once and for all declares John McCain a racist because he used the phrase tar baby–
The big question is: Is McCain racist? Or is he pandering to racists? And is there a difference?
His 2007 use of the term “tar baby” pretty much settles it. Unless, of course, you’re a sucker for yet another apology: “I don’t think I should have used that word and it was wrong to do so.”
It hasn’t always been this way. The tar baby image comes from the “sticky hair” stories from Africa. There are hundreds of these. As circumstances changed, and enslaved Africans were brought to the United States, the image changed too–from sticky hair to the glue man to the tar baby.
Donald, one of our storytellers, regularly tells an African story called “Anansi and the Glue Man” juxtaposed with Joel Chandler Harris’ “Wonderful Tar-Baby Story.” They’ve got quite a bit in common.
If you listen to the Wonderful Tar Baby story, it’s pretty clear that the tar baby represents a lot of things, but not a racial slur.
Donald Griffin – The Wonderful Tar Baby Story
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While it’s a shame that the Saturday Night Live sketch has broadcast phantom connotations of the tar baby, that doesn’t make the clip any less of a classic. Not only is it hilarious, but it’s historic.
And although tar baby is misused as a racial slur, I like how it’s ambiguous. Would Richard Pryor have reacted the same way had Chevy Chase not preceded “tar baby” with “negro”?
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Amber Suitt
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Lain Shakespeare
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9 Comments to Tar Baby In Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch
This is a great post on a busy day of blogging! A great skit, too.
You’re also really fancy, imbedding videos and sound clips into your post. Keep up the good work.
This is a great post combining several of the things I love…history, politics, how word use and meaning changes over time, and the wonderful literature that is the Uncle Remus tales.
I don’t remember McCain’s use of the term tar baby…I’ll have to look that one up.
Thanks for the SNL skit…it is one of the gems! Thanks for the refresher regarding ‘tar baby’ too.
Wow this post kept me busy for a long time. I didn’t know much about McCain’s crazy history and I LOVE that skit.
But I really liked listening to “The Wonderful Tar Baby Story.” It was really good! Do all the stories at The Wren’s Nest include singing like that?
I liked that – it adds an extra fun element to the story. Nice post.
Thanks, y’all.
Mallory, yeah that McCain article is quite alarmist and ridiculous. No idea how much of that is true or just blown way out of proportion like the tar baby thing. Oh, and many of our storytellers incorporate music into their stories. Donald does for sure, Akbar has a drum, and Miss Woodie bookends each of her stories with different versions of “This Little Light of Mine.”
Joe, it took me longer than I’d like to admit to learn how to embed that particular video, but I think it looks pretty sharp. Thanks for bearing (or baring? I never know which one) with us throughout our technological growing pains.
Ms. Teacher, thanks for all you do! If y’all haven’t checked out Georgia On My Mind (mymindisongeorgia.blogspot.com), you’re missing out. Especially if you like to discover new blogs and hear about goings-on in Georgia.
I must be way out of the loop as I had no idea what a Tar Baby was.
I’m usually out of the loop, too. No sweat.
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