Favorite "Amos & Andy" shows & one liners

Favorite show - Kingfish sells Andy a house in the country - unfortunately it is a movie front - just a facade. Andy and Lightning walk in the front door and think they must have walked all the way thru the house and out the back. They turn around and walk in the back door and they are in the front yard!! LOLOLO
One liner - How did you meet Kingfish, Andy?
I was at the state fair and reached in my pocket for my wallet and shook hands with Kingfish.

Andy after Kingfish swindled him again - "I'm going to punch Kingfish in the eyes, the mouth, the ears the nose - another words - I'm gonna close everything that's open and open every thing that's closed!!

 

Ah, they just don't make racist humor like they used to.

 

I beg to differ. Amos & Andy was less racist that most of the black or white humor we see on tv today. ie: Sanford & Sons, Good Times, Married with Children, Our Gang, House of Payne, Redd Fox - and on and on.

Did Amos & Andy have some ignorant characters? Sure - but 90 % of the characters displayed as "real life" were just everyday working folks like me and you

Why rascism would be reserved for a ground breaking comedy like Amos & Andy" is beyond me. Watch House of Payne and see where the real rascism is.

I am a white, liberal, tree hugging, socialist, pinko and I can see the difference. I wonder how much Amos & Andy GoingHome has watched. I suspect very little or none - or perhaps clipettes of shows focusing on ignorant black characters. Comedy!! Black or white it focuses on ignorant characters!!

Get over the rascism stereotype for this show - it was a brilliantly done, hilarious show done at a time when there were few "black" shows on tv and presented brilliant comedians. I submit that GoingHome is more of a rascist tinge than did Amos & Andy.

How about watching it and judging for youself.

I know a lot of older "hippies" are as a aware as I am of the this groundbreaking show and appreciate it for what it is - FUNNY!!! Self Richeous people are such pricks!!

 

"You don't have enough sense to come in outta the rain".--"I does too--Ise done it lotsa times." I love that show.The lawyer,Calhoun was really hilarious. I don't know why people think it makes fun of black folks--hell ,look at the Life Of Riley with William Bendix.He was a dumb-ass white man and there are many others like him. Look at some of the black shows nowadays--they're pretty stupid. All races have silly people--I wish it would be shown again,but I suppose people are too touchy these days. I remember that show too--great one.

 

Hell-look at the Honeymooners. Both the male leads are revered,despite being dumb-asses. Am I supposed to get mad about them being portrayed like that? I think not.

 

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of uh, uh, the pursuit of uh, uh, women!"

 

I loathe political correctness - especially the pat answers about race. I refuse to call a spade a shovel. (We'll get into the fallacy of renaming 'race' to 'ethnic' in another forum)

There is a black columnist in The Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts who wrote of Amos 'n Andy in 1997. Now Pitts and I don't always agree on many issues. He wants someone now to apologize for slavery, while I say it can't be done - no one now owns or has ever owned slaves.

Anyhow, here are some excerpts from his column, July 10, 1997.

"I hated Amos 'n Andy before I ever saw it. Hated it because I was supposed to, hated it because it was full of darky stereotypes ... Didn't have to see it to hate it. I took the word of black people who loathed the radio rendition that began in 1928 ...

A funny thing happened on the way to outrage: I found myself laughing."

Amos 'n Andy a sitcom about a group of black lodge brothers in Harlem was the first network show to feature an all-black cast. It ran on CBS from 1951 to 1953, and in reruns until 1966 when black protests silenced it.

 

I was friends with an older black gentleman He was in his late 50's old enough to remember Amos and Andy. He was back in college when I met him studying broadcasting. He was talking about taking a Race in Media course and being the only black man in the class besides the professor, surrounded by young white kids. So we have age and race seperating them. He said when the professor played them Amos and Andy there was unbelievable tension in the class until my friend started laughing. He said that to him the most upsetting part of Amos and Andy was the fact that the 2 white actors who originally played them got stars on the Hollywood walk of fame but the 2 black actors who took it over died in obscurity.

Yesterday I was cruising Youtube and found an old clip of Petey Green. Probably from the late '70's or early '80's. His guest was a very young Howard Stern who showed up in Blackface and his sidekick Robin was in the front row and they were talking about race issues. They were using humor to discuss a very serious topic. But Petey Green used to say "White folks have a tendency to see all black people like one black person. Hell I look at all white people as one white person. We're all a little racist but unless we talk about it it isn't going to change."

Peace Out,
Rev J

 

Oh, but the fact that it was funny does not make it any less racist. Most television "humor" relies on some character being an ignorant buffoon, from Archie Bunker on down.

The buffoonery in Amos n' Andy is based on the stereotypical attitudes and speech patterns of black people that were prevalent in the day.

"Brilliantly done" racist humor is still ... racist humor.

So am I, and usually you and I agree on things, Doright. But not on this one.

There are lots of different ways to be a prick.

 

George Kingfish Stevens: Well, Madam Olga, Im gonna give ya the problem with my mother-in-law. Have you ever been down to the beach
and seen a grapefruit washed up on the sand, one thats been in the
water for three or four weeks and then washed up and left to dry in
the sun for a few days?
Madam Olga: Yes.
George Kingfish Stevens: Well, if you can get her lookin that
good, Ill be satisfied.

 

:iagree:

George Kingfish Stevens: I cant give you your money back. Id be a violation of the building code.

Andrew Andy Hogg Brown: Well, how will it do that?

George Kingfish Stevens: I sold you a stucco house, and under the
law, you is the stuckee. Get out of here before I figure some
another law you done broken.

 

Andrew Andy Hogg Brown: Hey, somethin in the pocket here,
Kingfish.
George Kingfish Stevens: Yeah?
Andrew Andy Hogg Brown: Hmm, look like a pawn ticket.
George Kingfish Stevens: Yeah, I remember that ticket. I had a bad
year in 32, and I had to pawn my bridge. I tell ya, Andy, its an
awful feelin to pass by the pawnshop and see your own teeth
grinnin at ya from behind the counter there.

 

George Kingfish Stevens: On our honeymoon, Sapphire and I had our first argument. She laid me out cold with a vase.
Andy: Knocked you out on your honeymoon?
George Kingfish Stevens: I was unconscious three days. Andy, I hate
to say this, but them were the three happiest days of my married
life.

 

"Political correctness" is a non-issue, as far as I'm concerned. For instance, if I find certain words to be offensive, well ... it's because I do. It's not because of "political correctness".

That's true. And besides, what good would an "apology" do, anyway? It would be meaningless.

 

Holy Zeitgeist Sapphire! :afro:

Things have to be measured in their acceptance at the time - by both blacks and whites. Now it is pretty much history - unless censored or revised.

Also popular at the time of Amos N Andy:

"Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga ChooChoo
Track 29,
Boy you can give me a shine!"

 

Yes and no. Segregated restaurants, hotels, schools, etc. were considered acceptable in the deep South at one time. The fact that they were accepted back then doesn't make them less racist now.

 

My take is this - These were wonderful actors who, it is my understanding, could not find work as such. They were given an opportunity in which they performed magnificently. There is no comparison to a lunch counter in Montgomery or a white only restroom in Jackson, MS.
For some reason, making fools of ourselves makes us laugh (see JackAss). They made us laugh. As did so many white actors who make fools of themselves. Jackie Gleason, Don Knotts, William Bendix and on PeeWee Herman and on and on.

 

No, and those things weren't universally accepted. There were the sit-ins and boycotts (and taking it to the streets - and courts) that finally brot it down.

But can't confuse real inequality and segregation with cultural norms and entertainment. Besides, there were ppl who actually talked like that in the 50s. Some of the philosophical touchstones were and are part of black culture - which is why so many black ppl actually enjoy the show if they get over their preconceived ideas of racism.

I used to watch it on TV when I was a kid. It was my only exposure to blacks as ppl. In the real world in St. Louis they were always "the other," even tho we were officially desegregated.

 

Yes they did, but the context is different for those actors. They weren't coming from a tradition where the only acting jobs available to them were porters and maids, or hysterical women screaming "oh lawdy, wa's we gonna do now, Miz Scawlett!"

 

Yes of course, thanks to the Civil Rights Movement. But that didn't happen until the 1950's. There was already a century and more where those things were accepted without question.

What I'm saying is that "the times" don't matter, or at least they can't be used to excuse what went on. Segregated hotels and restaurants were just as racist when they were part of the culture of the South as they are now.