Althouse: Beautiful, graceful, hilarious enactment of utter outrage at a white guy's inability to tell black people apart.

February 10, 2014

Beautiful, graceful, hilarious enactment of utter outrage at a white guy's inability to tell black people apart.

By Samuel L. Jackson, who is not Laurence Fishburne, and if you think you can proceed to the next topic oh, hell no!

52 comments:

rhhardin said...: I can't tell women in makeup apart.; 2/10/14, 5:29 PM
madAsHell said...: At some point in time, you just have to shut up, and enjoy that foot in your mouth.; 2/10/14, 5:40 PM
gspencer said...: Shoulda called him Marcellus Wallace.; 2/10/14, 5:42 PM
Michael K said...: I wonder if anyone has ever had the nerve to see how well blacks are at telling white guys apart. One reason my buddy and I hung out in a black bar when we were 18 was because we figured they would have trouble telling how old we were. And they never questioned us.; 2/10/14, 5:47 PM
markbres said...: Somebody should tell him that the other black guy in RoboCop is Michael K Williams -- not Michael K White; 2/10/14, 5:59 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm just amazed and impressed by how well Jackson handles this. He has to do about 5 things at once, suddenly, and he does it perfectly.; 2/10/14, 6:00 PM
lemondog said...: I confuse these two white guys:

Donald Duck and Donald Trump

Oops... did it again!

Must be the comb-over, huh?; 2/10/14, 6:00 PM
Meade said...: You might get angry and call me racist but I'll admit: guys in berets all pretty much look alike to me.

I apologize.; 2/10/14, 6:05 PM
mccullough said...: Fishburne was awesome as Ike Turner.; 2/10/14, 6:15 PM
garage mahal said...: I thought Jackson was being a dick about it. Christ, move on.; 2/10/14, 6:34 PM
Seeing Red said...: Comedy Central has a skit about a black substitute teacher in a white middle-class school.; 2/10/14, 6:44 PM
lemondog said...: @Meade, now you are just being ridiculous....; 2/10/14, 7:03 PM
Ron said...: If Sam had just started with a "Motherfucker!", everyone would know it was him....no question! I'd love to hear him say that in his credit card ads! "That's my MotherFucker wallet! What's in yours?"; 2/10/14, 7:07 PM
Ron said...: here you go...a new credit card ad in the making!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUuwd8Z0l_4; 2/10/14, 7:11 PM
Skyler said...: That idiot needs to be fired. There are plenty waiting to take his job. I say this not because he is a racist, but because he is unprepared.; 2/10/14, 7:22 PM
Known Unknown said...: That idiot needs to be fired. There are plenty waiting to take his job. I say this not because he is a racist, but because he is unprepared.

This is daily event in the entertainment/news universe.; 2/10/14, 7:54 PM
MadisonMan said...: I thought Jackson was being a dick about it. Christ, move on.

Wouldn't you think an entertainment reporter would do a little research on who he is interviewing? The lazy Entertainment Reporter gets slack only -- and I doubt this is the case -- if he can't actually see Jackson while interviewing him.

He really should be fired if he makes such a boneheaded, laughable error. Why would Jackson want to be interviewed by this guy again?; 2/10/14, 8:22 PM
garage mahal said...: He really should be fired if he makes such a boneheaded, laughable error. Why would Jackson want to be interviewed by this guy again?

That's nuts. He apologized 10 times for simply mistaking Samuel L Jackson for Laurence Fishburne? What the fuck? Their faces are plastered everywhere!

Maybe it's just me but that was painful to watch how Jackson produced that entire sad episode.; 2/10/14, 8:42 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: White actors get mixed up by people all the time.; 2/10/14, 8:45 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: My mother cannot tell youngish, reasonably fit, blond actors apart.

Watching "The Departed:"

"What? How'd he get there?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Wasn't he just at the other place?"
"That was a different guy."
"Who's this guy?"
"The guy who's good."
"Aren't they the same guy?"
"No. Wait. You didn't know these were different people? What about when they each went into the office for the interview?"
"I thought one of the times he was dreaming."; 2/10/14, 8:50 PM
Drago said...: AA: "Ann Althouse said...
I'm just amazed and impressed by how well Jackson handles this. He has to do about 5 things at once, suddenly, and he does it perfectly"

I wouldn't be surprised if he's had to do this before which is why he transitions so beautifully smoothly to the "standup routine", which he does very well is hilarious.

If the reporter had a pair, he would have said (after Samuel Jackson said I'm the other black guy): "thanks for coming on with us Forest" (whitaker)

That's a guy who doesn't look like ANYONE else.

And he did a great (creepily so) Idi Amin.; 2/10/14, 9:00 PM
Wince said...: I'm so embarrassed to admit this. I was asked to go a private box in the upper part of an arena to invite Laurence Fishburne backstage at an Aerosmith concert (he was filming in town).

Long story short, I got a little confused about the return route backstage, and we had to walk a good distance through the public concourse.

No fewer than several times people cried out "Hey, Sam!"

At first Fishburne tried to correct people, but eventually he just gave up. And I got the uncomfortable feeling he blamed me for taking him via the scenic route. The running joke backstage was, "hey, why didn't he ask you to show him the way back to his seat?".

Sigh.; 2/10/14, 9:06 PM
David said...: I thought Fishburne handled it just great.; 2/10/14, 9:12 PM
Wince said...: Freeman's right. I think the immediate reaction of surprised passers-by is "hey, recognizable famous guy... (who in this case is obviously black)"

This reporter really can't claim that same instant confused recognition, however.; 2/10/14, 9:16 PM
The Godfather said...: The only thing that interests me in this thread is that some commenters think the interviewer should be fired for the mistake. We're in the 6th year of the Obama recovery, people are out of work all over the country, and you want to throw some poor schlub out of a job because he can't remember what ads Samuel L. Jackson is in? Sheesh!; 2/10/14, 9:28 PM
chuck said...: It looked to me like Jackson was just having fun, dragging out the joke with great timing.; 2/10/14, 9:30 PM
Unknown said...: "I'm just amazed and impressed by how well Jackson handles this. He has to do about 5 things at once, suddenly, and he does it perfectly."

Ben Cardin neither amazed nor surprised. He does it all day everyday, after surgery, or before (NOT during).; 2/10/14, 9:36 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "I'm just amazed and impressed by how well Jackson handles this. He has to do about 5 things at once, suddenly, and he does it perfectly."

Ben Cardin neither amazed nor surprised. He does it all day everyday, after surgery, or before (NOT during).; 2/10/14, 9:37 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Norman Borlaug amazed and surprised those in the know.; 2/10/14, 10:07 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "When you say Wisconsin, You've said it all."

Oh.

Okay then.

Indeed.

As it were.

Nice to meet ya!; 2/10/14, 10:14 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I wonder how many times Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Harvey Keitel have heard each other's names.; 2/10/14, 10:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm terrible at facial recognition. If there are two white guys in a political thriller with subplots, such as Syrianna, I need them to have different color hair or I'll be lost until about halfway through. It's a great way to get me to watch the movie twice, but very frustrating. I wish they'd take it into account when casting.

Women of all races I can usually tell apart because of hairstyle or whatever.; 2/10/14, 10:47 PM
David said...: "Women of all races I can usually tell apart because of hairstyle or whatever."

Whatever.; 2/10/14, 10:58 PM
David said...: By the way, Althouse, this was a quintessential alpha male performance. Jackson had the upper hand even before the interviewer's screw up, but after, when he needed to demonstrate superior rank, he did so in spectacular fashion. The interviewer completely disappeared, except as an object of the demonstration of power.

All done without resort to or threat of violence, or overt expression of superiority. Now that's alpha.; 2/10/14, 11:04 PM
Alex said...: AK-47... The very best there is...

When you absolutely, positively have to kill every motherfucker in the room. Accept no substitute.; 2/10/14, 11:07 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I mean't "Ben Cardin" only in the sense I didn't mean "Ben Cardin" cause because that's why.

And yes, I will say that again if provoked.; 2/10/14, 11:18 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Is he still going gaultier?

He had the vintage stuff back when it was pre-vintage.; 2/10/14, 11:27 PM
glam1931 said...: I have met both Brooke Adams and Margot Kidder, and both told me stories of each being mistaken for the other, and even signing autographs as the other. Brooke even did her Margot impersonation for me, and I later got to tell Margot about it and she thought it was hilarious.; 2/11/14, 12:07 AM
Saint Croix said...: I thought Jackson was being a dick about it. Christ, move on.

That was the reaction I had.

Last night at a jazz show I ran into a friend who introduced me to the man he was talking to. And I immediately recognized him, and interrupted the introduction to call him by the wrong name.

In fact I had confused my retired dentist (old white man) with my retired church league basketball coach (old white man). It could have been awkward, but it wasn't. I pretended like I didn't screw up his name, and he pretended like he didn't hear it.

Wanting to make clear that I recognized my dentist, damn it, I changed the subject to my second cousin (or cousin once removed, or whatever the hell is), who had recently opened a dentist office in Charlotte. And then my other friend asked me what his name was, and I couldn't answer that. "His parents are Wayne and Jo," I said, unhelpfully.

Now my former dentist could have done a 5-minute skit about the early onset of Alzheimer's in young people. And it still wouldn't be as awkward as Samuel L. Jackson making jokes about how this poor reporter is a racist and should lose his job.; 2/11/14, 1:07 AM
lonetown said...: He made me laugh and not just because I didn't know it was the same guy putting the money on the seats and checking his house on his iphone.

He oozes charisma; 2/11/14, 5:49 AM
Rusty said...: He'a muthafuckin' Samuel L Jackson
muchafucka.; 2/11/14, 6:04 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Pretty funny stuff, and I don't mind Jackson dragging it out. He was on a roll, and it's an entertainment show.

Fishburne and Jackson have extremely distinguishable and recognizable voices, just as Morgan Freeman does. Actually, most actors and actresses do.; 2/11/14, 7:57 AM
Anonymous said...: Flashback to shortly after I moved to LA, and billboards for the premiere of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are omnipresent.

Me: "Why does that girl look familiar?"

Actress Wife: "Because she looks like every other blonde 20-something actress."

I thought she was nuts. Then Sophia Vergara had to dye her blonde hair brown because "Modern Family" already had a blonde Julie Bowen.

*shrug*; 2/11/14, 8:31 AM
jr565 said...: Liam Neeson gets confused with Ralph Fiennes all the time. I personally don't see how you could confuse the two, but it happens. Even to non black actors.

http://www.contactmusic.com/story/liam-neeson-gets-mistaken-for-ralph-fiennes_4048057

Neeson sometimes doesn't even bother to correct them but signs the autograph as Ralph. Because he's being gracious about the mistake.; 2/11/14, 8:51 AM
jr565 said...: If this reporter does get fired over it, then reporters should hold Jackson to the same mistake if he were to ever make a mistake about a white person while promoting a movie. And instead of making it about the movie promotion instead make it all about how Jackson is a bigot who doesn't recognize white people.; 2/11/14, 8:57 AM
jr565 said...: I'll say exactly how this reporter probably messed up. He saw the commercial with Sam Jackson, noted it had Sam Jackson in it in the back of his mind, the. Saw or heard about the Super Bowl commercial that had the famous actor in it and transposed the one actor with the other when talking with Sam Jackson.
If you asked 100 people which commercial Sam Jackson was in they'd probably not know and just remember seeing Sam Jackson in a commercial. I for example didn't remember that he was in the "what's in your wallet?" Commercial until he made the point.
And it's not because all black people look the same.

Did he ever get back on track and talk about the movie? If so then its entertaining and fun. If not, then he's a real dick.; 2/11/14, 9:07 AM
CStanley said...: I am bad at facial recognition too, and also tend to get pairs of celebrities confused because:
1. I have only a superficial interest
2. I have a tendency to group people by type- I'm always seeing or meeting people who remind me of others and there are mental hooks on which they hang.

Most of the time if I take the time to think about it, I can recall that this one is that one and not that other one, but (see point #1) I don't necessarily take time to do so.

That said, if I were an entertainment journalist, it wouldn't be acceptable for me to not care enough to sort it out. The guy shouldn't be fired for this one incident, but he deserved to be dressed down over it and Jackson did it with panache.; 2/11/14, 9:28 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I wonder how many times Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Harvey Keitel have heard each other's names.

Yeah that’s probably why they all quit dating that woman.; 2/11/14, 10:03 AM
JPS said...: Robert Bork, in "The Tempting of America," describes being "recognized" in an airport some time after his nomination to the Supreme Court went down in flames.

"Sir," a woman told him very earnestly, "we are heeding your warnings."

"What warnings?"

"You're the Surgeon General!"

Bork's comment, as I recall it: Such is the capacity of even dissimilar beards to cause confusion. Dr. Koop, I am told, is frequently stopped by people who tell him they are sorry he didn't make it.; 2/11/14, 11:31 AM
Rusty said...: Laurence Fishburn is Cowboy Curtis. Everybody knows that.; 2/11/14, 12:20 PM
Sam L. said...: I suppose if I saw them together I'd see the difference. I don't recognize either one.; 2/11/14, 1:51 PM
Alex said...: Sam Jackson is no muthafuckin' Larry Fishburne, mothafucka.; 2/11/14, 2:48 PM