Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of contemporary comedians using blackface


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Blackface. Weak consensus for a selective merge. Davewild (talk) 17:59, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

List of contemporary comedians using blackface
AfDs for this article: 
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WP:LISTCRUFT of dubious encyclopedic value. Only one entry in the list is referenced. Vrac (talk) 21:38, 18 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  lavender |(formerly HMSSolent )| lambast  00:07, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Have we not had this discussion before and decided it was staying? It's an extremely useful list and is notable because the presumption would be that contemporary comedians would NOT use blackface. The fact that it's so extensive identifies a cultural trope that could otherwise go unnoticed. DavidFarmbrough (talk) 06:12, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm not seeing a record of any prior deletion discussions in the article history, what discussion are you referring to? Vrac (talk) 14:23, 19 June 2015 (UTC)
 * There's the 2007 Afd List of contemporary performers using blackface. It's also conceivable the editor was thinking of the June 2015 Racial transformation (individual) AfD. –146.198.28.207 (talk) 06:34, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Good find. Vrac (talk) 14:40, 4 July 2015 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Very selective Merge to Blackface: a lot of the important content here is already in the main article on blackface. Of the stuff not already there, the material about Fred Armisen playing Obama is notable and could be merged. Some of the rest is trivial, mentioning people who don't wear blackface, not contemporary (The Goodies episode was broadcast in 1977 while The Black and White Minstrel Show was still on TV, while The Life of Brian was released only a year after The Black and White Minstrel Show finished production), or not normal blackface (e.g. if it's done for satirical comments on past traditions of minstrelsy, then that isn't really the same thing as classical blackface, which is a caricature of blackness), though it can still be mentioned in the article blackface if it gets media coverage). There's also not clear list criteria: the lede mentions 1990s or later, but the Goodies and Monty Python examples are well before that. Colapeninsula (talk) 14:52, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, -- RoySmith (talk) 23:03, 27 June 2015 (UTC)  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, JAaron95  Talk  13:00, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * WP:SMERGE per Colapeninsula, though I'd be equally satisfied with outright deletion. There are numerous problems with this list, the first of which is it implies that there are comedians who "use" blackface as a practice, when most of the entries are merely one-off roles and not in any way typical of their bodies of work. Second, "contemporary", as noted above, is meaninglessly vague in this context. Third, this list equivocates the looser meaning of "blackface", which just means someone not black portraying themselves as such in a role, with the historic practice of blackface, which was a very specific kind of performance and costuming by comparison that was based on racial caricature. All of this together makes this collection of examples at best trivia, at worst misleading and indiscriminate WP:SYNTH. postdlf (talk) 17:22, 7 July 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.