using Rochester for racial humor

[mjacobs]

I'm thinking about the episode in which the whole gang broadcasts in Canada. When Jack tells Rochester that they needed to get ready to return to the US by boat, Rochester is worried. "Last time I was on a boat, I got so sick, I turned green. And for me, that ain't easy!"

Were there any other episodes that used Rochester's race to get laughs? I'm wondering because, generally speaking, the writers seemed to treat Rochester's race as incidental.

[shimp scrampi]

Yes, there are actually unfortunately a lot of these kinds of gags in pre-1942 shows. In Jack's autobiography he mentions seeing the horror of Hitler's ideology led to a deliberate purging of the racial/stereotype material from the scripts.

[Roman]

I recall a lot of jokes about Rochester's skin color, especially in the early years of the show, usually spoken by Eddie Anderson himself. There were also a couple of "Doc Benny" minstrel shows on the program where the cast supposedly put on blackface and spoke in dialect.

But, while arguably racist by today's standards, they were actually far from that by the standards of the 1930s. Compared to the awful racial stereotypes that were common to the entertainment of that era (watch some of the Marx Brothers movies to get a glimpse of this), Eddie Anderson was treated with far greater respect and was never written as foolish or ignorant. Even in the early years, he was more a friend to Jack than just a servant. At the core of the relationship, the men respected each other and treated each other as moral equals, notwithstanding the many conventional barriers that were also present (e.g., Rochester never called Jack or the other members of the cast by their first name, while they always called him by his first name). A seemingly little thing like Rochester responding to Jack's attempts to explain some act of cheapness with an incredulous "Come now, Boss!" was truly revolutionary and ground-breaking to 1930s America. It is certainly an overstatement to compare Jack and Eddie Anderson to Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson but the Benny-Rochester relationship was an important step in breaking down the racial barriers and stereotypes of an unenlightened era.

[Jhammes]

A very thoughtful tribute to Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson. True, they do not completely "break ground" ( Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson ), but the rules are definitely bent, as much as possible ( without NBC or CBS firing them )! The sad reality, during the "Jim Crow" laws, the black man was forbidden to show intelligence, reply back, or give a doubtful look to a white man...Eddie Anderson was always doing this to Jack Benny, on national television!

I really hope nobody would ever want to return to the "social conventions" of the 1950's, early 1960's: Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson do go through those motions, but Anderson's character is clearly smarter than, and disrespectful of, "the boss". Anderson is clearly in charge of things. No other program was ahead of the day, providing such situations.

A side note: This Sunday Night At Seven, on CBS (February 4 2007) will be historic. Both Super Bowl teams will be led by African American coaches, and the game will be enjoyed nationwide... unthinkable forty years ago!! Very appropriate to happen on Jack Benny's network, and time slot

[Brad from Georgia]

I remember on one of Jack's late specials, as the show began, Jack calls Eddie Anderson and tells him about the new TV special he's planning and asks, "Don't you want to come back and play my valet Rochester again?"

And Eddie (who obviously had been ill recently) replied, "Oh, Mr. Benny, we don't DOOOOO that any more!"

Huge laugh...and then Roch returns to the poker game that Jack interrupted, and we see his poker buddies are the Odd Couple.

[Roman]

Not to take anything away from the historic importance of the Tony Dungy - Lovey Smith meeting in the Super Bowl, but the NBA was thirty years ahead of the NFL in this regard. In 1975, the NBA championship series was between the Golden State Warriors coached by Al Attles and the Washington Bullets coached by K.C. Jones. The NBA was also years ahead of the other sports leagues in hiring the first black coach (Bill Russell, player-coach for the Boston Celtics after the great Red Auerbach's retirement).