To summarize, this scandinavian comedy trio from the 90’s made a parody of Miami Vice. This being 90’s scandinavia, you can probably guess that the actors/comedians didn’t exactly have the melanin-credentials of parodying the black guy from Miami Vice, so one of them instead wore blackface (well, brownface would perhaps be a better description, due to the color tone).
As far as I can recall, the skit didn’t really make race much of a punchline, except from when they’re fixing their hair before the final showdown (which one of course have to do, this being a Miami Vice parody), and the white guy asks the black guy to borrow some hair gel but gets the response: (roughly translated) “I’m black, I don’t use hairgel. I use chocolate pudding.”
So yeah, asking because I’m a middle aged extremely white guy, and I found this skut funny as shit when I was a kid, and I stumbled across it recently, and I got curious.
EDIT: Found it. Turns out it’s from 1989. https://youtu.be/GDpLUXtA-4M
I can’t be arsed translating, because in retrospect it’s not really that good, but you can see the blackface and its origin in the beginning.
Any kind of blackface will be considered racist by American standards (mostly because of blackface “comedy” early in the 20th century). Countries within the American cultural sphere of influence have copied this take as well. In my opinion it’s just makeup and whether it’s racist or not depends on if you use it to make fun of black people or if you’re just depicting a black character, especially if you live in a place with very few black people, but I know that’s no longer the majority take here at least.
In this particular instance I honestly believe the blackface itself isn’t even racist, it seems like they just lacked black actors for their parody. The pudding line is… unnecessarily crude, though, I don’t know what that would ever even refer to if it’s not explicitly meant as a racist insult. Maybe if the black guy used chocolate pudding next to a blonde guy using vanilla pudding it would’ve been less racist? I don’t understand the joke in the first place, it just seems like a weird dig.
I know it’s not the popular opinion, but I agree with your position in your first paragraph. I think the context does make a difference.
The chocolate pudding line is definitely weird, but also definitely racist.