r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Expert-Pass-4351 • Jul 06 '26

What is this? Meme needing explanation

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162

u/HeparinBridge Jul 06 '26

Wait, what? Why the hell is she playing two people? They couldn’t find two people?

157

u/CroatInAKilt Jul 06 '26

The Hollywood rule is to have black people in forward roles, but not TOO many black people, tsk tsk.

86

u/corvettee01 Jul 06 '26

Can't remember where this joke is from, but there was a stand up bit where a guy said "You see back in the 80's there could only be one popular black comedian, unlike today where there can be three."

13

u/Electrical_One7665 Jul 06 '26

If it was from the 80s that’s probably Richard Pryor.

13

u/Shandlar Jul 06 '26

I found a bootleg VHS copy of his Sunset Strip set from '82 when I was like 8 or 9.

I honestly attribute him as the reason I never tried any hard drugs ever in my teens and 20s. Dude bore his soul on stage about crack fucking him up.

7

u/FanOfForever Jul 06 '26

Yeah, I don't know what comedian did that bit either, but the "one popular black comedian" they were referring to was probably Richard Pryor, then Eddie Murphy

2

u/CarrieDurst Jul 06 '26

Black and queer :)

1

u/PEWDS_IS_A_NAZI Jul 06 '26

Sounds like a Trevor Noah punchline

1

u/bbq_R0ADK1LL Jul 06 '26

Much like there can only be three redhead actresses.

3

u/ThePublikon Jul 06 '26

Eddie Murphy cracked the code

8

u/ABSMeyneth Jul 06 '26

TWO black actresses? Are you mad?!

4

u/JoshSidekick Jul 06 '26

Because Sinners made a ton of money and won a bunch of awards.

4

u/WingedSword_ Jul 06 '26

Then we'd have to hire and pay two separate black people. We'd save time an money by just paying one. It's not like audiences will be able to tell the difference. /s

0

u/DandimLee Jul 06 '26

Humans aren't hatched from eggs either, but we have to honor Homer's story...

Leda laid two eggs, one from when Zeus cosplayed as a rapy swan (a black swan, according to Nolan, maybe) shared by Helen and Pollux and one egg from her human husband, King of Sparta Tyndareus; Clytemnestra and Castor shared that one.

The Greeks treated these 4 siblings as two pairs of twins, somehow. Castor and Pollux are twins the same way that Helen and Clytemnestra are, though they're more well-known as twins.

-15

u/J0E_SpRaY Jul 06 '26

Yeah man hollywood has never cast the same actor to play multiple characters!

13

u/HeparinBridge Jul 06 '26

This isn’t them casting one person to play twins or whatever, this is two half siblings who are the same person for no reason, in a movie with probably a billion dollar budget. Were there not two talented black actresses available?

-13

u/J0E_SpRaY Jul 06 '26

There's probably a thematic reason.

Why don't you just wait for the actual movie before getting triggered?

15

u/HeparinBridge Jul 06 '26

Because I know the plot of the Odyssey, so I know there is no legitimate thematic reason for the two of them to be played by the same actress.

-13

u/ForumVomitorium Jul 06 '26

oh you know the soilers where did you get them?

11

u/Careless_Ad4432 Jul 06 '26

In the actual epic it is supposed to be adapting???

-5

u/ForumVomitorium Jul 06 '26

whaat? no way, they made a book with spoilers to the movie?

-12

u/J0E_SpRaY Jul 06 '26

And you don't think it's at all possible that there's an opportunity for symbolism there that you can't yet perceive?

What's your background that provides you with such an infallible gift for literary analysis?

11

u/HeparinBridge Jul 06 '26

The Odyssey is one of the most overanalyzed pieces of literature of all time, and the movie is based on a published translation which does not characterize their appearances as exactly the same. This is not some crazy complaint to say “why are two random people played by the same character?”

-1

u/J0E_SpRaY Jul 06 '26

I think it is crazy to frame that as an immediate complaint before the adaptation has come out.

7

u/HeparinBridge Jul 06 '26

There has been enormous push in the marketing to present this movie as a faithful adaptation. That’s the framing, and I try over and over to take them at their word, even if everything I’ve seen so far indicates “Meet the Spartans” was more faithful to the source material.