I don't know about that. There was some BBC comedy that I saw a couple years back that progressed in a usual sitcommy manner until at a doctor's office the laugh track kicked in for no reason. I couldn't figure it out. After a short time the dialogue revealed that you were supposed to be horrified because the doctor was black. Oh the humanity, a black doctor!

Well, that's because the British are far more racist than Americans.

Also, their teeth are funny-looking and their food is terrible.

Could have been Fawlty Towers, there's an episode where John Cleese does a big double take at a black doctor.

We're not allowed to be white these days in old England, it's a crime punishable by death. Or at least it feels that way.

thanks, soci-o-path, for showing that the british aren't the least bit racist whatsoever.

Seconded. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw that little black-looking jew boy.

I... I think it's a girl.

No, I'm pretty sure it's a little black boy with a jew fro.

Her friend mocks her by chanting "You look like a boy! You look like a boy!" Are you trolling or dumb?

Thanks for making me do a spit-take, ROUS.

To be fair, I think most people who are not black would be alarmed to discover they had turned black.

Yeah, the stench of Canada is pretty heavy on this one. Don't know how I can tell, but I just CAN.

-ADA.

HAHAHA okay sorry.

Well, sometimes it CAN be bad to be a black boy. Remember Emmanuel Lewis?

I should qualify this by saying I think the black = chickenpox angle has been manufactured through editing. Also you have to note the kid's sneer at her mom (?) when she says it's 'not like you ARE black'.

Of course, there is a difference between me making fun of my sister in private in an environment where we know no-one is racist, and saying the same thing on television. It assumes an intelligence and liberal outlook you can't always expect from a mainstream audience. For this reason it would probably be ok to have a bit in Curb your Enthusiasm where Larry David is made to get a fake tan and he reacts by saying 'look at me, I look like a black man!' but it wouldn't be ok to do the same joke on Friends. We don't know anything about the political positioning of this show because the clips have been edited so heavily.