When this blonde famous woman reaches for her hair, I'm *really glad* it's all a joke.

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Satire does a good job of showing just how weird it gets for people of color talking about their art. Caitlin FitzGerald (star of Showtime's "Masters of Sex") and Nana Mensah (star of "An African City" webseries) have made this satire to show just that. Laugh and cringe and maybe catch that contagious feeling of ... what is it? Ahhhh, empathy.

Are you ready to go from zero to Jay-Z in under a minute?

So, it gets weird out there for people of color talking about their art.

"QUIT WHINING! ALL ART IS HARD TO DO!" — a voice inside of you

Wait.

Why is this something to care about? Because stereotypes. They mess with all of us. And movies help fight them, but they also help support them. What to do!?

A good place to start is to make fun of them. Mock them! Take them DOWN.

And that's what filmmaker, Nana Mensah ...

... and her friend Caitlin FitzGerald ...

... set out to do in this satirical short.

Stereotypes that Deserve to Be Mocked

1. Getting called "articulate," like, WAY too much.

2. Who are "your people" exactly? You'd better know!

3. Be prepared to speak for everyone who looks like you.

4. And get ready for random pats on the head.

5. Also, be ready to talk about your interests like they're something really deep because you're DEFYING stereotypes NOW because now that's an important thing because you've been so intensely pigeonholed, you try to talk your way out of it using random interests!!!!!

Why is it so easy to make a silly video about these things happening? Because they do happen.

A lot.

And you wanna know a big reason why?

Lack of diversity in film.

I SEE WHITE PEOPLE.

Of the top 500 grossing films 2007-2012, ONLY 12.4% of speaking characters were played by black actors.

(By comparison, 75.8% white characters had speaking roles)

So how do we change that?

Support something different.

It's the stereotypes that cause the reactions they're satirizing in the vid. Stereotypes are the enemy here.

Sure, ridding the world of stereotypes is not as easy as a jazzy Paul Rudd karate chop, but it *is* as easy as paying attention and getting to know each other.

Then before we know it ... we think differently.

And frankly, the more you see of other types of people (like IN MOVIES!), the more likely you are to be chill and accepting of other people. That means the same for your kids! For you!

Pretty soon, we look at people who don't LOOK like us and instead of seeing the stereotype, we see ourselves.

And it looks pretty cool.

Like, Jay-Z level cool.

How to begin? Laugh those stereotypes right off of our screens (and out of our lives):

Your move, Hollywood.

We'll just be over here, being chill and accepting.

Education

Twins separated shortly after birth were both named Jim and led wildly parallel lives

They both had childhood dogs named Toy. They both married women named Linda, got divorced, then remarried women named Betty. And that's not even where the uncanny similarities end.

HaveSomeFun3344/YouTube

Jim Lewis and Jim Springer had remarkably similar lives, despite not meeting until they were 39.

Sometimes stories comes along that seem too far-fetched or remarkable to be real. The entire Ripley's Believe it or Not? franchise is built on such stories, the ones that defy logic and reason and yet have been proven to be true.

One of those stories has recently resurfaced and it has us all scrunching our brows and questioning how it could possibly be: The tale of two twins named Jim.

According to People, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins born in 1940 to a 15-year-old mother, but they were separated and put up for adoption a few weeks later. The fact that their respective adoptive parents named them both James (and called them Jim for short) would be a weird enough coincidence by itself, but that's only the beginning of the uncanny parallels in their lives.

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twins

Humor

Guy lists his most ‘boomer complaints’ as a millennial and he’s not wrong

"Concerts need to be at a reasonable hour like 5pm."

Kevin Fredricks|TikTok

People list their most 'boomer complaints' and its pure gold

Listen, everyone complains. Sure, we like to pretend it's just boomers that reach a certain age and start daydreaming about telling kids to get off their lawns. But the truth of the matter is, maybe some of the seemingly nonsensical complaints are valid because it appears that convenience has become inconvenient in the most obnoxious way possible.

Kevin Fredricks, a comedian and TikTok creator uploaded a video answering a tweet that asked, "what is the most boomer complaint you have." Fredricks must've been waiting for someone to ask this question because he had an entire list of complaints but honestly, if you're over 30 you'll probably be nodding along.

He comes in strong with a particular disdain for QR code menus. Save the trees and all that jazz but there's something about holding a menu in your hand that helps you choose the same thing you always order so much better. Flipping the menu over is key in making food choices while dining out. Seriously, not everything has to be digital.

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boomer behavior

Pop Culture

'What on Earth is a GYAT?' Millennial feels ancient after learning the latest Gen Alpha slang

Now, we have Gen Alpha teenagers.

via NicolePellegrin0/TikTok

Nicole Pellegrino talks to ger Gen Alpha sister about slang.

Once you finally discover what Gen Zers mean when they exclaim “Slay!” every third sentence, Gen Alpha has arrived to make you feel even older. Gen Alpha is the official title for those born between 2010 and 2023, and the most senior have just become teenagers.

In a new TikTok video seen over 5.4 million times, Nicole Pellegrino, a Millennial-aged director of TikTok strategy for a media company, attempts to communicate with her Gen Alpha sister Simone, and bestie, using slang that she has no idea is “out.”

"I can't say, like, 'That's a slay'?" Pellegrino asks.

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gen alpha

Internet

90s kids still refuse to believe that ‘SHAZAAM’ starring Sinbad never existed

Seriously, are we being Punk’d?!

Dropout|YouTube

90s kids still refuse to believe 'Shazaam' isn't real

By now most everyone has heard of the Mandela effect where collectively a large group of people believe something that wasn't true. Some of the most famous ones are the Berenstein Bears actually being the Berenstain Bears and Jiffy peanut butter really being Jif peanut butter.

The reason it's called the Mandela effect is due to the widespread collective "memory" of the famous South African activist Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. He never died in prison, he was released and continued his activism until his death in 2013 but that's not how people remember it.

Over the past few years the Mandela effect of "Shazaam," a movie starring the comedian Sinbad that actually never existed. Sinbad exists but not the movie that many 90s kids fully remember watching never did. There is no evidence of the existence of this movie and even the star of the movie denies he starred in the non-existent film.

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sinbad shazaam movie

Science

Scientists find that coin tosses aren't 50/50. Here's how you can get an advantage

The age-old method isn't as fair and practical as we originally thought.

Canva

Coin tosses aren't 50/50 like we've been led to believe

Settling things by coin toss has been around for centuries. The ancient Romans called it “‘Heads or Ships.” Britains of the Middle Ages knew it as “Cross or Pile.” Throughout history, this game of chance was believed to be a fair, unbiased way to settle a dispute, choose which team goes first in a sports game and make decisions.

And the thought behind this makes sense. After all, there are only two sides to a coin, making the odds for each outcome an even 50/50. It doesn’t get more even than that.

However, a team of scientists, led by former magician and American mathematician Persi Diaconis, have discovered that this age-old method isn’t as evenly split as we believed. And there's even a way to slightly cheat the odds to your advantage.

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community

When this blonde famous woman reaches for her hair, I'm *really glad* it's all a joke.

Are you ready to go from zero to Jay-Z in under a minute?

Stereotypes that Deserve to Be Mocked

1. Getting called "articulate," like, WAY too much.

2. Who are "your people" exactly? You'd better know!

3. Be prepared to speak for everyone who looks like you.

4. And get ready for random pats on the head.

5. Also, be ready to talk about your interests like they're something really deep because you're DEFYING stereotypes NOW because now that's an important thing because you've been so intensely pigeonholed, you try to talk your way out of it using random interests!!!!!

Why is it so easy to make a silly video about these things happening? Because they do happen.

A lot.

And you wanna know a big reason why?

Lack of diversity in film.

Of the top 500 grossing films 2007-2012, ONLY *12.4%* of speaking characters were played by black actors.

(By comparison, 75.8% white characters had speaking roles)

So how do we change that?

Support something different.

Then before we know it ... we think differently.

And it looks pretty cool.

Your move, Hollywood.

The school assignment was intended to spark debate and discussion — but isn't that part of the problem?

Trameka Brown-Berry was looking over her 4th-grade son Jerome's homework when her jaw hit the floor.

The school assignment was intended to spark debate and discussion — but isn't that part of the problem?

The assignment was real. In the year 2018. Unbelievable.

The shockingly offensive assignment deserved to be thrown in the trash. But young Jerome dutifully filled it out anyway.

They both had childhood dogs named Toy. They both married women named Linda, got divorced, then remarried women named Betty. And that's not even where the uncanny similarities end.

"Concerts need to be at a reasonable hour like 5pm."

Now, we have Gen Alpha teenagers.

Seriously, are we being Punk’d?!

The age-old method isn't as fair and practical as we originally thought.

When this blonde famous woman reaches for her hair, I'm really glad it's all a joke.

Of the top 500 grossing films 2007-2012, ONLY 12.4% of speaking characters were played by black actors.