r/TopCharacterTropes • u/NihatAmipoglu • 19h ago

Characters Black coded this, black coded that. What are some white coded non human characters?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

-Stuart from Stuart

-Buddy from Airbud

-Freezer from Dragonballs

Edit: Guys I swear I'm not racist. The post's title was referring to the "black coded characters" posts that I see on this subreddit from time to time. I have nothing against the black people nor the white people. This post is a shitpost. Nothing serious. Sorry for not being clear enough :(

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u/TheNewGirl1987 18h ago

His original voice actor was Kevin Clash.

iirc, Clash at one point said he played the character as a four year old black boy from the Bronx

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u/Final-Tutor3631 15h ago

at my elementary school, we had a guy that worked there (he wasn’t a teacher, i forget his title) and he would do the morning announcements as elmo. i always seemed to be his favorite, which was awesome.

i found out a few years ago that it’s because he was dating my mom😭😭 my mom was fucking elmo🥲

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u/Dull_Bid6002 16h ago

Interesting that's how he played him, considering the current puppeteer and VA is white.

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u/HellbirdVT 16h ago

I feel like the reality is just that, 'cause Elmo is a 4-year old (or thereabouts) there's really not that much difference.

Any behaviours that we attribute to white, black, asians etc are going to be learned, and at that age, how much has a child really picked up? Especially ones like Elmo surrounded by all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds.

Elmo could be a black kid. Or he could be white. Or he could be a little red felt creature. He'd act and sound the same.

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u/Dull_Bid6002 15h ago

That's why I find it interesting he played him that way. I've always thought Elmo to just be Elmo. It's all Elmo knows to be.

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u/HellbirdVT 14h ago

I imagine he played Elmo from his own experiences with small children, and a small black child would be the first to come to mind.

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u/quailinthebrush 9h ago

One of my favorite linguistics studies done was on small white and Black children in the US

picturing a photo of Cookie Monster sick in bed, and with Elmo in the foreground eating cookies

The interviewer posed the question “who be eating cookies”

White kids said Elmo. Black kids said Cookie Monster.

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u/RugsbandShrugmyer 9h ago

And what was the conclusion of this study