Big Mommas: Black Actors in Drag

Dave Chappelle railed against it. John Singleton scoffed at it. But the trend of black comedic actors dressing as loud, stereotypical black women for laughs persists. What gives?

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Martin Lawrence

One of the worst perpetrators of the black-actor-in-a-dress phenomenon is Lawrence, who has graced the big screen disguised as the corpulent Big Momma not once, not twice, but three times. The latest installment -- Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son -- is in theaters now. Lest you think that the cheerful grandma is his only female role, allow us to remind you of Sheneneh, the Martin character based on every negative black female stereotype you can think of.

Captions by Lauren Williams
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Brandon T. Jackson

Apparently not content to go it alone in the dress department in his third Big Momma film, Lawrence is joined by Brandon T. Jackson.
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Tyler Perry

Madea, the tough-talking, rifle-toting matriarch famously (over)played by Perry, has served as the cornerstone of Perry's film and stage empire -- for better or for worse.
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Wesley Snipes

In To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything (1995), Snipes was actually playing a drag queen (to critical acclaim), which, for a number of reasons, makes this role a bit different -- and more palatable -- than some of the others listed here. (Also donning drag were John Leguizamo and the late Patrick Swayze.)
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Eddie Murphy

Like Lawrence, Murphy has a thing for putting on a gown, packing on the prosthetic pounds and losing any sense of nuance or subtlety once the cameras start rolling. The worst female character in his arsenal is Norbit's Rasputia, whom Murphy portrayed as a fat, slovenly bully in 2007.
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Arsenio Hall

Years before Murphy was getting panned for Norbit and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, his buddy Hall put on a dress and some lipstick to play Murphy's date in Coming to America in 1988.
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Flip Wilson

The legendary comedian's Geraldine character popularized the phrase "What you see is what you get" and was a popular and enduring part of The Flip Wilson Show in the 1970s.
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Jamie Foxx

If you thought Martin's Sheneneh was bad, take a look at some of Oscar-winner Foxx's "Wanda" sketches from his In Living Color days back in the '90s.
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Miguel Nuñez

In the completely improbable Juwanna Mann (2002), Nuñez plays a fallen basketball star who pretends to be a woman to join a fictional version of the WNBA. Hilarity is alleged to ensue ... it doesn't.
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Wayans Brothers

Marlon and Shawn Wayans took their drag look a step further by dressing up as white women in White Chicks in 2004. Somehow, the movie manages to offend men and women of all races at the same time. This is probably what they were going for -- but isn't the joke on them?