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Bamboozled

 Bamboozled
type
TVTItem
 Bamboozled
label
Bamboozled
 Bamboozled
page
Bamboozled
 Bamboozled
comment
Bamboozled (2000) is a satirical mockumentary film written and directed by Spike Lee.Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is a Harvard-educated African American man, working for a television network known as CNS ("Continental Network System"), who's feeling a bit pissed. His boss, Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), is a wannabe-black white guy who insists he is more black than Delacroix is, and who dismisses all the intelligent shows about African-Americans that Delacroix proposes as knockoffs of The Cosby Show. Delacroix believes that all Dunwitty wants are shows portraying African-Americans as buffoons.Frankly, Delacroix would just like to leave, but he's contractually bound to the network. In order to get himself fired, and to satirize the network's desire for buffoonish black people, Delacroix concocts a brilliant plan: He comes up with a televised minstrel show called Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, in which two black street performers portray goofballs named "Mantan" and "Sleep 'N Eat" on a watermelon plantation in blackface makeup. Dunwitty, sure enough, greenlights the show.To Delacroix's horror, the show is a huge success!
 Bamboozled
fetched
2023-06-03T14:59:08Z
 Bamboozled
parsed
2023-06-03T14:59:08Z
 Bamboozled
processingComment
Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
 Bamboozled
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Bamboozled / int_1282bf4f
type
No Celebrities Were Harmed
 Bamboozled / int_1282bf4f
comment
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Much as Mr. Lee would probably like to harm Quentin Tarantino, he is much less enthusiastic about libel suits, choosing to instead pastiche the guy in the form of Dunwitty.
 Bamboozled / int_1282bf4f
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 Bamboozled / int_1282bf4f
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_1282bf4f
 Bamboozled / int_15c0289
type
Bullet Dancing
 Bamboozled / int_15c0289
comment
Bullet Dancing: After he refuses to do his routine, the Mau-Maus force Manray (the guy who plays Mantan) to tap dance by shooting at the floor around him one last time before shooting him dead.
 Bamboozled / int_15c0289
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Bamboozled / int_15c0289
 Bamboozled / int_1994ba0b
type
Gone Horribly Right
 Bamboozled / int_1994ba0b
comment
Gone Horribly Right: Delacroix assumes the idea for the show will get him fired, but his boss greenlights it. He then banks on it being a controversial flop, but it becomes wildly successful.
 Bamboozled / int_1994ba0b
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Bamboozled / int_1994ba0b
 Bamboozled / int_22f5d1b9
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Some of My Best Friends Are X
 Bamboozled / int_22f5d1b9
comment
Dunwitty argues he can use the N-word because he grew up among black people and has a black wife, and is thus effectively black himself.
 Bamboozled / int_22f5d1b9
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_22f5d1b9
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_22f5d1b9
 Bamboozled / int_233d181
type
Misaimed Fandom
 Bamboozled / int_233d181
comment
Misaimed Fandom: In-universe: what was intended to be the most horribly racist show imaginable is instead seen by black viewers as sharp satire to the point they openly quote lines that would normally be horrifying to say in public.
 Bamboozled / int_233d181
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Bamboozled / int_233d181
 Bamboozled / int_3cb1d38d
type
Bad Boss
 Bamboozled / int_3cb1d38d
comment
Bad Boss: Thomas C. Dunwitty, the tyrannical vice president of the Continental Network System, or CNS.
 Bamboozled / int_3cb1d38d
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 Bamboozled / int_3cb1d38d
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Bamboozled / int_3cb1d38d
 Bamboozled / int_44990492
type
Parody Commercial
 Bamboozled / int_44990492
comment
Parody Commercial: A few, advertising Tha Bomb soda.
 Bamboozled / int_44990492
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Bamboozled / int_44990492
 Bamboozled / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Bamboozled / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: Delacroix, Manray and most of the Mau-Maus are all dead. Sloan will have to live with the guilt that she killed Delacroix. It's implied that Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show will continue on with another "dime a dozen nigger", proving that no one has learned from this experience.
 Bamboozled / int_4e3d253b
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Bamboozled / int_4e3d253b
 Bamboozled / int_5009999d
type
Painting the Medium
 Bamboozled / int_5009999d
comment
Painting the Medium: Most of the film is shot on standard-definition digital camcorders to conserve its budget. However, scenes from Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show are shot on 16mm film, providing ironic juxtaposition between the lusher visuals and the blatantly racist imagery.
 Bamboozled / int_5009999d
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Bamboozled / int_5009999d
 Bamboozled / int_52c0c7cf
type
Motive Decay
 Bamboozled / int_52c0c7cf
comment
Motive Decay: Tragically, Pierre was trying to pitch a show so offensive that his boss would recognize that his demands were actually racist. When the network loves Mantan, he then believes that the Black community will so vehemently reject the show that it will force American TV to deal with stereotypical portrayals of Black people. When the Black community (mostly) enjoys Mantan, Pierce just accepts his popularity with a Money, Dear Boy attitude.
 Bamboozled / int_52c0c7cf
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Bamboozled / int_52c0c7cf
 Bamboozled / int_5d103ea8
type
AwesomeMcCoolName
 Bamboozled / int_5d103ea8
comment
Awesome Mc Cool Name: Sloan's brother (and Mau-Mau's member) Big Blak Afrika, played by Mos Def.
 Bamboozled / int_5d103ea8
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_5d103ea8
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Bamboozled / int_5d103ea8
 Bamboozled / int_5eb8a669
type
"Angry Black Man" Stereotype
 Bamboozled / int_5eb8a669
comment
"Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Every member of the Mau-Maus. Yes, including the white guy.
 Bamboozled / int_5eb8a669
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 Bamboozled / int_5eb8a669
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Bamboozled / int_5eb8a669
 Bamboozled / int_7815ba15
type
N-Word Privileges
 Bamboozled / int_7815ba15
comment
N-Word Privileges: Dunwitty argues he can use the N-word because he grew up among black people and has a black wife, and is thus effectively black himself. Thanks to the phenomenal success of Delacroix's show, everyone in America winds up having these. It gets to the point where audience members (ultimately including Dunwitty himself) are showing up for tapings in black makeup. So we have a blonde girl in blackface, an Italian-American in blackface (he calls himself "a Sicilian nigger," which is an actual slur), and... a black girl in blackface.
 Bamboozled / int_7815ba15
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_7815ba15
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Bamboozled / int_7815ba15
 Bamboozled / int_80204ff5
type
Verbed Title
 Bamboozled / int_80204ff5
comment
Verbed Title: Bamboozled
 Bamboozled / int_80204ff5
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1.0
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Bamboozled / int_80204ff5
 Bamboozled / int_8263ed2a
type
The Whitest Black Guy
 Bamboozled / int_8263ed2a
comment
The Whitest Black Guy: Protagonist Pierre Delacroix (real name Peerless Dothan) is an uptight, Harvard-educated African man in the employment of a television network. He's tormented endlessly by his boss Thomas Dunwitty, a crass, boorish white man who speaks with a stereotypical African-American accent, drops N-bombs like there's not tomorrow and claims to be more Black than Delacroix because he married a black woman and has two mixed-race children.
 Bamboozled / int_8263ed2a
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Bamboozled / int_8263ed2a
 Bamboozled / int_863fa679
type
What Happened to the Mouse?
 Bamboozled / int_863fa679
comment
What Happened to the Mouse?: Dunwitty disappears from the movie after he fires Manray, only appearing once more when filming a PSA regarding Manray's kidnapping.
 Bamboozled / int_863fa679
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 Bamboozled / int_863fa679
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Bamboozled / int_863fa679
 Bamboozled / int_875615dd
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Truth in Television
 Bamboozled / int_875615dd
comment
Truth in Television: Spike Lee did not make up the minstrel names Mantan or Sleep n' Eat.
 Bamboozled / int_875615dd
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 Bamboozled / int_875615dd
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_875615dd
 Bamboozled / int_8bb316cf
type
Video Inside, Film Outside
 Bamboozled / int_8bb316cf
comment
Video Inside, Film Outside: Inverted; for budgetary reasons, most of the movie was shot on-location on digital standard-definition camcorders, but the scenes depicting Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show were shot with 16mm film on an elaborately-designed studio set.
 Bamboozled / int_8bb316cf
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 Bamboozled / int_8bb316cf
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Bamboozled / int_8bb316cf
 Bamboozled / int_94680696
type
Shaped Like Itself
 Bamboozled / int_94680696
comment
Thanks to the phenomenal success of Delacroix's show, everyone in America winds up having these. It gets to the point where audience members (ultimately including Dunwitty himself) are showing up for tapings in black makeup. So we have a blonde girl in blackface, an Italian-American in blackface (he calls himself "a Sicilian nigger," which is an actual slur), and... a black girl in blackface.
 Bamboozled / int_94680696
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 Bamboozled / int_94680696
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_94680696
 Bamboozled / int_9788e2b1
type
Black Dude Dies First
 Bamboozled / int_9788e2b1
comment
Black Dude Dies First: Taken to extreme. Every black member of the Mau-Maus is shot dead by the police, except the white guy, who protests loudly about it.
 Bamboozled / int_9788e2b1
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Bamboozled / int_9788e2b1
 Bamboozled / int_98936e28
type
Haunted Technology
 Bamboozled / int_98936e28
comment
Haunted Technology: At the end of the movie, Delacroix's Jolly Nigger Bank spontaneously starts operating, repeatedly, with increasing frequency.
 Bamboozled / int_98936e28
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 Bamboozled / int_98936e28
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_98936e28
 Bamboozled / int_9c4a7090
type
Springtime for Hitler
 Bamboozled / int_9c4a7090
comment
Springtime for Hitler: Delacroix intentionally made Mantan as offensive as he could in the expectation that it would fail. Unfortunately for him it succeeds.
 Bamboozled / int_9c4a7090
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_9c4a7090
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Bamboozled / int_9c4a7090
 Bamboozled / int_9d3f4777
type
My Nayme Is
 Bamboozled / int_9d3f4777
comment
My Nayme Is: The Mau-Maus insist on spelling the word black as "blak", since "nobody be pronouncin' that shit.".
 Bamboozled / int_9d3f4777
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 Bamboozled / int_9d3f4777
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Bamboozled / int_9d3f4777
 Bamboozled / int_a0797fb3
type
Stunned Silence
 Bamboozled / int_a0797fb3
comment
Stunned Silence: The audience in the first taping, after:
 Bamboozled / int_a0797fb3
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_a0797fb3
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_a0797fb3
 Bamboozled / int_b4ab58d0
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Modern Minstrelsy
 Bamboozled / int_b4ab58d0
comment
Modern Minstrelsy: The whole point, centering around a literal modern minstrel show being aired on live TV.
 Bamboozled / int_b4ab58d0
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1.0
 Bamboozled / int_b4ab58d0
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 Bamboozled
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Bamboozled / int_b4ab58d0
 Bamboozled / int_b53077b3
type
Take That!
 Bamboozled / int_b53077b3
comment
Take That!: Early in the film, Lee uses the absurdly buffoonish and offensive character of Dunwitty to take a jab at his much-publicized spat with Quentin Tarantino over the issue of N-Word Privileges.
 Bamboozled / int_b53077b3
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Bamboozled / int_b53077b3
 Bamboozled / int_b9a22821
type
Jive Turkey
 Bamboozled / int_b9a22821
comment
Jive Turkey: Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show indulges in this, tying in with the use of blackface and other Minstrel Show iconography. Dunwitty himself also makes use of it a ton, believing himself to be more black than the actually black Delacroix.
 Bamboozled / int_b9a22821
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Bamboozled / int_b9a22821
 Bamboozled / int_bcbf7aef
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Plucky Comic Relief
 Bamboozled / int_bcbf7aef
comment
Plucky Comic Relief: Womack goes from this to Only Sane Man throughout the film.
 Bamboozled / int_bcbf7aef
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1.0
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Bamboozled / int_bcbf7aef
 Bamboozled / int_bdacb848
type
Purely Aesthetic Glasses
 Bamboozled / int_bdacb848
comment
Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Sloan is only seen wearing glasses while at work and is shown having no difficulty seeing without them in sequences where she is not wearing them.
 Bamboozled / int_bdacb848
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 Bamboozled / int_bdacb848
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Bamboozled / int_bdacb848
 Bamboozled / int_c2393191
type
Show Within a Show
 Bamboozled / int_c2393191
comment
Show Within a Show: "Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show", a television show.
 Bamboozled / int_c2393191
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 Bamboozled / int_c5ef2d50
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Cringe Comedy
 Bamboozled / int_c5ef2d50
comment
Cringe Comedy: The "Mantan" sketches. In an effort to make all of the blackface even more uncomfortable, Spike Lee insisted that all of their jokes be unironically funny.
 Bamboozled / int_c5ef2d50
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 Bamboozled / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out
 Bamboozled / int_c75df49a
comment
Shout-Out: Mantan and Sleep-N-Eat are names of classic minstrel characters. "Two Real Coons" was the tagline of George Walker and Bert Williams, two historic African-American blackface performers. (Sic.) A lot of historic black caricature material is referenced, including Delacroix's Jolly Nigger Bank, a caricatured black head and hand that eats coins. In his rebellious final appearance on the Show Within a Show, Manray speaks pointedly at the audience, and recites an amended version of Howard Beale's "Mad As Hell" rant.
 Bamboozled / int_c75df49a
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Bamboozled / int_c75df49a
 Bamboozled / int_d3b02ffb
type
I Know Your True Name
 Bamboozled / int_d3b02ffb
comment
I Know Your True Name: Sloan invokes it to try and bring "Pierre" back down to earth.
 Bamboozled / int_d3b02ffb
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Bamboozled / int_d3b02ffb
 Bamboozled / int_e07d3d72
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Uncle Tomfoolery
 Bamboozled / int_e07d3d72
comment
Uncle Tomfoolery: A central theme of the film, in which everyone in Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show is a stereotypical black character played for comedy.
 Bamboozled / int_e07d3d72
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 Bamboozled / int_e54fed84
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Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin'
 Bamboozled / int_e54fed84
comment
Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': The whole point of the racist show, was for Delacroix's to offend people and get fired from his job, which he hated.
 Bamboozled / int_e54fed84
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Bamboozled / int_e54fed84
 Bamboozled / int_e796ce97
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Blackface
 Bamboozled / int_e796ce97
comment
Blackface: A central tenet of the film's satire, used as part of Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show and adopted by its fans in public. The film's posters even include photos of the show's leads in costume and a blackface baby taken from a 1920's advertisement.
 Bamboozled / int_e796ce97
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Bamboozled / int_e796ce97
 Bamboozled / int_eb6912
type
Pretty Fly for a White Guy
 Bamboozled / int_eb6912
comment
Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Dunwitty. Also, one of the members of the Mau-Mausnote He is, of course, the only one not to get gunned down by the police..
 Bamboozled / int_eb6912
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 Bamboozled / int_ffad4e9f
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Shown Their Work
 Bamboozled / int_ffad4e9f
comment
Shown Their Work: Done in-universe. The characters producing the minstrel show take pride in replicating the same blackface makeup— mostly burnt cork mixed with cocoa butter— used by the blackface performers of old.
 Bamboozled / int_ffad4e9f
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Bamboozled

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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African-American Media / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Bullet Dancing / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin' / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Mean Boss / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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murder.com / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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N-Word Privileges / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Poe's Law / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Pretty Fly for a White Guy / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Satire / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Socially Unacceptable Collection / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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The Whitest Black Guy / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Verbed Title / int_bb1da73f
 Bamboozled
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Video Inside, Film Outside / int_bb1da73f