Could You Pass This 1969 Ghetto Jive Talk Test? Could MSM Present This Prime time Special Today?
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- Опубликовано: 12 окт 2024
- This is a very unusual 1969 national television special. PBS prime time.It presents a 10 question test for middle class Americans, black and white, to see if they know the language of the ghetto. Jive talk. The early days of rap. Charlie Parker. Mohamed Ali. Etc.
1969 was a very tense time in America between black Americans and white Americans with the rise of the black power movement and other movements that were not nonviolent as Martin Luther King was and preached. And there were hundreds of riots in 1968 after Martin Luther King was murdered. Including a major riot in Los Angeles Watts neighborhood.
At the time, this program was considered experimental. I was one of the filmmakers who made episodes for it.
The host is Roscoe Lee Brown, an American character actor and theatrical director. He is perhaps best known for his role as Saunders in Soap or for his role on NBC's The Cosby Show.
At the time, the word hip was often used to describe you as someone who knew the culture and the language of the ghetto - ghetto talk, jive talk - you were "hip."
I’m interested to hear from my subscribers who take this test now. And as I mentioned in my title, do you feel that this program could, would or should be presented on prime time television in a contemporary form raising contemporary questions.
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“Oh stewardess. I speak jive.”
-June Cleaver
Did you have the fish or chicken
Yes!!🤣👍
This scene from "Airplane!" immediately came to mind, I see I'm not the only one who thought of it:
ruclips.net/video/2DfrnqEbTzg/видео.html
Cut me some slack Jack!
What it is big momma papa didn't raise no dummy don't slap me a rap!
Local vernaculars are a key thing to every community. Every country, every state, every city has their own. Your folk films taught me a lot about how wide of a range that can be.
nice pfp
“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted 30 years of his life.”
~Muhammad Ali
He changed it to 60 in 2002 when David Frost interviewed him.
@@drumtwo4seven He developed severe Parkinson's as a result of his fight with Larry Holmes, which he should never have undertaken. That was an unwise decision but by fifty I would bet serious money that he had evolved considerably from thirty years before (in a positive way mentally, in a negative way physically).
… this devils “world” “system” will always be shit.. doesn’t matter my age.
Wish there were still shows like this around. Super interesting from start to finish
So happy to hear that. Thank you.
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker Maybe you can start one? Make a reel of your footage and try and create a show that looks at a clip from then, then attempts to re-create using modern day topics of discussion.
Aamir M RUclips commenter and David Hoffman fan
I passed like the old lady from the movie Airplane ✈️no jive 🦃
😊
Cut me some slack, Jack, I dug his rap!
Awesome and amazing. I remember trying so hard to make “Keep on truckin!” and “Hey Brutha!” sound cool. It was a painful 6th grade... Thank you, Mr Hoffman. You are a preservationist and curator of incredible note.
I still say “keep on truckin’”, and “gotta boogie”. Im still “uncool” after all these years.
@@brianfergus839 lol I'm adding this to my vocabulary
Thoroughly enjoyed this. The presenter's voice & diction sounded very much like Sir Trevor McDonald, who read the news and made television programmes here in the UK for decades.
I could listen to this man talk all day! It's so crazy to see a presenter smoking like that. Smoking used to be so much more prevalent and accepted, it's amazing the change during my lifetime.
Love your channel bro I’m Jamaican from Brooklyn n your channel is so nostalgic I get flashbacks keep uploading 💫💫💫💫
It's so fun, Roscos's marvelous accent, as opposed to the subject matter!
And, what great comments!
Thanks again Mr. Hoffman!
He's really cool.
Juneteenth is FINALLY a federal holiday in the US. But this test is a little old for me. I got four wrong. Some expressions has changed a bit.
Same here. I would have thought the term 'hip' had died out by 1969 and was replaced by 'down'. As in "I'm down with that". Kind of in the same lines as "I'm hip".
@@riverraisin1 it's hip to be square
Square!
Smoking wasn't the no-no it is now. Man...I remember this from back in the day. Thanks for sharing
8 out of 10 and I'm not American and I wasn't born yet. That's how much black culture has permeated the consciousness of the world
Wow, nice.
Ok I think this gentleman was in " The Cowboys" , movie as the cook on the cattle drive, he talks and looks just like him!, am i right???
Yes! I wasn't a John Wayne fan, but I love that movie, and Mr Brown was brilliant in his role.
His voice his diction is recognizable. And just like Earl Jones, who also has a disthuishable voice
He was in several things although I can't think of them right now. He reminded me of sidney poitier
Roscoe Lee Brown was a big star!
Proud to be a blood, jive descendent😇
Wonderful bit of film ,smoking cigarette so laid back Brother👌
An amazing insight into a another time of fear, instability and divisiveness. This attempt to bridge the divide is truly remarkable. We could well learn how to do that today.
I am hip ! Thank you David for sharing an important part of history!
Of topic I know but it's strange to see someone on TV with a smoke in his hand. Great video.
I live all my life in Louisville Kentucky were Ali is born and raised, his grave is in the Cave hill cemetery like all the other famous celebrities that pass away and get the choice or the money to be buried in a plot at the cemetery. He very well known here in Louisville Kentucky his boy hood Jefferson county home and state. Thanks for sharing video...much appreciated David Hoffman film maker.👍👍🙂
So good! Thank you for sharing ♥️
6 out of 10. Could it be presented today? Maybe, but not with a cig on the go.
Same score for me. For a white guy who grew up in the sticks in the 80s and 90s taking a test on urban black people in the 60s, I think I did alright.
Ah man this is a treasure for the current era to remember how the Black Culture was before the current culture. This talk/Culture isn't really dead or gone but has turned into a subculture within the community. This was my father's culture and it rubbed off on me and mixed with 80s/90s Culture. I think they call my generation Xennials, a mixture of the two.
Fellow xennial here 👍🏼👍🏼
The preamble and the questions should also be in jive if it's intended to flip the script on standardized tests like he said in the beginning.
Am gonna cop this video ya dig? He was an underrated actor.
Wow....seeing Roscoe Lee Brown brought up a lot of nostalgia for me. Even after all these years, his voice and persona is unforgettable.
Thank you David, for this interesting film. Idk if TV is ready for this or not, but I am always captivated by the voice of Roscoe Lee Brown. During the 1969 era, I was likely considered hip due to my youth, growing up in a multi cultural public school system. My heart broke when Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, knowing him as a godly man trying to pull people together instead of being a biased divider from any side, race or or political party. I was definitely enjoying his speeches, along with other young classmates. As a young girl, he seemed to me to be a peaceful, unbiased man, so like many people who think like that, it seemed to me he was crucified for teaching love not hate. His works follow after him. As a teenager, Mohammad Ali was my favorite boxer. Idk why interest in heavy weight boxing fell by the way side, except perhaps it was a sport of our generation that aged out along with the retirement of Ali, George Foreman, etc. Similar to the Nascar craze has floundered after the death of Dale Earnhardt, although that wasn’t something I put much time in personally. The older I get, the less interest I pay towards sports heroes, but still feel a connection to Ali now that I’m fighting Parkinson’s myself. He held in there a very long time & I admire his strength fighting that last heavyweight opponent, as it’s a worthy advisory. To the best of my knowledge it remains undefeated. Fortunately, I have never cooked chittlin, being a food I’ve only tried once & didn’t care for LoL.
Thank you, David Hoffman Filmmaker. Your films are always an interesting pleasure. Happy weekend. ~
....and as we now know African-American became the term used.
Why would we assume the U.S. would respect black people's choice?
It’s an intentional effort to divide us as not all being “American”. We’re less American if we’re “African American”, “Hispanic American”, “Asian American”: puts other countries before America.
Part of the communist “divide and conquer” initiative. When we were all Americans we were all patriots - no matter what color or national origin…
As a white person no one refers to me as “European American”. And I’m glad. I’m American.
I live at 125th and Broadway and it’s heartbreaking to see the fall from the once proud neighborhood to the litter-strewn place it is now. Look back then..men in hats and jackets, women in dresses and gloves.
Man, I only got 8 of 10 correct. But I was not raised in NYC. Good film, as usual David. Oh, as for MSM I would say they would not touch it in this original format and time culture content.
Roscoe Lee Browne has this wonderful narrator voice and he did pop up everywhere in small roles on TV. Nice one to take out of the time capsule. Language changes all the time and it's good so 😊
The distinctive voice of Roscoe Lee Brown had always fascinated me, I could sit around and listen to him all day. this was very cool. would love to see more if this type of programming on television now adays. I got 6 out of 10 questions rights. Thanks David Hoffman and Roscoe Lee Brown for your excellent body of work.
Before watching: no, I couldn’t. But I’ll see what I can do. And I’m a black man from LA
-My parents talk different from me and my friends. This was fun.
123 I got right
4 wrong
5 right on a guess because it was so different from the other answers it stood out
6, I said D
7 went with Leroy Jones because of the commonality with the Jones. Never heard of him. Good man.
8. It must’ve been C but the connotation has changed.
9. I can barely cook to save myself so I missed it. Never had chitterlings. My mom likes hogs feet, never tried it.
10. Easy because I knew it. This test was brilliant and I enjoyed it.
It's good that people keep tract of the culture at different moments in time.
Roscoe Lee Browne appeared in many tv shows of the 1970's. I remember him clearly in an episode of Sanford & Son. He was great in that.
Good times too
@@RellyRell-ud3iz and Barney Miller
There was once ebonics, which was considered an optional language.
Apparently the title that was massively rejected, is ironically the term accepted AND pushed today, testament to how nonsensical language, & emotional reactions to the same can be
I was four years old when this was made. I took the test and got 7 out of 10 correct. This is very intriguing. One question I got wrong was the handkerchief question. When I was in my teens and twenties wearing a handkerchief on your head had changed meaning and was considered hip and not an "Uncle Tom" thing anymore. Ironically almost anyone under the age of 40 whether Black, White, Asian, or Hispanic would not pass this test. Too much has changed.
Looks like I just missed the 'almost' group with a score of 6.
I was born in 89. 32. But, unique situation. My pop was from Kentucky. But.... from the time he was in L.A. until he came to AZ as a musician in 82, he was always part of the black community. (He's white, I'm white, both musicians. He was the one guy allowed into clubs when it was a more *hip* night).... As for getting the questions right, I don't feel a need to say.... but if anyone asks, I guess I'll share anyway. (Rather not, as some people don't feel a need to compete, but I wanna avoid those who do. :/ )
" Oh, stewardess...I speak jive "
Airplane!😆
I got the first one wrong. I thought “He’s down” made more sense than he’s hip but then I forgot it was about to be the 70s.
I remember Roscoe Lee Browne from the Cosby Show!!! Man, I love his voice and demeanor. To this day I still quote one of his lines from the Cosby Show. Whenever there's something to be excited for, I'll say that I'm "trembling with anticipation". haha
Growing up we had regular talk and then what I call jive talk. Can you dig it? Some folks weren't hip on it though, they were a real spaz. We also said a lot of "yo momma" jokes. E.g., "Yo momma's teeth are so yellow, she ain't gotta' butter her corn!"
Now I have to understand why African American was considered "schizoid" whereas Afro-American was preferred.
Roscoe Lee Brown speaking the King's English with a strong mid-Atlantic accent seems to always provoke the European American to make a commentary in support of it - as though there is actual value to it. There is not.
In regard to the Mid-Atlantic accent, it is noted: It is not a native or regional accent; rather, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so".
A lot of old Hollywood actors had it. I think they learned it on a yacht in Rio de Janeiro
Reminds me of back in the late 80s, the Huey Lewis song "It's Hip To Be Square" idk what planet that was cool on? Probably same planet "Huey" was a cool rock n' roll name😆✌
Maaaan i loved the old school days man. I was born 10 years after, but many of the mannerisms carried on into the 80's and 90's. Look at how he is sitting, like a gentleman. reminds me of my grandfather, with perfect english and well dressed and groomed and very confident demeanor. AND my favorite part is back then, we could smoke anywhere. I remember going with my grandmother to the government building where my grandfather worked. And he would have an ashtray full of cigs on his desk in his office. Granted he was the Comptroller of Inland Revenue at the time, that kind of thing is unheard of now. smoking indoors? But thats not important. I love seeing how respectable we looked and acted. Even in the inner city. Ladies dressed like ladies. Was refeshing seeing real women and not seeing any weaves and nails etc. lovely program.
I got nine right but then I was around back in those days. Extra credit for recognizing Stokely Carmichael who didn't get a mention in this clip.
💯 !!!! DAMN, I'M REDOING MY DNA TEST ! 💪 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
Bruh this is awesome. This like growing up at Roosevelt high but everything is newer
I am a white young adult who has grown up in some pretty diverse communities. 6 of 10. Some questions are very esoteric nowadays, while a lot has remained the same. Very intriguing. Thank you David.
According to wikipedia, Roscoe Lee Browne would have been 100 years old tomorrow (May 2).
I got everyone of these correct! I am definitely hip! That's for sure. People always tell me I should go into a game show because I get many questions correct not only from knowledge but also from deduction even if it is petty talk shows or game shows or reality TV, I just go by pure deduction but this is stuff that I actually know from hearing in the streets and living in the ghetto growing up as a child in the eighties
Me too! The only one I hadn't heard before was "handkerchief head", but I guess it correctly by thinking about Aunt Jemima and "Mammy". It's disgusting that Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima were stereotypically used to sell products until very recently. There are still to many people who don't understand why those images are insulting.
Roscoe Lee Brown was a great actor. I remember him from several Norman Lear sitcoms like "The Jeffersons" and "All in the Family", and his brilliant role in "The Cowboys", a John Wayne movie.
@@LazyIRanch I grew up in Rhode Island but then I moved to Maine the main and Rhode Island was full of crime and very diverse! I mean I heard everything from the youth all the way up to the elders and my grandfather came from a poor community in Pennsylvania and they often used racial slurs and also stereotypes and he carried it with him over to Boston where he ended up moving and I used to hear it all the time constantly... Until he saw that my sister was dating a black man and now they are happily married almost 10 years later😁🥰. Sorry for the consistent long run on sentences, I prefer to use talk to text on this wretched device.
@@LazyIRanch I have never heard that term. Uncle Tom, yes
@@JJLewis-so1iq Uncle toms cabin ? Which was rewritten to make Tom look bad . He was actually a hero in the original script .
@@daedae1522 honestly, I may have read it in middle school in the 70s. I went through a period of reading the classics. I don't remember the book but, like most things, people will put a negative connotation on things. I just know it's a bad word and used for someone who cowtows to the white man.
Im 60 and grew up in Alabama and got 7 out of 10, cool video
"I'm sorry. I don't speak jive." ~
From the movie, AIRPLANE!, 1980.
This was fantastic. Im trying to place the gentlemans accent? Also noticed smoking on set.
Greetings from Missouri !
6 outta 10 ... sadly Thanks again, Mr. Hoffman ! 301 thumbs UP PEACE
even harlem looked cleaner than any major city in america now, lol, we're collapsing, and fast
Thanks!
David Hoffman is having a good Sunday in some ways but working very hard for not very many views today Lucie, so your support has extra meaning for me and I am smiling right now as I sit here at my computer at work. I think I'll quit and watch some dopey TV. I'm sure you understand what I mean.
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker Too dopey myself these days! Elaine has been a companion, I'm not proud of my sloth.
All days your posts bring joy to so many!!!!
I remember him from an episode of All in the Family.
That is So interesting to me that they mentioned Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben back in 1969 and they just changed it today.
Yes! And also how Juneteenth just recently became a paid holiday.
Just watched this again and I made a rhyme to myself and I thought of Muhammad Ali and being in the present time and what he would have said about all of this that is still going on and I said to myself... "There is no way that that man's IQ was only 78...noooo wayyyy."
I see a few other cool cats also thought "down" was acceptable for number one. ✌️
I thought "Juneteenth" was a Holiday that was proposed recently, I didn't know people talked about it the the 60's!
8 right, the dice and June 19th got me 😞
Enjoyed
This "test" is given by "Jebediah Nightlinger," a man who will live in the hearts of the true "Cowboys" forever.
Love this guy's voice.
Roscoe has such a wonderful voice
I got an eight! Still pretty “with it” for an old white guy. I missed the chitlins and Ahmad Jamal questions. The poll (and particularly his opinion on the term “African American”) at the end was interesting.
it amuses me to think that's a joint he's smoking. Classy af
Remember the Good Times episode where Michael refused to take the school's IQ test because he felt is was biased? Anyway, I surprised myself by only getting 6/10. BTW, I love Rosco Lee Brown!!!
Well I passed . Got the chitlin one as I remembered as a kid all us kids stayed out of the house when my granny cooked those. Good ideas here to think about.
Man o man, my ghetto IQ is borderlined at best, but when it comes to Chitlins, i'm spot on.😁😋. Like black folk all over the U.S., White Central Texans are mostly raised on Greens, mostly poke salad in the summer, fried everything, corn dogger, ham hocks, hog knuckles, pickled pigs feet, best barbeque on the planet, and good ol peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream. Uuiewweeee, hot dang!! Granny B is ringing the bell, chuck is on, you chucks!!! 😋. Learned something else new too, Mr H, I had no Idea Mr. brown AKA. Mr. Nightlinger from the Cowboys was Brit!! 😱😱 Now i know why he told the story of his daddy becoming king so magnificently like he did!!😁😁 Thank for another great flick, scene slinger, Good to be back riding shotgun with ya Mr. H. And the rest if the gang as well. Hi ya everyone👍👍.
I need you. Folks riding shotgun. What a supportive and positive idea!
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker yes sir, you bet!!! We are with you for the long hall, Scene Slinger!👍👍
That's the funny thing about the south. We've lived along side each other and adopted so much from each other, it's only when we venture outside the south do we learn that this thing or that thing comes from the other group's culture.
It’s so interesting to see him smoke a cigarette while doing this. It really was commonplace.
I only missed one, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since this test was made, and a whole lot of new words and sayings have come and gone between then and now. I wasn’t aware of Jamal’s “slave name”. It is fascinating to see programming like this, as I’m certain it would not happen today. Thank you David for your store of history of the people, I often find it more interesting than the broader sweep of history.🖤🇨🇦
He actually said “times up massah” when referring to an Uncle Tom in the quiz. Oddly enough, he wasn’t even offensive about it. Just educational and respectful. That is no easy feat. This would be nearly Impossible in 2024.
I’m not referring specifically to race at all in 2024. I just mean in general.
I'm a 65 year old boomer and I passed it. ;-)
"I passed, the test that is" .....🔥
brought me back to Talib Kweli's lyrics from Four Women, an interpretation of nina simons song of the same name. goes like this:
"Livin' a century, the strength of her memories
Felt like an angel had been sent to me
She lived from nigga, to colored, to negro, to black,
To afro, then african-american, and right back to nigga."
Hurts me more today than when i was 13 when i first heard both songs. the norm a few years ago was POC(People of COLOR), colored again and everyone ok with it... and today we back to straight N-word type ish.
If you watched Black Dynamite or The Boondocks, most of these terms came up.
Black slang increasingly has become mainstream American slang used by everyone. A lot of this slang from 1969 was common place 20 years later in 1989. 90s black slang like "da bomb" and "in da house" is basic everyday verbage now used by White people. Black slang is always looked down upon, and also always cool at the same time.
Dave Chappelle did a skit off this idea.
I'm not as hip as I tought I was; or perhaps, used to be. 😿
I do remember Roscoe Lee Brown quite well though.
Well Dave I suck, 60%, I guess you can tell I’ve never lived in the ghetto.
I got around 7 right!... Either that means I'm hip or I have watched a LOT of television and movies.
I really enjoyed this
Today the current black us population is 12.4% down from 2017 12.6%. And DAT knot bee write!!
I'm sad that there isn't a definitive source for learning Jive.
Where I grew up a Square was a cigarette
This might be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen……
I got six correct despite growing up in central Kansas during the 1990s. I didn't get the jazz question right, however.
I am square but I hoped for better than 4 right. I guess it can't be helped. Squares have four sides.
😆
Old (60+) white dude here... I got 8 right, but one of them was a guess. I missed Juneteenth (thought that was anniversary of emancipation... ) and the musician changing his name. I think the racial divide is a lot smaller today than it was then, despite all the friction one hears in the media. It's just not there all that much in "real life".
U dont know where you live but many say its worse than back then...Says people from your generation..and older
Always the cigarettes back then.
I'd like to congratulate all the wyppo who got the 50+ year old slang correct, y'all really are hip lol
Speechless
5 out of 10 with two second choices as the right answer and I would think this could be shown today although the ghetto terminology has changed.
Thought this was parody at first.
It's rather tongue-in-cheek.
So cool how he created this.
He's was soooooo testing everyone.
When you could smoke on tv lol
Anyone that thinks and talks like this is just trying to stir up a mess
This is gold LOL
Other than missing the one on Ahmad Jamal (doh!, should have got that because I love jazz) I got them all. Guessed lucky on chitlins, as I've never had them or cooked them. What I found interesting was that Roscoe Lee Brown was smoking during the show, and that in the final bit on how to self-identify, the most popular was Afro-American (albeit, the "youth" preferred African-American). Thus it appears that the youth have set that tone, at least. Also, so much of that "hip" slang was rapidly incorporated into white society as it is today. The black culture seems to be constantly reinventing itself culturally (music, film, comedy, and especially slang), yet whites keep appropriating it. With so much of culture being commercialized these days, I wonder if a similar questionnaire could be given? Or one about Asians, Hispanics, other minority groups?
the first one could be down too, i.e I'm down etc