What's the worst TV-related Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa (?) gift you've ever received? While you're thinking about which aunt gave you a signed copy of Dharma & Greg season three on VHS (Jenna Elfman's signature hurt the resale value), here's my answer: back in the early 1990s, when the only thing I knew about The Simpsons was that Bart Simpson did the Bartman, one of my uncles gave me a t-shirt with Homer and Marge's only son on it. But something was off — he didn't look like the Bart that had a rep for being rude. He was black.
It was very confusing, though not out of the ordinary — according to Wikipedia (yeah, yeah), at the peak of Bartmania, "The success of Bart merchandise inspired a line of black market counterfeit items, especially T-shirts. Some featured Bart announcing various slogans, others depicted redesigns of the character, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Bart and RastaBart. Matt Groening generally did not object to bootleg merchandise, but took exception to a series of Nazi Bart shirts which depicted Bart in Nazi uniform or as a white power skinhead."
With Christmas around the corner, and Hanukkah already happening, I put together a collection of Black Bart t-shirts and other merchandise from the 1990s. Please don't buy and wear them ironically; it's not a good idea.
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Not Black Bart, BUT STILL. (Via)
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/679/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/the-robot-chicken-team-made-a-couch-gag-for-the-simpsons2-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/simpsons-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/04/simpsons-planet-of-the-apes-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/04/simpsons-breaking-bad-150x150.jpg)
BORT!?!?!
How was this not a Danger Guerrero post?
Jesus christ, I’m not sure if I should be looking at these at work or not. Is black Bart racist?
It’s only racist if it’s not funny.
I absolutely had that TMNT shirt and I hated it, not because it was a black Bart, but because I knew it was a knockoff and the other kids made fun of me.
This gave me a sad.
If I had known it was blackface and not just a terrible shirt, I would have been sadder. Maybe my parents were racist.
Oh 90s. Never change.
I once got a Tommy Pullmyfinger T-shirt featuring Beavis and Butthead.
Holy shit, that’s De La Soul’s Posdnous holding up the shirt in #10.
Plug 1 looks displeased.
Otto, any comments mentioning the mighty De La Soul earns my undying respect
Ha, I clicked on the preview pic thing assuming this was some De La related post.
Don’t worry, DanceGrooves, I’m keepin’ the faith.
OH MAN you’re right. Totally didn’t realize. That’s so cool (breeze on the rocks).
“keepin’ the faith”?…Can we create an Otto Man Awesome Reference badge now
Are those… are those meant to be gold teeth on #2? Racist caricatures aside, how the hell do those work as teeth? They’re wireframes.
Or is this some kind of jewellery I’ve never encountered?
Cleavon Little is the best Black Bart.
Plus eleventy.
Excuse me while I whip this out.
1) YIKES.
2) I didn’t think anything would be more embarrassingly ’90s than those weirdly appropriating hip hop Looney Tunes shirts, but boy, you found it.
Big Johnson Sports would like a word with you.
As would Big Dog.
All I want for Christmas is a limited-edition Nazi Bart Simpson shirt.
The Sampsons … [www.infinitehollywood.com]
And due to that avatar, I thought that was gonna have something to do with Brick Sampson.
Brock’s last name is Samson..Brock Samson…No P.
Well I can’t say it without the P.
Boy, those are… hoo… not good. Actually, I almost like #3, but… mm, yes. People do strange things.
There was also Bart Sanchez. My favorite was him as a low rider with a slick black pompadour saying, “Que pasa vato.” They missed out on that shit in “I love the 90s.”
HOLA, HOLMES!
Haha, I remember seeing one back in the day that had a black Bart stuck in between an obese black woman’s butt cheeks. The text bubble read “Crack kills man!”
This?
Really though, it’s kinda bad though that only positive black character on the show was Bleeding Gums Murphy.
Not that I’m calling the Simpsons racist though, since the show is about both a family and a city that is pretty much entirely Asian.
…why is everyone looking at me that way?
I loved my Black Bart shirt, purchased at the Crenshaw Swapmeet in like 1990 or so. Might be a black thang you wouldn’t understand.