In a recent episode of Joepardy a contestant got dinged because he mispronounced the word ‘gangsta’. Fortunately Coolio is on hand to help those of us who are not versed in hip-hop slang.
This reminded me of the scene from the film Airplane!.
Barbara Billingsley, who was famous for having played the suburban mother on the sit-com Leave it to Beaver, says that she was recruited for this film precisely because it contrasted so strongly with her previous role, and discusses how she learned to talk jive for that scene.
In the movie Meet Joe Black there a scene in a hospital where an elderly white woman who is dying suddenly ‘speaks’ Patois to Brad Pitt’s character, but unfortunately the actor is clearly miming, which spoils the scene somewhat.
The Coolio sketch is funny. What’s not funny is the reaction any of those pasty white dudes would get if they ever dared utter any of those words, in that style, in the presence of (or Bod forbid to) a person of colour.