Samuel L. Jackson was not going to let the KTLA reporter who mistook him for Laurence Fishburne get off the hook too easily.
When Jackson appeared on the morning talk show on Monday to promote his new film Robocop, the entertainment news anchor, Sam Rubin, asked about Jackson’s Super Bowl commercial last weekend.
There’s only one slight problem – Jackson never did a Super Bowl commercial. Laurence Fishburne did.
“You’re as crazy as the people on Twitter,” Jackson said when the anchor realized his mistake.
The anchor apologized quickly after acknowledging his blunder, but Jackson wasn’t going to let him off of the hook without getting a few laughs at the anchor’s expense.
“I’m not Laurence Fishburne,” he told the anchor. “We don’t all look alike. We may be Black and famous, but we don’t all look alike!”
Other reporters off-screen took part in the laugh as Jackson continued to help Rubin distinguish between all the Black men who are doing commercials.
When the anchor tried to redirect the conversation back to “Robocop,” Jackson replied with, “Oh hell no. Really? Really?”
“I’m the ‘What’s in your wallet?’ Black guy,” he explained. “He’s the car Black guy. Morgan Freeman is the other credit card Black guy.”
He then told the anchor that only Freeman’s voice is heard in the commercial, so he probably won’t mistake him for Fishburne.
The anchor continued to try to redirect the conversation, but the jokes weren’t done yet.
“There’s a heavier weight Black guy who’s like putting cash down in the seats in a baseball stadium, but he’s also the Black guy that turns off the house, the water and the lights when his kids tells him the house is cool,” he added. “I’m not that guy either, though.”
Finally, Jackson brings it home when he tells the anchor that he’s “actually never done a McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. I know that’s surprising.”
With a few more jokes slyly popping up later in the interview, Jackson did get around to answering questions about the new film.
Shortly after the segment ended, Rubin faced the camera and delivered a short apology for anyone he may have offended for making a “rookie mistake.”
The on-air exchange has sparked interesting debates about whether or not the anchor was racist for the misidentification of his guest, but it’s important to note that Jackson took on the entire exchange in a light-hearted manner and never seemed to accuse of the anchor of racism, by any means.
Instead, Jackson criticized the anchor for his lack of knowledge and for simply not doing his “homework.”
You can view the full exchange between Jackson and Rubin below:
