“A PIMP, A ho, and a drug dealer walk into a bar,” says one character in They Cloned Tyrone, writer-director Juel Taylor’s conspiracy thriller/comedy/cautionary tale. It should be noted that the person making this statement is white, racist as hell, and works for a shady branch of the government that you won’t find on the books anywhere. He’s also played by a well-known actor, whose identity we won’t spoil. The villain is describing the film’s trio of heroes, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), and Fontaine (John Boyega) — all of whom someone might have respectively (and very reductively) described as a peddler of flesh, a woman of the night, and a pharmaceutical entrepreneur. Because this is uttered at the movie’s halfway point, we know they contain multitudes. But in this bad guy’s eyes, and maybe to some blinkered viewers as well, they’re simply manufactured caricatures. Or maybe stereotypes.
