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The Walking Dead: Black or Zombie?
The setup
The premise
Here’s the bit.
Rick Grimes and his fellow survivors meet Lyle while searching for a safe place to spend the night. They agree to let him stay, then notice clear signs that he has been infected. Lyle treats their suspicions as racial prejudice, prompting increasingly desperate explanations for his gait, behavior and missing foot. Even his attack on Maggie fails to break the group’s resolve to be accepting. Carl finally shoots him when he lunges for them, leaving the relieved survivors to move on while Maggie’s death receives little attention.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 7
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
It’s called swag, son.
Diabetes.
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.

Edi Patterson
Writer
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:05
Rick Grimes
Alright. We'll camp out here for the night and head back to the others in the morning. Be careful. This place is probably crawling with walkers.
- 00:12
Daryl Dixon
You got it, Rick.
- 00:13
Carl Grimes
Dad, you want me to take first watch? I'm 12 now, so I'm totally ready to kill. I'm good at killing, and I feel emotionally fine after I do it.
- 00:22
What's that? Oh, it's coming from over there.
- 00:24
Lyle
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, listen, please don't shoot. I'm not a zombie. Don't shoot me, okay?
- 00:28
Rick Grimes
Who are you?
- 00:30
Lyle
Uh, my name is Lyle, and I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to survive the freakin zombie apocalypse
- 00:35
Rick Grimes
have you been bitten
- 00:36
Lyle
what no man? I'm good. I'm clean look We can help each other.
- 00:40
Rick Grimes
I need to conference with my group.
- 00:42
Lyle
Okay.
- 00:42
Rick Grimes
We don't just accept anybody all right All right, we've decided to let you camp with us tonight But know this Lyle if you get bitten by a walker I will not hesitate to kill you
- 01:00
Carl Grimes
or I'll do it I shot my own mom when she was turning into a zombie, and it didn't screw up my head at all.
- 01:06
Lyle
Okay. No, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Literally, you won't regret this. You know, letting me stay in here is-is really gonna... is really gonna be a grrrr!
- 01:15
Rick Grimes
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on!
- 01:18
Lyle
What's wrong? What's going on, y'all? What's up?
- 01:21
Rick Grimes
You're one of them.
- 01:23
Lyle
Excuse me? One of them? Oh, my God. No, this is so racist right now.
- 01:31
Rick Grimes
Well, no, no, we're not racist. No, it just seemed like you were turning into a zombie.
- 01:36
Lyle
Oh, okay, I see. I see how it is. So when someone comes from a different cultural background than you, they're automatically a zombie, that's what you're telling me?
- 01:43
Rick Grimes
No, no, okay, all right, come on. That's definitely not what I meant. Maggie, why don't you take our new friend to get some water?
- 01:49
Maggie Greene
Sure. Follow me, Lyle.
- 01:51
Lyle
Thank you very much.
- 01:52
Ah!
- 01:54
Daryl Dixon
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You didn't have a bum leg. when we first met you did you fella
- 01:59
Lyle
okay you ain't never seen a classic pimp walk before it's called swag son get a look at it swag swag
- 02:12
Maggie Greene
i'm really sorry i'm sorry come with me we'll get you that water
- 02:15
Daryl Dixon
okay well this is uncomfortable not to sound racist
- 02:19
Rick Grimes
well i gotta stop you there buddy just starting a sentence with not to sound racist means you're probably about to say something super racist
- 02:25
Carl Grimes
dad he's He's eating Maggie!
- 02:28
Rick Grimes
You get off of her!
- 02:30
Lyle
Hey, what's up, homie? What's going on?
- 02:34
Daryl Dixon
You're eating our friend.
- 02:36
Lyle
Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Would you rather I just eat some fried chicken or some watermelon?
- 02:41
Daryl Dixon
Whoa, I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry. Usually really cool.
- 02:45
Rick Grimes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, uh, hey, bro, you just do your thing. Nah, I'm sorry, that one's trying too hard.
- 02:54
Daryl Dixon
Well, we're terrible people.
- 02:55
Carl Grimes
Dad, that guy's a zombie. I mean, come on, he's doing the Thriller dance.
- 03:03
Rick Grimes
Carl, Thriller is a very special dance for many African Americans.
- 03:07
Carl Grimes
What about that?
- 03:11
Lyle
Uh... Like I can't have a white friend?
- 03:15
Carl Grimes
This is ridiculous, Dad. His foot fell off.
- 03:19
Lyle
Diabetes.
- 03:22
Rick Grimes
See? Diabetes. Are you embarrassed? You should be. Carl, we're going to accept Lyle with all his differences.
- 03:30
Lyle
Ah, white people brains!
- 03:32
Ah!
- 03:35
Carl Grimes
Told you he was a zombie.
- 03:37
Rick Grimes
Good work, Carl.
- 03:38
Knew we weren't racist.
- 03:40
Rick Grimes
Let's move.
- 03:40
Daryl Dixon
Guys, can we discuss the fact that Maggie just died? Is that...
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
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