3. "Sassy/Lazy/Food Obsessed African American"
This is probably the most insulting, unfair stereotype on this list, but this description fits for Mercedes, at least for the most part. I love the character and she has proved to be much less lazy toward the end of season 3, but episodes have been devoted to her love of Tater Tots in which she imagined that people were food and want to eat them. In the great episode devoted to Mercedes in Season 3 (Asian F) Mr Schue has a go at her for oversleeping and not putting enough effort into rehearsals like her white friends, and that from day one Mercedes has been nothing but a diva. Some could argue that the fact that Mercedes says what is on her mind, is confident and sassy, and demands solos (but never gets them) are strong character attributes to have- and a lot of the time they are, for example when she sings "Beautiful" in front of the whole school or tells Sue that she shouldn't have to loose weight to be cheerleader. However you would have a difficult time arguing that this was a tricky character to come up with in the development stage. Ryan Murphy probably just said "overweight, African-America diva" and this is pretty much what Mercedes is for the most part. We never get to meet even one of her parents (like we do with most of the other seniors) and know very little of her back-story which unfortunately makes a character that could have been so interesting, into one of the least developed, boring characters on the show. Mercedes deserved a lot more than just a stereotype. Her boyfriend Shane, one of the only other black cast members was obese and did very little to change this overused, insulting representation.