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Jazz is Will's best friend in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He is first introduced as Ashley's drum instructor, but since then, Jazz has supposedly become best friends with Will. The character of Jazz is portrayed by Will Smith's real life best friend and musical partner, D.J. Jazzy Jeff.
Jazz is commonly thrown out of the house by Will's Uncle Phil, sometimes by Will and once by Hilary, Geoffrey and Vivian (separately). One time, Jazz tells Philip that the joke was on him as he can't throw him out because he was already standing outside of the house, but he grabbed him and throws him inside the house. Jazz married a woman Jewel and supposedly had a baby with her, but this was only mentioned in one episode. Jazz and Jewel eventually got divorced. Jazz has also always liked Hilary, but Hilary almost always turns him down. Jazz can be seen without his sunglasses during a date with Hilary, although Hilary was blackmailed to date him. Jazz's best friend is Will Smith in the series. He is portrayed by DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Trivia[]
- Jazz almost always appears with Will in scenes though there have been a few episodes where the two don't share scenes such as "Boyz in the Woods" (where Will is on a camping trip but Jazz shows up to win over Hilary) and "Will's Misery" (where he is revealed to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's caddie.)
- He has a massive crush on Hilary even though Hilary doesn't feel the same way about him.
- During his wedding, Hilary confessed to loving him, to his shock but she ran away after saying so.
- Uncle Phil doesn't like him, and throwing him out of the Banks' house is a running gag.
- Uncle Phil and Will have also been on the receiving end of the throwing gag, though Uncle Phil's version was actually in a nightmare that Will had.
- Whenever Jazz is thrown out of the house, he is usually wearing the same clothes. This is because it was decided to use the same clip of Jazz being thrown out the front door as often as possible rather than returning to the exterior location each time (to cut down on production costs). The reuse of stock footage is evidenced by the sudden noise of a sprinkler whenever Jazz is thrown out. However, in a couple of instances, Jazz is thrown out of the house with different clothing.
- At the beginning of the episode "Cased Up", a nighttime version of the shot is used, with crickets as a sound effect. though the actual video of Jazz getting thrown out is the usual stock footage simply darkened for effect.
- Though Jazz hates being thrown out, there have been a few occasions where Jazz has wanted to be purposely thrown out. In the episode "Eyes on the Prize", he uses this as a one-up towards Tyriq as while Tyriq has to walk to his car, he can get there much faster by taunting Uncle Phil and being thrown out and in the episode "Here Comes the Judge" he asks for Will to throw him out for old times sake before he goes off the college.
- In one episode, Jazz actually throws HIMSELF out! "Chill, Uncle Phil! I'LL do it!
- On several occasions, the person throwing him out has varied: Will, Hilary, and Geoffrey.
- Phil once speculated that Jazz may not be his real name but it's never confirmed.
- His sister is his only relative seen, though he has referenced other relatives.