Geraldine Jones is a fictional African American character and the most famous recurring persona of comedian Flip Wilson.

[1][2][3][4] Geraldine was played by Wilson in drag, as a sassy and liberated Southern woman who was coarsely flirty yet faithful to her (unseen) boyfriend "Killer".

[1] Wilson said he wanted Geraldine to be strong, proud, and honest in her dedication to her man; a woman who felt free to act spontaneously.

[2] In the skit, comedian Jonathan Winters, dressed in drag as his popular character Maude Frickert—a gray-haired lady with a sharp tongue—was a passenger in an airliner.

Wilson's Geraldine character entered, walking down the jet's aisle in a stewardess's miniskirt, and a bouffant flip hairdo topped by a pillbox hat.

Geraldine was cast in skits with a number of guests on the show, including David Frost, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lily Tomlin (playing Ernestine), Joe Namath, Jim Brown, Arte Johnson, Moms Mabley, Sammy Davis Jr., Tim Conway, Ray Charles, Lola Falana, Perry Como and Muhammad Ali.

The character of Geraldine has been compared to previous depictions of fictional African American women, from Hattie McDaniel's silver screen portrayal of "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind (1939), to television's Sapphire Stevens, the wife of Kingfish on the Amos 'n' Andy show, played by Ernestine Wade in the 1950s.

[15] Wilson contributed to U.S. culture in several ways, for instance by helping to popularize Pigmeat Markham's earlier catchphrase, "Here come da judge,"[18] and by introducing to a wider audience the practice of prearranged complex handshakes combined with the bumping of hips and elbows,[9] but his Geraldine character's influence was greater.

Geraldine has influenced subsequent fictional characters, notably Martin's Sheneneh Jenkins, played by Martin Lawrence in the 1990s; In Living Color's Wanda Wayne, played by Jamie Foxx in the early '90s; Ella Mitchell's Hattie Mae Pierce, the title role of the 2000 film Big Momma's House; and Tyler Perry's recurring character Madea (1999–present).