Is that some sort of racial reference? I don’t get it.
I think it's a Martian reference from an old Looney Tunes cartoon.
I didn’t expect you to get it. No, it’s not intended merely as a racial joke, although I view it as a happy accident that Marvin and Alan are both black. I think they are both someone small of stature (i.e., short), aren’t they? And they both have annoying nasally voices, delusions of grandeur, with nothing to back it up. Marvin the Martian is a small, verbose crackpot. Oh yea, and he’s black too.