In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more common white; these sheep stand out in the flock and their wool is worth less as it will not dye.

The term has typically been given negative implications, implying waywardness.

The term originated from the occasional black sheep which are born into a flock of white sheep. Black wool is considered commercially undesirable because it cannot be dyed. In 18th and 19th century England, the black color of the sheep was seen as the mark of the devil. In modern usage, the expression has lost some of its negative connotations, though the term is usually given to the member of a group who has certain characteristics or lack thereof deemed undesirable by that group. Jessica Mitford described herself as "the red sheep of the family", a communist in a family of aristocratic fascists.

There is an old wives tale saying that if the first lamb of the lambing season is born black, it is an omen that the farm will face hardship that year. However, an aversion can come with the views of black lambs by Sussex shepards, who view them as a sign of good things to come due to relative rarity of natural black wool.

The idiom is also found in other languages, e.g. German, Finnish, French, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Catalan, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Ukrainian and Polish. During the Second Spanish Republic a weekly magazine named El Be Negre, meaning 'The Black Sheep', was published in Barcelona.

The same concept is illustrated in some other languages by the phrase "white crow": for example, belaya vorona (бе́лая воро́на) in Russian and kalāg-e sefīd (کلاغ سفید) in Persian.

In most sheep, a white fleece is not caused by albinism but by a common dominant gene that switches color production off, thus obscuring any other color that may be present. A black fleece is caused by a recessive gene, so if a white ram and a white ewe are each heterozygous for black, about one in four of their lambs will be black. In most white sheep breeds, only a few white sheep are heterozygous for black, so black lambs are usually much rarer than this.

In children's media, the idiom are taken literally. For example, "Black Sheep" from Looney Tunes, Blackie the Lamb, Blacko Black Sheep, Snowball the Black Sheep, etc.

The most well-known black sheep is Baa Baa, from the nursery rhyme of the same name, which inspired several characters such as Baba the Black Sheep.

All published appearances of the Black Sheep from before January 1, )-(95)}} are public domain in the US.

Notable appearances are listed below:

*Jolly Jingles #10, 12-13
* Animal Comics #7-17
* Giggle Comics #9
* Ha Ha Comics #8
* Four Color Comics #41, 818
* Coo Coo Comics #18
* Goofy Comics #1

*Little Boy Blue (aka The Big Bad Wolf) (1936)
* The Sheepish Wolf (1942)
* No Mutton Fer Nuttin' (1943)
* A Lamb in a Jam (1945)
* Sheep Shape (1946)
* Much Ado About Mutton (1947)
* The Circus Comes to Clown (1947)

* Air Fighters Comics #1

* Rocket Comics #1

* In psychology, the "black sheep effect" refers to the tendency of group members to judge likeable ingroup members more positively and deviant ingroup members more negatively than comparable outgroup members.

* Wikipedia
* [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackSheep TV Tropes]
* [https://comicbookplus.com/search/?q=Black+Sheep#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Black%20Sheep&gsc.page=1 Comic Book Plus]
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