# How come no one hates on the Madea movies for false advertising? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657 "2013-01-09T19:09:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/1 "2013-01-09T19:09:13Z")
I don’t know how many of these movies there are now but the character Madea is in every title, she is also the focus of the trailers and ads. HOWEVER in the actual movies Madea makes up like five minutes of screen time, not only that but rather than a comedy the rest of the movie is a torturous kinda of moralizing soap opera trying to teach you a lesson or something.:rolleyes: This approaches false advertizing, going by the trailers you’d think you were going to a comedy about a cantankerous old woman, only to find yourself in a non-comedy moral lesson drama. ---
**Author:** ![Delta-9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Delta-9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delta-9)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/2 "2013-01-09T19:36:42Z")
Take a number. We’re already hating on the fact that it isn’t remotely funny. Not even a little bit. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/3 "2013-01-09T19:37:39Z")
if you don’t like the movie it’s because you are racist ---
**Author:** ![PacifistPorcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/4 "2013-01-09T19:41:21Z")
The trailers persuaded me to never watch a Madea movie. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/5 "2013-01-09T20:49:57Z")
Haven’t there been enough of these damn things that an enterprising young buck or doe could edit all of Madea’s 5-minute appearances together into a debatably-hilarious feature-length film? Get on that, enterprising young bucks and does. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/6 "2013-01-09T20:53:23Z")
The demographic these movies are marketed towards understand what they’re buying a ticket for: Tyler Perry’s unique blend of family friendly wacky comedy and drama. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/7 "2013-01-09T22:40:37Z")
He really need to stop making dumb Madea movies and break into the action movie genre. [(ooh, maybe not)](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alex_cross/) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/8 "2013-01-09T22:47:02Z")
People watch those movies?!?! ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/9 "2013-01-09T22:53:09Z")
\*\*How come no one hates on the Madea movies for false advertising? \*\* Because we hate them on the pure fact that they suck. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/10 "2013-01-09T23:23:07Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I don’t know how many of these movies there are now but the character Madea is in every title, she is also the focus of the trailers and ads. HOWEVER in the actual movies Madea makes up like five minutes of screen time, not only that but rather than a comedy the rest of the movie is a torturous kinda of moralizing soap opera trying to teach you a lesson or something.:rolleyes: > > This approaches false advertizing, going by the trailers you’d think you were going to a comedy about a cantankerous old woman, only to find yourself in a non-comedy moral lesson drama. Because openly hating them would be admitting we have watched a few of them. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/11 "2013-01-09T23:26:24Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > People watch those movies?!?! Check out their box office grosses, they make a LOT of money. There happens to be a large African-American population in this country, and he makes movies that that demographic enjoys a great deal - mostly because he’s one of the few people making family-friendly AA films (not movies about drug dealers/gang bangers/etc that many black directors/artists are successful with.) It’s a niche, and he’s filling it like nobody else. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/12 "2013-01-11T19:29:23Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > if you don’t like the movie it’s because you are racist No way. Racists would like movies that make black people look so ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/13 "2013-01-12T05:50:43Z")
On the rare occasion that I have watched a Madea movie, I’m always reminded sharply of the Cosby Show from way back when. The characters are portrayed as middle class, educated, ambitious, etc., instead of your typical ghetto, poor, working class types. And of course there’s the injection of Madea comedy that is sort of family friendly (whether it’s FUNNY is a different argument) - it’s a pretty sharp contrast to many of the existing black movie director’s works, and I can see where it does fill a certain niche. Not too gritty or depressing, doesn’t reflect poorly on AA people (in general)… nothing too offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/14 "2013-01-12T07:50:20Z")
I had never heard of this character, and now I feel dumber for having researched it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/15 "2013-01-12T08:05:00Z")
I’m guessing that most of the people who go to see a Madea movie know what they’re getting and enjoy what they get. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/16 "2013-01-12T15:38:28Z")
The irony is as much as everyone loves Madea, I’ve never met a black person that saw them in theaters; my sisters and cousins have ALL the bootlegs. I don’t remember any of the guys in the family mentioning them, and my brother than I have long wondered why a black guy in drag is supposed to be so hilarious (since Flip Wilson’s Geraldine). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/17 "2013-01-12T17:25:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m guessing that most of the people who go to see a Madea movie know what they’re getting and enjoy what they get. Then what is the purpose of the deceptive advertising then? This is like having a movie called Space Warrior Bob, with the trailers and TV ads featuring nothing but space based scenes of this apparent scifi movie. You go to the movie to find it a romantic comedy where near the end the lead Bob drinks too much cough syrup and hallucinates 5 minutes of space adventure. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/18 "2013-01-12T18:14:06Z")
The trailers have Madea in them so that everyone in the target demographic knows it’s the new Tyler Perry movie, and everyone outside the target demo knows it’s the new Tyler Perry movie, so they can either see it or not see it. If you didn’t have Madea, they might think it was something else and then see or not see it by accident. So Madea is like the sticker on an apple that says it’s a Fuji or a Honeycrisp. You don’t eat the sticker, but you want the sticker there anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/19 "2013-01-12T18:16:03Z")
Did you know that “the Thin Man” was only in the first film of the series, and never spoke a line?😛 ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657/20 "2013-01-12T18:34:35Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > On the rare occasion that I have watched a Madea movie, I’m always reminded sharply of the Cosby Show from way back when. > > The characters are portrayed as middle class, educated, ambitious, etc., **instead of your typical ghetto, poor, working class types**. And of course there’s the injection of Madea comedy that is sort of family friendly (whether it’s FUNNY is a different argument) - it’s a pretty sharp contrast to many of the existing black movie director’s works, and I can see where it does fill a certain niche. Not too gritty or depressing, doesn’t reflect poorly on AA people (in general)… nothing too offensive. What makes you think “ghetto” is typical? I think you need to rethink your wording or explain what you mean because it sounds like you think most AA are “ghetto”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-no-one-hates-on-the-madea-movies-for-false-advertising/646657.md?page=2)