I just heard that white folks weren’t expected to watch The Bernie Mac Show. Oops! I screwed up. I’ve watched and enjoyed this comedy of manners since it came on the air. Glad I missed the memo that said I wasn’t supposed to watch it.
He never mentions that he is black! This is such a relief after shows like Good Times, where the characters’ blackness was as much a topic of conversation as anything else. Or Will and Grace, where the viewer is bludgeoned with Will and Jack’s gayness. A constant reminder of Bernie Mac’s blackness would detract from the universality of the humor. One doesn’t need to be black to find the show funny. It helps to be fluent in Black Idiomatic English, but I just turn on the captions to catch the dialog I miss. I don’t hear that well so I have to do that with a lot of shows, anyway.
Fox has been doing real well with sitcoms lately. I hope they keep them on a long time.
Very funny show with great appeal to reluctant parents white or black. His way of talking about kids mirrors my own (although mine isn’t quite as colorful). My 7 year old also thinks the show is hilarious.
I love this show!! I especially like that Bernie isn’t portrayed as a doofus or totally clueless and inept. He’s figuring it out as he goes along - just like real parents do every day - what a concept!!!
On the down side, I now call my idiot Dalmation “Baby Girl”…
Hee! Well, I am relatively fluent, and I hear just fine, it’s just that Bernie Mac is hard as hell to understand, period! I’ve seen him do stand up, and felt the same way.
Fox is doing well by us Not Classically Attractive people lately. Or is it Not Manufactured For TV Handsome? Bernie Mac, Andy Richter, and Seth Green*, you can’t get much less TV Handsome than them. And Jane Kaczmarek is beautiful in a Real Life sort of way. Not TV Beautiful.
Dagan (oldest daughter) objects strongly to my characterization of Seth Green as “homely as a mud fence.” “He has beautiful eyes!” (He has pig eyes.) While she objects to his current buzz-job, “At least his hair’s too short to do anything stupid with it this time.” She’s young and apparently doesn’t know what stupid things can be done with very short hair.
I KNOW!!! I was going to modify “attracted” in my post with a word such as “inexplicably” or “oddly”, but I feared I’d get misconstrued, and that someone would think I was saying that my attraction was odd because he’s Black, or uses Black English idioms. :rolleyes:
And then the thread would turn into a big hijack (unlike now) about whether or not Black people are attractive.
Oh, wait, that’s another forum…
At any rate, I can perhaps safely say that I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment, dropzone… but I’d still do him. I don’t know why. And it ain’t the money or fame, either, because I wouldn’t do Russell Crowe…
If you are a fan of the show you should rent “The Original Kings of Comedy” for the routine that inspired the show. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I laughed so hard I was out of breath.
Leave it to a network programmer to have absolutely no clue what their demos will and will not watch. I think The Bernie Mac show is a testament to the fact that if you put on a quality show, PEOPLE will watch. But if you create something that is basically a big ole heap of stinky poo and throw a couple of black actors in there and then air it on the UPN, don’t expect that ANYBODY is going to watch it.
I love Bernie Mac. I love to watch how one of his eyes always looks in the wrong direction. I love how his hairline is too low and perfectly straight like someone drew it on. And I loved the pilot when he asked the kids if they wanted a big ass doughnut. My husband and I forever ask each other that now.
I saw “The Original Kings of Comedy” in the movie theater when it first came out. I believe I was the only white person in the theater, but nobody mentioned it and I loved the movie. Bernie Mac, D.L. Hughley, Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer were the four comedians. Sure there was some rough language, but these guys were funny. None of the comics did any “white-bashing”–the most they did was to tease white people about slavishly following societies rules. They made fun of weaves, poor bill paying habits, and looking out for themselves. I thought it was a gas.
