# Who finds Tyler Perry funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446 "2010-09-20T18:56:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/1 "2010-09-20T18:56:03Z")
Why is this dude so successful? I realize that his primary demographic is black america but I cant imagine skin color makes someone funnier. Do you find his brand of humor funny? If so why? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/2 "2010-09-20T18:58:55Z")
I am black. I am completely mystified by his appeal as performer, producer, director, and writer. Unless perhaps people are awed by the way he manages to be simultaneously vulgar and preachy. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/3 "2010-09-20T19:02:34Z")
I voted “No” but you have to understand the way in which his plots, writing and dialogue play into and support some of Christian, Black Americans beliefs, stereotypes and prejudices. I don’t think he’s funny one bit but, for lack of a better phrase, I “give him credit” for having gotten it down to a science when it comes to playing into church teachings and community beliefs, i.e., the search for and triumphalism the providentially promised perfect opposite-sex mate, the strong, Black woman who is the cornerstone of the family and community but naturally reverts to her God-given role as second fiddle once she finds a man, as well as a few others. [Read more here at New Yorker Magazine.](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/04/26/100426crat_atlarge_als) ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/4 "2010-09-20T19:06:14Z")
I don’t think it is black America that is his true audience. I think it is black churchy America. I think churches teach folks not to see worldly movies. Or at least that is what my churchy family members do. They only see the films recommended by the Paster. They all went to go see Precious together…the whole congregation. I think they are taught not to watch profane films and comedians. So he has a lock on that market. I hate him. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/5 "2010-09-20T19:08:07Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > They all went to go see Precious together…the whole congregation. Crikey. How did they deal with the constant swearing and rape scenes? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/6 "2010-09-20T19:08:23Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I don’t think it is black America that is his true audience. I think it is black churchy America. > > I think churches teach folks not to see worldly movies. Or at least that is what my churchy family members do. They only see the films recommended by the Paster. They all went to go see Precious together…the whole congregation. I think they are taught not to watch profane films and comedians. So he has a lock on that market. > > I hate him. I don’t want him dead. Just exiled to the Phantom Zone, by which of course I mean Nebraska. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/7 "2010-09-20T19:13:37Z")
> [@multimediac17](#): > > > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > > > They all went to go see Precious together…the whole congregation. > > Crikey. How did they deal with the constant swearing and rape scenes? I guess it was ok because that was a\* very important film.\* ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/8 "2010-09-20T19:14:05Z")
I don’t know who he is. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/9 "2010-09-20T19:15:14Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > > [@multimediac17](#): > > > > Crikey. How did they deal with the constant swearing and rape scenes? > > I guess it was ok because that was a\* very important film.\* You misspelled _horribly depressing, clumsily manipulative, stunningly ill-written,and shudderingly boring film_. Strangest typo ever. You must be using Google Chrome. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/10 "2010-09-20T19:17:01Z")
I like Tyler Perry because he continues to give Janet Jackson something to do. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/11 "2010-09-20T19:58:39Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I don’t think it is black America that is his true audience. I think it is black churchy America. Exactly. He’s just the most successful playwright of this genre of “gospel musical” or “gospel play”. The plots of these plays are all pretty much the same. You have a woman, who might be materially successful but is spiritually dead, in spite of the prayers of her mother or grandmother or whoever. She’s either married to or dating a man who, she learns, has done her wrong. He’s cheating on her, or he’s using drugs, or he hits her. Eventually, over the play, with the help of Jesus and a speech by her mother, and quite possibly, the Love of a Good Man, she realizes that she’s a Strong Black Woman, and gives a speech to her no good boyfriend or husband telling him that. She then either leaves him or he goes to jail, and if she’s single, she then marries the Good Man. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/12 "2010-09-20T20:09:33Z")
I voted No because as a general rule I hate his films, but that said I’ve seen some individual M’dea bits that were funny. I just couldn’t sit through an entire play of "Let me beat you over the head with this cross, sing some godawful original gospel, trot out some characters that make Davey and Goliath cartoons look filled with nuance, and then sprinkle liberally with a 6’6 drag character who’s at best hit and miss. I’ll never understand why he earns tens of millions of dollars and Del Shores (_Sordid Lives_, _Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got the Will_, and others) doesn’t. I also don’t understand how the same audience can applaud the Christian core of the play’s message but also love and hoot and holler for M’dea, who’s about as unchristian as you can get. Not to overintellectualize the case but I suppose M’dea’s a modern day “militant messiah”. The British Celts after the 5th century had Jesus Christ who was going to redeem the world and give them everlasting life and that was nice and meant the Anglo-Saxons killing their men and burning their land and raping their women wouldn’t really matter in Eternity. But they also had Arthur, who one day was going to rise from his resting place and whip some Anglo-Saxon ass, a far more viscerally satisfying notion to a vanquished people. I suppose the Christianity and the psycho ‘don’t take shit from anyone’ character in Tyler Perry walk hand in hand the same way. Or to borrow from Carlin, sometimes you pray to the sun, sometimes you call Joe Pesci. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/13 "2010-09-20T20:12:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’ll never understand why he earns tens of millions of dollars and Del Shores (_Sordid Lives_, _Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got the Will_, and others) doesn’t. [malefic bureaucrat hat] I should think it would be obvious. If it comforts you, bear in mind that his contract comes due on 19th October 2020, so his nauseating career is nearly over. Soon he will be in the Pit with Andrew Jackson, Elvis Presley, Aragorn, and Britney Spears. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/14 "2010-09-20T20:14:53Z")
> [@multimediac17](#): > > > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > > > They all went to go see Precious together…the whole congregation. > > Crikey. How did they deal with the constant swearing and rape scenes? I doubt they had to ask what any of the words meant. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/15 "2010-09-20T22:16:02Z")
My gay uncles love him as Madea. I found her funny at one time, but she gets stale very, very quickly. My sister still loves her. I’m not black, but I did grow up in the churchy culture. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/16 "2010-09-20T22:17:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > I’ll never understand why he earns tens of millions of dollars and Del Shores (_Sordid Lives_, _Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got the Will_, and others) doesn’t. > > [malefic bureaucrat hat] > > I should think it would be obvious. If it comforts you, bear in mind that his contract comes due on 19th October 2020, so his nauseating career is nearly over. Soon he will be in the Pit with Andrew Jackson, Elvis Presley, Aragorn, and Britney Spears. [Fred Gwynne from _Pet Semetary_ voice for no particular reason]Ayup, sounds like he’s been up to some foolishness at that[Tchula Junction Crossroads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal_with_the_Devil#Musicians).[/Fred Gwynne from _Pet Semetary_ voice for no particular reason] ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/17 "2010-09-20T22:46:05Z")
Not black, not churchy, but I liked the Diary movie, enough so that if another one of his comes on cable and I notice it, I’ll probably watch it. I have no desire to see the series, though, it just doesn’t look interesting at all. (And if his other movies are all carbon copies, I will be tired of them within 20 minutes) ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/18 "2010-09-21T00:18:11Z")
My wife brought home _I Can Do Bad All By Myself_ on a whim and I watched it not knowing at all who Tyler Perry was. It was a decent enough movie (remember: I knew nothing about him or his other films at this point) with some sympathetic characters, but it didn’t leave a great impression. Then I watched the “coming soon to DVD” feature and saw previews for some of his others movies…about 10 of them…all of which looked just like the movie I had just seen. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/19 "2010-09-21T00:43:57Z")
I don’t think Tyler Perry is funny or entertaining at all, and I cringe at how heavy-handed and manipulative his work is. I simply resigned myself that the only way for me to “get” his act is to become a God-fearin’ Christian and, let me tell ya, that aint happening. My wife, on the other hand, will go out of her way to watch everything he does, and she’s not even from America. She is a practicing Catholic though. Don’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446/20 "2010-09-21T00:46:07Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > My wife brought home _I Can Do Bad All By Myself_ on a whim and I watched it not knowing at all who Tyler Perry was. It was a decent enough movie (remember: I knew nothing about him or his other films at this point) with some sympathetic characters, but it didn’t leave a great impression. Then I watched the “coming soon to DVD” feature and saw previews for some of his others movies…about 10 of them…all of which looked just like the movie I had just seen. You too, huh? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-finds-tyler-perry-funny/554446.md?page=2)