I would need to acquire a traumatic brain injury, or maybe a moderate case of carbon monoxide intoxication - watching one of his productions may well be equivalent to some sort of transient brain insult.
One might credibly argue that Perry is running the equivalent of a modern minstrel show, in terms of the insultingly stupid continuum of his characters.
Actually Shirley Q. Liquor is the modern equivalent of a minstrel show, especially when s/he appears in public literally in black face. The act is extremely controversial, but the difference twixt Shirley and M’dea is that Shirley probably has more A-list black comics as fans (Whoopi Goldberg and Wanda Sykes among others).
Shirley Q.'s wiki is below, but before you form an opinion based only on the controversy listen to Titanic review, which is probably the most famous piece. (The character began as a radio call in.)
I thought the Boondocks episode where they spoof Tyler Perry was funny. Does that count?
Other than that I don’t think I have ever seen anything of his in its entirety…but based on clips, I don’t think so…
Damn, he really doesn’t like him does he? (Clip 1.)
Though the Frankenfurter touch is genius.
No, the difference twixt 'em is that Shirley is hilarious. (Check out her “church slave” bit - I know it’s on YouTube. Or the one about the Kmark.) Shirley’s humor is spot on observational stuff, just amplified. There’s nothing observational in Madea that I’ve noticed.
I don’t think he is funny at all (noting that I am not in his target audience), but I genuinely admire what he has done. He circumvented the suits in Hollywood and found success building his own media empire. More power to him,
My mother is amused by him.
By the way, you forgot to title the thread ‘Tyler Perry’s “Who Finds Tyler Perry funny?”’
I, of course, voted that he’s not funny (not even a teensy bit).
But from reading this thread’s title, I thought you wanted us to take a stab at the kinds of people who actually do find the man funny. And my answer to that would be: Seemingly 97% of the African American population, and goddamn white trash (think: the sort of people who find ICP’s and Soulja Boy’s output to be seriously good music).
I don’t think I can vote in this poll without adding a third option.
I’ll co-sign this. His incredible success certainly doesn’t detract from my life in any way and is the result of much sacrifice on his part (he was a couch surfer and penniless for many years) and obvious natural business and marketing genius (to my knowledge he never studied either), and I think much of the hatred towards him is based in jealousy. And I respect the fact he didn’t get megamillions by being a flat out televangelist.
But I still think he’s a talentless hack who knows how to turn pandering into millions. I think on some level he even knows it- he’s seemed depressed and irritated in the last few interviews I’ve seen. (I also think he might be on the verge of coming out- THAT would be fantastic considering his core base because they’re exactly the ones who need cold water thrown in their face on the gay issue.)
Perry on his critics and the proselytization aspects of his plays.
What percentage of the white American population would you guess is white trash?
I’ve never seen one of his movies but I came across his sitcom* House of Payne late one insomnia ridden night. It was the most unfunny thing I’ve ever seen. At least it helped me fall asleep. I’ve run across it a couple more times since then and I usually end up switching to an infomercial.
I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a sitcom because I haven’t seen any com in it. Then again it’s not much of a dramedy either. It’s just there, taunting you with it’s dull badness*.
**Bad as in actually bad, not the “bad means good” thing all the kids say.
I can’t answer for MTCicero, but for me the answer would depends on where I am and what mood I’m in.
Of course the term “white trash” is open to many definitions. By my definition “white trash” wouldn’t like a Tyler Perry film because they’re rarely religious and often racist; some rednecks would like it because they’re usually religious, don’t tend to like complex plots, and if not particularly liberal on the racial lines (though they can be) they tend to be colorblind in their entertainments. (General difference twixt white trash and rednecks as I define the terms: rednecks are people whose tastes/politics/worldviews in general you might disagree with but they still make good neighbors and friends {think Dukes of Hazzard or Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show or Dolly Parton’s character from any Dolly Parton movie}, while white trash are people you want to live as far the hell away from as possible {think *My Name is Earl * or the Ewells from *To Kill a Mockingbird/Dwight Yoakam from Slingblade}.) I blame Jeff Foxworthy for confusing the two since many of his “You might be a redneck” examples are actually about what’s historically been referred to as white trash.
Like many have said, I have a lot of respect for how he has created his niche in media and his wealth - sounds like he had it hard as a child and seems to be a decent human being.
But his films are extremely preachy and obvious. There’s no subtlety, the characters tend to be caricatures, and they’re not complex. Here’s the hardworking wallflower. Here’s the bitch who just needs the right man to make her nice. Here’s the sexy Black man with commitment issues. Here’s the bad, evil wifebeater… and so on.
I’ve seen a few of his movies and been mildly entertained. But I can’t watch Medea outside of the clips, and the TV shows are dire. I hear he does well with his plays, though.
I also think he’s a screaming closet case. Come out, already! But that would obviously alienate a lot of his audience, but surely they have to know?
Other than dressing as a woman for the Medea character, what makes youcall him a closet case?
(That’s not a rhetorical question. I’ve heard the claim before but have seen so little of him I couldn’t say anything about his orientiaton of my own knowledge.)
Skald, I was actually just about to post that. I saw a brief clip of an interview where he didn’t seem all that stereotypically gay. I didn’t actually know people thought of him that way until I saw the Boondocks ep.
I’m with Sampiro and Hippy on this one. I think the man’s gay. I can’t offer a cite on that, it’s just his age plus a lack of romantic entanglements plus some effeminate speech mannerisms that make me wonder.
I don’t even think that Medea makes him possibly gay… Flip Wilson and Martin Lawrence did it and I didn’t get the vibe from them.
I guess he comes across as so many Black guys I know, raised in the church, with similar mannerisms, worldview, and so on. It’s just a vibe I get. And absolutely, he has that thing where he understands women way too well. Like he idolizes them, sees the feminine ideal as his grandma/mama, and can’t relate to them romantically. And the church thing means he suppresses his gayness, so he’s almost asexual. He might be a “down low” brother.
I know about 20 Tyler Perrys in real life. A few moved away from home, their parents died, and they came out and are much happier. The ones that didn’t… shake their heads at their fallen friends (secretly wishing they made the choices they did).
A ridiculous number of Black men I knew in college were like this.
For everyone trashing at how heavy-handed some of the stuff is, you are probably right, but I was impressed in Diary about the wife actually staying with her husband until he straightened out, after all that had happened before. I mean, if that’s stereotypical churchy blackness, it sure beats the whiteness attitude of ‘fuck it, I want ma revenge!’ Seriously; most movies don’t go that far; that one really took it home, and I think it’s unusual in a good way.
Where I live? I’d guess that at least 85% of the white population is what I’d classify as white trash. Of course, unlike Sampiro, I use the terms “white trash” and “redneck” interchangeably. It’s actually very interesting, from an anthropological standpoint, to view the white trash/rednecks around where I live. They tend to dress very much in the hip hop style (ridiculously, obnoxiously baggy jeans/shorts, cockeyed, flat-billed baseball caps with Gucci and Dolce and Gabana logos on, hooded sweatshirts several sizes too big) and listen almost exclusively to hip hop and rap, and yet are also quick to make derisive, spite-filled comments about the “fucking niggers”.
Sigh I do hate them so goddamn much.