Whoopi "Back to Broadway" was LAME!

Cafe Society
1

Whoopi’s Back To Broadway was on HBO on Saturday night.

Sadly, it sucked.

So, she comes out as Fontaine, supposedly some sort of dope fiend shuffling her feet while singing in a drugged out way, “Around the world in 80 mother fuckin’ days.” It was pretty funny. She introduced herself as Fontaine. Did a joke, and then it was just Whoopi.

She wasn’t doing a character anymore. If she was, then she was portraying a dope fiend who was taking trips to Europe and had well-thought opinions of George Bush’s middle east policy.

She had clearly just reverted to “Whoopi”, not Fontaine. So why make the character at all? I suspect she was afraid of her material. Mostly though, it wasn’t funny. I don’t like to criticize something as “not funny” usually because we all have different tastes. But, let’s say, it surely wasn’t original.

Some of her rants: *I went to sleep and we were in Afghanistan. I woke up and we were in Iraq. What the fuck? *

You mean to tell me we can’t find a 7 foot tall Arab walking around in the desert with a dialysis machine?

Wow. That was kind of funny, the first time I heard it, in NOVEMBER 2001 from some two-bit morning DJ. I was expecting her to call WMDs “weapons of mass distraction”.

I was zoning out a little, but I think she was telling jokes about the 2000 election.

Beyond that, it was just Whoopi on her bully pulpit. She was just making points like she was on Bill Maher’s show while expecting laughs because she’s WHOOPI and she was throwing in a few “motherfuckers”.

Then, she took off her sunglasses, signifying a new character, which was basically the same character without sunglasses and then just talked about menopause for about 30 minutes.

Sample joke: You can keep a man’s dick hard for 19 hours and you can’t stop a hot flash?"

I stuck with it for 70 minutes then I couldn’t watch it anymore. If it got funnier after that, sorry for the mischaracterization.

I really expected more out of her.

2

I thought it was great… Her characters were subtle, but often hit the mark…

It’s strange, I expected to NOT like the show, and ended up loving it all…

3

I really, really liked it, and thought some of the lines were hysterical - my elderly aunt watched it with us and even she thought it was great.

Then again, how could I not like a show with a woman who hates Bush as much as I do?

I would rank this as one of the funniest HBO specials in years!

4

I think she is perhaps the most marginally talented, self-righteous person to ever appear in the mass media. Such an utter lack of talent and ability.

Different strokes and all…

5

I think she’s a major talent who started coasting many years ago on being a celebrity. I didn’t see the HBO special, but even though I agree with her on some political issues she has most definitely never come across as an intellectual heavyweight when it comes to defending her views (the “uh, you don’t understand- when I express my opinion, you’re supposed to applaud, not retort…” celebrity style).

6

**Lochdale. ** Ahem. Cough, cough >clearing throat sound< Ptooo! Sniffle.

7

I was extremely disappointed by Sunday’s show, because the original 1985 HBO special was, honest-to-Og, one of the most amazing performances I have ever seen in my life, bar none, I shit you not. She did five or six characters, including a little girl, Fontaine, a valley girl, an old Jamaican woman, and the disabled woman who was the last character in Sunday’s show. (In fact, as best as I can recall, that whole bit from this show was pretty damn close to the way she did it 20 years ago.)

In the original, each of the characters told a story that was alternately funny and heartbreakingly sad (IIRC, the valley girl told about having to get an abortion), and the overall effect was simply breathtaking. It was the first time I had seen her, and I was convinced I was seeing one of the greatest talents of the century, not least because she had written the whole thing herself.

Her Oscar-nominated performance in The Color Purple absolutely confirmed that talent.

Unfortunately, since then she’s done absolutely nothing (IMHO) that rises to 1% of the potential she showed in those two shows. One of her more interesting performances on film since The Color Purple was The Associate, in which (with the aid of a shitload of makeup) she gave a pretty good rendition of a middle-aged white businessman.

I think her biggest problem is that Hollywood just had no clue how to use her. Despite her talent, she has never been attractive enough (by showbiz standards) to be a leading lady. The few attempts (i.e. Jumping Jack Flash) were marginal at best, so she got stuck in the stereotyped uppity black woman roles (Ghost, Sister Act, Eddie) that she could do in her sleep. Her Oscar for Ghost was probably belated recognition for a far superior performance in The Color Purple.

So I don’t blame anyone, like Lochdale, who doesn’t think much of her, because she has done almost nothing in 20 years to demonstrate her talent.

I was hoping that this show would revive the excitement of the first one, but I sadly have to agree with Trunk that the characters were extremely weak, Fontaine’s rant was just Whoopi and not true to the original character, and there was waaaaayyy too much unfunny stuff in the middle about menopause, menstruation, and sanitary napkins for this 50-year-old guy’s tastes. As I said, the last bit with the disabled woman showed a tiny spark of the original brilliance, but it was too little, too late.

The original HBO special apparently isn’t available on DVD, which I consider an enormous tragedy.