# Would 'In Living Color' fly today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709 "2019-08-15T19:56:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/21 "2019-08-16T19:05:37Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > IIRC there was some controversy around one of the “Men On…” sketches where one of them got hit on the head by a falling light and became stereotypically straight. There was (IMO somewhat legitimate) concern that suggesting even in jest that you could make a gay man straight by hitting him on the head would encourage bigoted idiots to commit assault. > > I think that was near the end of the show’s run anyway - I could probably look it up but meh. I remember the skit, but don’t recall any controversy. Really though, how idiotic do they think the general public is? That somehow, a “Men on…” host being hit on the head and suddenly being turned straight is a REAL thing, or that it signified anything? It was whatever the TV equivalent of a literary convention- how many other TV shows prior to that had a character hit on the head and act out of character? They clearly weren’t trying to make some kind of heavy LGBT point, nor were they trying to illustrate the perils of traumatic brain injury. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/22 "2019-08-16T19:10:07Z")
What does ‘fly today’ really mean? There’s a lot of comedy that is racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise disliked by some people that still makes money. It’s a lot less tolerated on a major network, but does something need to be on a major network to be considered ‘flying’? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/23 "2019-08-16T19:30:46Z")
Only the Fly Girls… ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/24 "2019-08-16T19:35:18Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I don’t know, Titus on _Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt_ is essentially playing the same type of character and I have not heard anyone griping about him. I’m not sure why you think that refutes what \*\*mbh \*\*posted… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/25 "2019-08-16T19:52:02Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > What does ‘fly today’ really mean? There’s a lot of comedy that is racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise disliked by some people that still makes money. It’s a lot less tolerated on a major network, but does something need to be on a major network to be considered ‘flying’? I think that that’s a good point – I’m not at all sure that a broadcast network (even Fox) would air _In Living Color_ today. Even though the broadcast networks are, generally, airing edgier content now than they did 30 years ago (more overtly sexual content, including the occasional flash of a bare ass, and more swearing), the general tolerance for controversial humor like that is likely far lower now. But, as you note, the broadcast networks are only one piece of the puzzle now. If not a network like HBO or Starz (which make far more original content now than they did then, and a lot of it on the MA-rated side), then certainly a streaming service. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/26 "2019-08-16T20:23:46Z")
The only sketch/character that I think would _definitely_ be impossible to do is HandiMan. The others, I think, could work depending on execution and audience. But I agree. It wouldn’t be anywhere near network TV. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/27 "2019-08-16T20:25:47Z")
“American Dad!” And “The Family Guy” are way more offensive than “In Living Color”. IMHO. I think what made ILC funny was the novelty and shock more than anything else. No other shows were doing the kind of gags that NLC did. A half hour where you can make fun of mannish-looking women, gays, ghetto people, homeless people, and black celebrities in prime time, for free? It is a no-brainer. People are going to watch and they will laugh even if most of the jokes fall short. The gay stuff would not work well today because gay people are pretty mainstream now. It is kind of hard to laugh at a blatant stereotype if you know enough people who buck that stereotype and aren’t afraid to inform you how unfunny that stereotype is. But in the 90s, that wasn’t the case. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/28 "2019-08-16T21:41:27Z")
It is/was on syndication recently (within the past year on FXX I think?) Some of it is still funny, some of it never was (which happens with all sketch shows. Sometimes the sketches just really don’t work.), and some of it has aged horribly. The “Men on…” segments, which I remember laughing at back in the 1990s are, to me, just uncomfortable and cringe-y now. There’s a fair bit of misogyny (which I think I missed at the time) and homophobia. There are more than a few sketches that definitely come across as punching down or “laughing at” rather than “laughing with” without being that funny. It could be that my sense of humor has radically changed or that I’m much more aware of things now than I was then or something else. But to answer the OP, yes, you can air offensive stuff on TV. Some people may not like your work and will have problems with advertisers (but they did 30 years ago, too). ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/29 "2019-08-17T02:59:45Z")
From what I remember, I think most of it would be ok today. They may rethink some of the segments, like Men On Film as mentioned earlier. I recall back when the first It’s Pat ran on Saturday Night Live I thought it was hilarious. Now looking at it, it is cringe inducing. I think a lot of it has to do with empathy. Back then, I was unaware of transgenderism. As I’ve gotten older, learned more and read the science (trigger warning for modern day Republicans) I realized things aren’t black and white. Gender is a spectrum and other peoples identity is no different than mine. That kind of "humor "needs to be tossed in the waste bin with blackface, the gay best friend who has no romantic life himself and the magic negro. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/30 "2019-08-17T03:41:27Z")
I can definitely say that ‘Men on’ skits were shown at quite a few gay bars I went to during the 1990s. I’m sure a reboot would be a bit different. But, keep in mind that Rupaul’s drag race is insanely popular these days. So, yes, it would never make it to network television today, but they’re not interested in that kind of show anyway. Cable or Netflix? I think it could work. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/31 "2019-08-17T04:12:56Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I’ve noticed in a lot of black comedy from the 70’s well into late 00’s that there was some weird thing where they would go equally hard against other minorities as they did with white people which presumably doesn’t age well at all. There’s some very weird Chappelle Show skits where Chappelle attacks Hispanics and Asians in a manner that seems more mean-spirited than the way he satirically makes fun of white people. It’s because black comedians don’t seem to care and that is part of their charm. It’s nice to see comedians just make jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/32 "2019-08-17T20:58:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > People were bitching about the same “PC culture” crap back in the early-mid-90s (and I should know, as one of my first papers I wrote as a freshman in college in '93 was bitching and complaining about “PC culture,” only to eventually grow out of it), as well, and these shows thrived at that time. There will always be offensive humor around – like I said, there’s still plenty of it. That is a good point. Our society has always and will always change over time. If one group wants their suffering acknowledged and belittling by a majority to stop what is it that majority would say? Would they be more likely to reflect on their behavior about a culture they don’t really understand and change their ways or rather dismiss the very idea they should be obligated to change. “Pc culture” is a phrase used by people who don’t believe they’re wrong. And yet whole groups of people are wrong all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/33 "2019-08-18T22:56:22Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > I recall back when the first It’s Pat ran on Saturday Night Live I thought it was hilarious. Now looking at it, it is cringe inducing. I haven’t rewatched any of those, but from what I remembered the skits weren’t actually making fun of Pat, the butt of the jokes was consistently the people trying to figure out what the gender of Pat (and Pat’s various friends and partners who all had names like “Chris” and “Jamie”) without asking. I remember it as making fun of gender roles and not the person who doesn’t fit them, but it’s probably a lot more cringe-inducing than what I recall decades later. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/34 "2019-08-19T15:33:44Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I haven’t rewatched any of those, but from what I remembered the skits weren’t actually making fun of Pat, the butt of the jokes was consistently the people trying to figure out what the gender of Pat (and Pat’s various friends and partners who all had names like “Chris” and “Jamie”) without asking. I remember it as making fun of gender roles and not the person who doesn’t fit them, but it’s probably a lot more cringe-inducing than what I recall decades later. That’s what I recall too- Pat wasn’t a transgender person, they were a person of absolutely indeterminate gender _to other people_. Presumably they knew what they were, but nobody else could figure it out, and that was where most of the humor lay. Of course, to get this sort of ambiguity, they mostly smoothed over any gender-specific stuff with peculiar behaviors and appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/35 "2019-08-20T10:18:34Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I remember the skit, but don’t recall any controversy. Really though, how idiotic do they think the general public is? That somehow, a “Men on…” host being hit on the head and suddenly being turned straight is a REAL thing, or that it signified anything? The “general public” are, in fact, fairly idiotic, insofar as it includes a large number of easily influenced idiots. > [@](#): > > It was whatever the TV equivalent of a literary convention- how many other TV shows prior to that had a character hit on the head and act out of character? They clearly weren’t trying to make some kind of heavy LGBT point, nor were they trying to illustrate the perils of traumatic brain injury. Yes, I understand that. The point you’re missing is that there were quite legitimate concerns that the skit would inspire said idiots to smack gay men on the head for laughs. Of course they didn’t really think it would turn the gay men straight, but this is not a behavior born of rational consideration in the first place. Because while “character has a personality change after being hit on the head” is a television convention, “beating up gay men” was - and sadly still is, to a lesser extent - an actual social convention. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/36 "2019-08-20T16:36:56Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Yes, I understand that. The point you’re missing is that there were quite legitimate concerns that the skit would inspire said idiots to smack gay men on the head for laughs. Of course they didn’t really think it would turn the gay men straight, but this is not a behavior born of rational consideration in the first place. Because while “character has a personality change after being hit on the head” is a television convention, “beating up gay men” was - and sadly still is, to a lesser extent - an actual social convention. While I’m not at all denying or downplaying the seriousness of violence toward gay men, I’m not convinced that concern about it in the context of its role in a silly comedy skit is a whole lot different than the hand-wringing about violent video games and their effect on young men. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/37 "2019-08-27T22:10:09Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m not sure why you think that refutes what \*\*mbh \*\*posted… I was mistaken. I thought for sure he was a straight man playing a flamboyant gay on a TV show. A little more digging makes me think I mixed him up with [Nelsan Ellis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelsan_Ellis) ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/38 "2019-08-29T13:35:11Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > The _MAD_ cartoon is better than the version I heard because of the twist. The version I know is from [_The Official Jewish Joke Book_](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NrbYlb5lL._SX373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg). A Jewish guy on a passenger jet asks a Chinese guy if he’s guilty about Pearl Harbor. The Chinese guy says it was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor, and asks the Jewish guy if he has any guilt over sinking _Titanic_. I still have the Official Polish/Italian Joke book from that same author. What was the flip of the one you have? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709/39 "2019-08-29T15:24:35Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I think what made ILC funny was the novelty and shock more than anything else. No other shows were doing the kind of gags that NLC did. This. To really get it you have to have lived through the 80s, which was all about being fake and maintaining appearances, pretending nonstandard things were so rare as to not exist. Difference was most definitely _not_ celebrated in the mainstream, and conspicuously unaddressed. I saw ILC as saying, “Difference DOES exist. And it’s not as weird or frightening as these characters and you _know_ it. So quit pretending already.” There was the weirdness which is always funny, but the sketches were so over the top as to be clearly not an endorsement of the stereotypes. [Take it from me where it’s ight’ to be (In Living Color)](https://genius.com/In-living-color-cause-thats-the-way-youre-livin-when-youre-in-living-color-lyrics) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-in-living-color-fly-today/838709.md?page=1)