I’m not even going to try and hide it that I’m hatin’ on the guy. He’s incredibly successful at what he does and has made a ton of money in the process. This isn’t necessarily a knock on Tyler Perry the man, but just these incredibly wack TV shows that TBS is promoting like they’re the funniest thing since Afro Ninja.

I’ve seen a couple of his movies and they were actually pretty funny but that’s got nothing to do with the fact that these two TV shows — House of Payne and Meet the Browns — are beyond trash.

I gave House of Payne a couple different chances to try and live up to the TBS hype and out of about two full hours of watching — and I’m talking about watching the show even after I felt like changing the channel, just to give it a chance — I may have laughed mildly about twice. I don’t care who you are and what type of stuff you find funny, but if you give anyone two hours to say something funny, you’re bound to laugh at least twice. That doesn’t mean they deserve a TV series.

I heard a radio spot about Meet the Browns today and it was just one bad stereotype after another. Then I decided to look online to see if there were any clips of the show and found two: Sneak Peak One and Sneak Peak Two. Normally, sneak peaks are supposed to draw the audience in with some sort of tease or reasonably funny line or something but…what the flyin’ fuck? If anybody found any part of those funny, do me a favor and leave a comment along with the name of your dealer.

This reminds me of a time when the only way blacks were allowed on television was to be somebody’s sidekick or to play some stereotypical role that only reinforced viewers’ opinions on blacks as poor, fat and ignorant. Tyler Perry is doing a good job of bringing those ideas front and center again. I’d be a lot more worried about these shows if we didn’t have other outlets like the internet and other decent TV shows with black folks, but it’s still worth calling this guy out on his lazy effort with these shows.

I grew up watching buffoonery, so it’s not necessarily buffoonery I have a problem with: it’s weak buffoonery. Martin is still one of my favorite shows ever and between Sheneneh, Roscoe, Mama Payne, Dragonfly Jones and Jerrrrome, he might just be the greatest buffonist to ever grace this earth. When you’re great at being a buffoon, there’s nothing wrong with the label, but if you’re up there acting a fool and nobody’s laughing, you’re just making an ass of yourself and it’s embarassing. That’s what’s going on with Tyler Perry’s TV shows where he’s just playing on stereotypes without being funny. It’s just a bunch of black folks looking like idiots and that’s just the last thing anyone needs right now.

If TBS plopped a suitcase full of money in front of me to put some garbage show together, I’d do it too. Tyler Perry’s got money though…I don’t. Why is this guy putting this stuff on TV when he knows good’n well that it’s not funny. I refuse to believe that whoever wrote that shit was sittin in front of a computer somewhere writing “I went to the sto’ Cora, and a bought the whole DVD box set of This Old Hood” and was bustin’ a gut like the fake audience was in the background. Is that what it takes to make money nowadays? To just throw some tired, recycled jokes on some paper and act a fool?

Anybody that wants to work on Zaki’s House of Tired Stereotypes and Wannabe Martin Lawrences with me, let me know because I can almost guarantee watching my 2-year-old nephew for six seconds could make me laugh more than watching this stuff for hours on end.

No related posts.