We like Spike Lee, he’s good at staying angry. His latest victim is Tyler Perry someone who is very rich, very talented and probably an all around great guy……..but his movies are a little “overrated” in our opinion. What? Go get Madea then….here’s what Spike had to say:
“We’ve had this discussion back and forth. When John Singleton [made 'Boyz in the Hood'], people came out to see it. But when he did ‘Rosewood,’ nobody showed up. So a lot of this is on us! You vote with your pocketbook, your wallet. You vote with your time sitting in front of the idiot box, and [Tyler Perry] has a huge audience. We shouldn’t think that Tyler Perry is going to make the same film that I am going to make, or that John Singleton or my cousin Malcolm Lee [would make]. As African-Americans, we’re not one monolithic group, so there is room for all of that. But at the same time, for me, the imaging is troubling and it harkens back to ‘Amos n’ Andy.’”
“Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors, but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery. I know it’s making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better. … I am a huge basketball fan, and when I watch the games on TNT, I see these two ads for these two shows (Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns” and “House of Payne”), and I am scratching my head. We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?
We wouldn’t have said ALL that, maybe just ask for some originality in the upcoming films…
Is Spike “a hater” or just telling the truth???
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Love Spike and I agree 1000%. I don’t think he’s attacking Perry b/c Perry is just doing what pays. He’s shown with films like “family that preys” he’s capable of better. But he knows people will gobble up the coonery. It’s more of a sad reflexion on the consumer than anything else.
Spike is keeping it real! People need to open their eyes!
I completely agree with Spike. I’, glad he has the balls to say what he feels. I’ve never been a fan of men dressing as women and mocking them There are so many Black women who need the work, why continue to take it from them?
Why do they always have to be angry? It’s either angry or funny, like we don’t have all the emotions of any person.
I feel Spike completely.
I agree with what was said above in addition 2 Tyler Perry’s Madea being overrated & just bit much. I think he is trying 2 find equal ground @ least
forty acres and a mule! throwin up the deuces! preach spike!
I’ve felt the same way about Perry myself. I think he panders to the female audience telling them what they want to hear to sell tickets. I suppose maybe it’s no worse than action movies with gratuitous vioulence but when I watch Perry’s stuff I feel like I’m being stereotyped and bambozzled.
Spike is speaking nothing but the truth!
Spike is a truth teller….I agree…but we as people are entitled to having horrible shows to!! It’s funny how his show stays on but Girlfriends and The Game get thrown around…
^oops..
“It’s funny how his show stays on but Girlfriends and The Game get thrown out”…
Just telling the truth.
I understand what Spike is saying but the problem really isn’t Tyler Perry, it’s the fact that we (blacks) don’t have any equally entertaining and substantially more sophisticated quality productions to balance out the Madea’s and Meet the Brown’s phenomenon. I actually applaud Tyler for going sort of against whats popular and always having a very positive message in his work, no matter how amateurish and cheesy it comes off. But the combination of a bad education system, low standards, low expectations, and blacks celebrating mediocrity is affecting our music entertainment and overall lives across the board.
Spike is the truth and Perry I am pointing my finger at you, while your stories always have a great message the sideshow fetch and step act in most is not needed and a black audience does not require it in every film or tv show. We are more then that, dont dumb it down for us we can handle real 3D Characters.
The truth!!!!!!
Imma go against the grain and say that he’s hating. People never talk about the black on black bashing that goes on in our “communities”. If this message was truly about “quality” movies for black folks and sending positive messages and what have you then I think the Wayans Bro’s should have been mentioned but the fact that he only singled out Tyler Perry (Because he’s on top) makes me wonder. At the end of the day I don’t give a shit about neither one of em because they don’t put money in my account but you have to pick sense from nonsense.
I agree with Spike all the way.
I think it was past due time for someone to say something
I think he is hating if your going to bring something like that up then ,you should look at everything. Of course Tyler Perry has meet the browns and madea which are funny but he does potray black people as succesfull human beings in movies such s Why Did I get Married and The Family that Preys. Lets talk about how this man started from making plays to arriving on the big screen. And lastly these shows wouldnt exist if people weren’t watching it. Sometimes people just want to be entertained!
zero2sixty – Not all women like that buffoonery that Tyler puts out!!! He caters to a population of people that like that foolishness. I have never seen any of his movies or plays because the jokes in the previews turn me off. I know other women who feel the same way. I try to support movies like The Great Debaters, but when you go, the theater is empty. Oh well, at least I can hear the movie.
I agree with Spike! However, it is up to the black consumer to support the films that are of substance! We can’t hate on Tyler Perry when we pack the movie theaters full when his films debut! There have been great black films that we HAVE NOT supported! We have to voice our opinions through our consumer dollars! We need to do this with everything we buy! If a product does not represent our community in a positive light, we should not show our monetary support until they do so!
Spikee Lee is the Truth.
Also He Graduated from my High School Word up.
Brooklyn……
One Love.
Spike is definitely hating. The black consumer is speaking and is telling him loud and clear that we want to be entertained, which is something that a lot of his movies aren’t able to do. Tyler’s light hearted and exaggerated comedies may not be Oscar worthy but they are nowhere near coonery. If that’s the case then Martin and Jamie Fox, & The Steve Harvey Show were all coonery too. Tyler always depicts strong black family units in everything he does and he also employs a lot of black actors and actresses that would ordinarily be overlooked. Spike sounds bitter and condescending as if he’s saying that Tyler doesn’t deserve what he’s achieved. I challenge Spike to fall back on his critism, dig in his crate of creativity and offer us better.
Crabs in a barrell. Spike should know that pointing the finger won’t solve anything. Tyler has done better and will continue to surpass Spike because his heart is in the right place.
I normally think Spike goes a little crazy with these rants some times but I kind of agree with him a little on this one. I think Tyler Perry movies/tv shows are extremely corny and unfunny and although not always sometime it comes off as coonery and buffoonery. The problem is there is no alternative as far as comedies go meaning who’s the black Judd Apatow there really is none. I cant think of one black directed or black stared comedy in the past 10 years that made me laugh as hard as “40 Year Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up” or “Superbad”. Sure Tyler Perry’s movies make bank but they get trashed by critics and never win any real awards but cause when you compare it to the other comedies out there you see how shitty they really are. We need a new Eddie Murphy his stuff from the 80′s(Beverly Hill Cop, 48hrs, Trading Places, Coming to America ect) made tons of money, go praised by critics and never came across as coonish. Unfortunately Eddie’s carrier has really fallin off since then.
I don’t know who’s gonna be the black director/star to make the first all black comedy of this decade that doesn’t fall into coonery but we need to support the black directors out there that make true art people like Albert & Allen Hughes, John Singleton, Spike Lee, Gary F. Grey, and Antoine Fuqua
Love you for this one Spike…can’t be mad, it’s the truth!
Its the truth!!!
SPEAK ON SPIKE!!! TELL THOSE FOOLS THAT TYLER PERRYS SCRIPTED SITCOMS ARE STUPID!!!!
da truth has been told
Spike makes some good points. However as the image on this post displays, Lee benefited and participated in the ‘coonery’ and ‘buffoonery’ as well. The Nike ad$ he did paid him well and at the same time helped fuel the conspicuous consumption where kids shot each other for shoes. Lee went to college and film school, Perry wrote plays in his car. We all still black.
Spike forgets that the bafoonery and coonery actually exists in our community. A lot of black people are not avid readers, do not know their history, and have poor self images. It all comes back to education. It can be argued that Tylers films appeal to the uneducated. And the millions that he’s made is indicative of the huge amount of uneducated blacks out there.
Spike is 100% RIGHT we need to do better people!
Spike is telling the truth. i just had this conversation in the barbershop this morning and they were watching a Madea play and I was saying that I’m probably the only black person that don’t watch those bafoonish shows he makes. It seems like he caters toward the lower income/educated black people and we know they have a comfort zone. Which is how they live so they love those plays and won’t open up to anything else
That man ain’t doing nothing BUT speaking the TRUTH!
He’s right. I LOVE Tyler Perry, but I won’t touch his TV shows with a ten-foot pole!!!!!!!!
“Sensitive thugs, you all need hugs.”
Blacks are so over the top with racism (huge generalization, sorry). Why are people like Spike Lee so scared of portraying blacks like Tyler Perry and that Popeyes Commercial. Embrace that shit. Whites don’t laugh at you, and the ones that do fuck’em. They laugh with you. Whites have plenty of stereotypical characters on TV.
That’s what makes every race that different.
Stop Crying you B!tch, your movies are pretty wack these days anyway.
I love Spike, I really do, but . I think he’s 1/2 and 1/2 on the issue. Spike has a bad rep for speaking the truth, but at the same time, if he could do better, I’m sure he’d be wecomed with open arms.
There hasn’t been a decent AA show on the air since The Cosbys and Living Single (the ‘Girlfriends’ of the 90′s).
Can we get some decent TV?!?