“Today,” of course, was actually Sunday, because, shockingly, I’m behind again. Ah, these things happen. At the least information’s continuing to come in at a relatively rapid clip.
I know I said the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were inevitably going to go down as one of the most entertaining panel openings of the trip, and I stand by that statement…but, having said that, the beginning of BET’s luncheon wasn’t half-bad, either. The network provided a full gospel choir to sing us through our salad, then began the panels just as we were working our way through lunch. I couldn’t really tell how many others in the audience dug the music, but, at least for me, it was a case where the choir’s enthusiasm was downright infectious. The panels were introduced by Reginald Hudlin, who you probably know for his directing of “House Party” and Eddie Murphy’s “Boomerang.” Me, however, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t corner him to ask him when he’s gonna write a script for a “Black Panther” movie. Maybe I can get someone from BET to let me talk to him on the phone long enough to get that answer out of him…
But I digress. There were two panels on the BET plate: “BUFU,” an animated sketch comedy show from the minds of Orlando Jones (“Mad TV”) and Ali Leroi (“Everybody Hates Chris”). Now, personally, I love “Everybody Hates Chris,” and I’ve always thought that Orlando Jones was consistently funny, so I’m very psyched to check this out…especially since the clips were hilarious, particularly the one where they mercilessly mock Tyra Banks’ big forehead.
“I’m not saying anything that Tyra, herself, has not said,” swears Jones. “So we are not introducing the notion that Tyra has a big forehead to anybody. She’s said it. She said it to me. She said it on air. So, ultimately, we are just sort of picking up where she left off and taking the joke to the next level as opposed to the statement of fact, which is her going, ‘You know, I’m a model, but I have a big forehead, unlike the rest of you,’ which was essentially her comment. And we are at the next level, but I don’t consider her in any way a target.”
Other things you’ll see:
* “Is Bryant Gumbel street enough?”
* A sketch about Rev. Al Sharpton
* A “devastatingly funny” bit featuring Barack Obama and his hand puppet, Bam. “(He’s) kind of Barack’s alter ego,” explains Leroi, “who will not say things that are respectful and decent. Barack has to go, ‘Don’t say that, man.'”
There is not, however, a bit on Oprah. Why not? “We are afraid of Oprah,” admits Jones. “But we do have a bit on Gayle King, because we are not afraid of Gayle King.” (“That,” adds Leroi, “is the bit.”)
Still, this begged the question, “Why are you afraid of Oprah?” Leroi began to answer the question, throwing out things like her infinite supply of money and power, and started to indicate that, basically, she could make them disappear if she wanted…but Jones immediately shushed him. “Say nothing,” he ordered, telling the reporter, simply, “We are afraid of Oprah because we are afraid of Oprah.” (He then looked around in a panic before moving on to take the next question.)
There was a little too much debate over the issue of if this was a “black show,” or, more specifically, if being black gave the pair license to make jokes about things than non-black comedians wouldn’t be able to get away with; it was pretty clear that both Leroi and Jones were getting a little annoyed by this line of questioning toward the end, since the name of Don Imus was dropped several times.
On the Imus incident, Leroi said, “Bill Maher talked about it on his show one night, and the thing about it is this was an ill-informed piece of comedy. I understand that you are trying to be funny, but you are failing miserably because you don’t have any respected information about who your targets are. Anybody can say anything they want to. If you know who the target is, you know what’s funny about the situation, and that’s clearly what you are attempting to do is bring some comedy out, the worst thing that can happen is your joke is just bad, and it didn’t work. It happens all the time. But that’s different from, again, taking on powerless people who haven’t done anything deserving of ridicule. That’s a whole different landscape.”
We’re done, right? Wrong.
Someone immediately wanted to know if they were saying that, if a black comic had said the same thing Imus said, would it have worked. “No,” said Leroi. “A funny comic wouldn’t have said it in the first place. That’s the thing here. See, you differentiating between a black comic and a white comic, and I’m differentiating between a good comic and a bad comic. That’s a whole different thing. A good comic would not have made those choices in the first place.”
The second BET panel was for a new special called “Hip-Hop vs. America,” and the two representatives from the show were Public Enemy front man Chuck D and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Some of the writers were trying to figure out exactly why Rev. Sharpton was there, given that he’s certainly not a rapper; I theorized that it’s because he has considerable ties to various members of the hip-hop community; one of the others theorized back that he just tries to have his fingers in as many pots as possible, and that he’s always looking for the latest controversy. Eh. Either way.
Chuck’s pleased with the series for giving those responsible for hip-hop the chance to speak their minds. “I was quite pleased seeing people like T.I. or Nelly or Master P, who wouldn’t have a platform to speak, other than what their videos and songs are saying, and actually come out men. And also, women in that panel — coming out and saying things or what we felt deep inside on issues, some of the areas about their music that they wanted to talk about, and some of the areas about their music that their record companies wouldn’t allow them to deal with. And this show has great potential because it shows the inside of an artist.”
As far as the potentially-controversial title, Rev. Sharpton thinks it’s appropriate. “There is the war in hip hop, a war that’s real hip hop, and then that — how it fits into American culture. Even with the generational split, you got to remember Russell Simmons and Chuck and I are the same generation, and Russell and I may have a different view. So you got inner-generational and — you got all kind of — in hip hop, and I think that that’s what you’re going to hear on this show. To have Nelly and I on the same stage, to have T.I. and Stanley Crouch on the same stage and all of us talking and Nelly saying things like what he doesn’t let his kids watch could only happen in this kind of format. You can’t get that on Bill O’Reilly.”
Yours Truly: Chuck, guys like you and KRS-One have taken rap and made political statements so that it’s been taken seriously as an art form. How do you think, say, “Flavor of Love” has affected you being taken seriously, I mean, as far as the rap community in general?
CHUCK D: I come from a black family, and one thing black folks know, we always got that one in our
family. But we take them in as family. Jimmy Carter had Billy Carter. You all remember him, right? It’s just that we outnumber “Flavor” 12-to-one, but you might not draw focus on the other 11 — and “Flavor” is a one-of-a-kind, believe that. He ain’t never ever changed and ain’t gonna change. So hopefully more shows — maybe we’ll get 11 guys to have shows that balance out the “Flavor of Love
When it was suggested that the topics of most rap songs – economics, misogyny, violence – were selected because controversy breeds cash influx, Rev. Sharpton didn’t entirely disagree. “These record companies have certain standards that are different. If I said something today against Italians, right here on this stage, it would be hate speech. If I said something against Jews, it would be hate speech. Gays, hate speech, and it should be. If I call blacks ‘niggers,’ that’s free speech. That’s somebody in the record company deciding that. Because when Michael Jackson said something offensive, they took it out of the record stores. The companies did that. The broadcasters didn’t do it, the radio stations. The companies did it. The fact that the companies allow this is why a lot of us are putting pressure on the companies to take the profit out of what we disagree with. On the other side, people that think it’s not offensive have the right to try to rally up their side. That’s what America should be about. Let’s see who can rally up the most side.”
