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Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 6:32am
The Academy Sells Soul, Welcomes Weed Humor and Black Koonery
With Academy Award’s makeover the arrival of funnymen Seth Rogen, Michael Cera and Tyler Perry raise questions
With all the buzz surrounding the ever fading Oscar night buzz, the Academy this year has decided to sell its soul to the devil and give its award show a complete makeover. In addition to scraping the Best Song category, The Academy has expanded the already sometimes talent deprived nominee pool for Best Picture to ten candidates, doubling that of years past. The moves, they hope, will inject life (and ratings) into their ho-hum award show by enabling some of the less critically acclaimed box office blockbusters to secure nominations. In recent years, the Best Picture nominees have included dark horse, poorly grossing films. This has lead to the belief that more viewers will watch if films they’re actually FAMILIAR with are up for awards.
In addition to the format switch the exclusive club that is the Academy has opened the door to 134 Oscar virgins who will be invited to join the Academy thus securing voting rights for all future Oscar ceremonies beginning in 2010. New members will include Pineapple Express duo Seth Rogen and James Franco, Rogan’s Year One co-star and fellow dry humor bud, Michael Cera, the beautiful Taraji P. Henson, Dawson’s Creek grad Michelle Williams, Last King of Scottland’s James McAvoy, last year’s award show host Hugh Jackman and of course Tyler Perry among others.
Talk about a motley crew. Believe me I certainly understand what the Academy is trying to do. Its decided to sacrifice a little credibility to increase the ratings. Its a decision every business faces but it certainly leaves them open for criticism. Seth Rogan? While a funny guy I would have to seriously question his acting abilities and better yet Michael Cera? This is the same stiff who played the cornball Paulie Bleeker as a pimple faced high school sperm donor in the movie Juno. Save his supporting role in bong humor flicks Superbad and the current Year One what else has this dude even done? I mean lets be honest, despite these two actors ability to seduce a chuckle from the audience they would have never been able to secure the respect of thier peers never the less be nominated for an award but now with voting rights the tables have shifted. In a way I feel it keeps the Academy honest but at the same time, dilutes its equity.
Now on to Mr. Perry. Black enthusiasts are probably celebrating the moment (or not) claiming that we’ve in some way over come yet another racial barrier. Whatever! Tyler Perry is a bone. He represents exactly what the Academy thinks of black acting and exactly the type of koonery black filmmakers should be ashamed of. His House of Nonsense TV shows and sexually confused Madea blasphemous Church flicks have set black film back to blaxploitation. The easiest thing would be to ignore him but black folks keep flodding to the box office and TV sets and the white establishment that is The Academy have taken notice and welcomed TIGER Perry into the country club. Thanks bruh.
FILED IN Editorials, Movies, TV
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The “Academy” is just like 1950′s Kentucky basketball or Alabama football: racist. Above all, however, and as you keenly point out, it is about dollars. Thus, just as the AD’s in the SEC had to allow black athletes to play, the “Academy” is doing what it needs to do to stay afloat. In another post, you talked about people increasingly using Twitter and Facebook to communicate and get their news. Soon, newspapers will go the way of the dinosaurs. With all the new technological advances coming through at breakneck speed, these old guys and their little exclusive club is becoming more and more irrelevant, so it’s not surprising that they’re compromising the integrity of their product. They just want to have a product!
Well they look silly in the process.
If nothing else, 2010 will be a year to recognize what makes it to the nomination pool. The diversity, although welcomed, is questionable. We shall see…
Interesting post. You sound like me in terms of my views about Farrah Gray. Hmm….
Perhaps. Maybe the best approach is to sit back and see what happens like Urban Thought recommended.
Good post. I 100% agree with your views especially with Tyler Perry
Really Juan ? How you gonna smash Tyler Perry. Say the man does his thing and his doing it on his own. Even if you don’t like his movies and television shows, you still have to respect his hustle. So when you say he has set us back, naw he showing us how to move forward. Think about what you say or write sometime CRAB!!!
I believe my commentary was very well thought out thank you. You see this is the problem. Black folks don’t expect enough of each other. We celebrate a man who “takes care of his seeds.” Or get all giggly when our kids graduate college.
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Especially post-Obama Presidency we should learn to EXPECT success. Act like you’ve been there. Should I now give Tyler Perry a pass for his shucking and jiving?! I think not, Koonery is koonery and when I see it I know it. You need to stop sticking up for the guy because he spits a half-hearted biblical message. Hell he even dropped that! I remember when he was producing the bootleg Madea flicks, it was all about the Lord, now that ironically has faded as the money has come pouring in.
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I’m not feeling bad for dukes at all.
^^ Too easy…. *whispering: It takes one to…*
The Academy Awards has lost tons of credibility. They need to stay high-brow but instead they are going the way of the MTV awards, People’s choice awards or any other “joke” award show that’s basically an excuse to get a group of celebrities together on stage and on the red carpet.
Classic Juan post….I feel you, bro. It’s ok to expect BETTER. There was a time when we would celebrate any and almost everything that had Black involvement but it’s ok to expect better.
thank you.
Not too sure I’m in agreement with the Tyler Perry remarks. We simply can’t have it both ways. He doesn’t degrade women, call them out of their names or anything. And as far as his shows go, if “Friends” or “Sex In The City” can be hits, why wouldn’t we want this brother to do good? Why does comedy have to be koonery just because it’s a black show? I’m a bit confused, and this does strike me as a “crabs in a barrel” move.
You’re right. Comedy is comedy. What my point is that heads feel that because Tyler Perry is a black man with a gig (albeit a good one) we should celebrate him. Hell nah! He’s making moves but that doesn’t give him a get out of jail free card. If anything he should know it means he’s gotta be more responsible about his content.
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I can’t talk about Friends or Sex and the City, its irrelevant. Koonery sells obviously and if you’re making money doing it…do you. But you better believe I’m gonna let you know about it. We need to stop celebrating mediocrity.
Another question. If we are to expect “better” (which by the way is a VERY relative term, but I get the point), should we all of sudden anticipate rappers to change their message? What, dare we imagine a world free of the “video ho”?! Don’t hold your breath. Will we see “urban” males all of sudden pulling up their britches and wearing belts? Will we see a sudden sharp decline in teenage pregnancy and HIV rates among blacks?
OK I admit that I may have gotten off of the subject, but when we speak of expecting “better”, it covers a wide range of topics. Keep posting folks!!
Whole other topic. You can go back in the archives and read the chapters upon chapters I’ve written about the ills of hip hop.
Huummmmmm ….. I’m feeling the different thoughts being expressed here. I see all your points……
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That attitude of not expecting enough of each other, I see it. That is why when my children get A’s, I say good job, as a matter of fact. I expect them to get A’s. When my 12 year old son started struggling in school (after always being a straight-A student), we got to the root of the problem and he finished the school year in good shape. He understands the expectations, however. His job is for his grades to reflect his intelligence. When we celebrate any and all achievements like…it’s 1999, it seems like we are saying that we don’t expect the person to excel. So ANY job or grades, it’s all good! We can do better. We should ask and expect better of ourselves and each other.
So the queston remains. How do we define “better”? If you aske me, T.P. is doing pretty darn good. Then again , how do we define “good”? Is Juan saying he shouldn’t be on the show, or is he saying they have lowered the standards? To tell you the truth, I never really watch the Academy awards anyway, never felt like I could relate. They are trying to reach a broader audience with this marketing strategy. I guess we’ll just have to see what comes of it.
You’re right! They’re trying to get the black folks that watch the koonery to tune in lol. I’m feeling you Emerson.
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Classic example. As a New York baseball fan we’ve got two teams to root for the Mets or the Yankees. The Yankees EXPECT to win a chip every year or else its a failed effort. They expect EXCELLENCE. The Black Folks aka the Mets hope that folks will dig the new stadium…oh and if they win the division its icing on the cake. Mets fans like myself get lambasted if we get critical of the team because they don’t make the World Series. Damn isn’t that the goal? Yeah only 2 teams get there but why can’t we be one?
I happen to like Tyler Perry and don’t see what all the fuss is about. Furthermore I don’t see what the big deal is about Madea, isn’t it just comedy? And people act like they don’t have a madea in their family, it’s the reality. It never seems to be enough for the black community, if you decide to play on things that happen in real life you are being a coon but if you try to play on the positive of black culture you are selling out, I really don’t know anymore.
Take my man Spike for instance. Cats rarely ever seem to “UNDERSTAND” Spike because he touches on a more controversial topic. He’s different. He hopes to teach, create dialog and touch a nerve with every film he makes. WHY NOT! Is art now devoid of controversy? What VALUE does Tyler Perry really bring? None.
I really don’t care about Perry either way. I think Mr. Brown is hilarious, tho!
Let’s keep this in context please. I do not have a problem with Tyler Perry BUT we are talking about the Academy and the Oscar awards….THEN that changes things. Adding Seth Rogan and James Franco is to be critized as well(and it is *Juan). As for Tyler Perry and the Academy is concerned I’d like someone with a better reputation in the acting community to have those props, people like Morgan Freeman, Denzel and so on….adding a person like Tyler Perry to the Academy is taking a step sidewise. There is nothing wrong with liking Tyler’s work but is he an Academy worthy person especially since it’s already limited with Blacks….I don’t think so.
I don’t know for certain but I’m pretty sure Freeman and Washington are already part of the Academy. You’re right we got off topic but sometimes that’s ok.
Well said…