From Odienator's Black History Mumf love-fest for Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" at Big Media Vandalism, "You Ain't Never Met Martin Luther The King."
His caption for this photo : "Yeah, Juno got that hamburger phone idea from me. Bitch ain't even give me credit, neither, Florida!" (Please note: The man's bun has no seeds.)
Writes Odie:
"Coming to America" may be the Blackest comedy ever made, and it’s little touches like McDowell’s [the low-rent, individually owned McDonald's knock-off] that elevate it past the mild amusement it seems to garner from White viewers into the upper echelon of hilarity it occupies for us. It crushes us under the weight of familiarity, to the point where a musical cue or a mere image is enough to inspire raucous laughter. There are so many in-jokes that the film is like an old Negro Spiritual: everybody can hear the music, but only we can understand the code in the words.
Great article by Odienator, and I have more to say, which I shall do so at Big Media Vandalism, but one quick observation. The piece seems to be looking at us white folks with contempt, and furiously spitting:
"What do you know from funny, you bastards?"
Geddit?
The whole essay is a splendid retrospective for a brilliant, funny movie. Along with This Is Spinal Tap, Withnail and I, and Landis and Murphy's previous colloaboration Trading Places, it completes the superfecta of the most endlessly quotable movies of the eighties.
Ahh, Trading Places... "You want some beef jerky? There's plenty, you know!"
Not at all, Ali. I just said that the movie works on two levels of humor, one for Black folks and one for everybody else. A lot of people of all persuasions found and find it funny, but wouldn't classify it as the piece of comedic genius that we do. I've had this argument before, which is what led to me writing the piece.
I have a friend who loves the Jodie Foster directed movie Home for the Holidays, a movie I despise. He told me it was so funny to him because this was his family on the screen. That's what my piece is aiming for in its execution. No contempt intended. Believe me, you'll know Odienator contempt when you see it!
I've heard the same thing said about Undercover Brother, a film that never fails to make me laugh my ass off... I was quite sad to see it didn't do better. Does it also enjoy popularity in the black community?
Odienator - Oh yeah, I know. My comment about the piece's contempt was tongue in cheek, and just a cheap way for me to quote Saul.
And while we're using a telephone prop to define a "trailblazing" film such as "Coming To America", let's not forget:
The first movie with a black barbershop scene that really showed you why a black barbershop isn't just a place to get your hair cut. (Royalties, Mr. Cube?)
And...
The scene where Eddie Murphy is mopping the floor and talks to the boss about the football game he watched where the Giants of New York beat the Packers of Green Bay with a field goal.
Coincidence...or something more???
(And who could forget the scene of Eddie flirting with a transvestite )
To quote many of my friends who have performed on Def Comedy Jam:
You see, it's funny because black folks drive like this, but white folks drive like THIS...
Anyway...
Coming from a white boy who grew up in an all black neighborhood, I have actually found myself explaining some things from "Coming To America".
Although you have to admit, Odie, not all black people are part of the same culture. That'd be as stupid as saying all white people share the same culture, all black people are athletically inclined, all Japanese are bad drivers, and blah blah blah blah blah.
OK. I'm rambling. This is going nowhere.
Great observations, Odie. And thanks, Jim, for sharing it with everyone.
Ken, I like Undercover Brother, but I don't think it's caught on as much as other movies like I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and Coming To America. Give it time, though. I love when Billy Dee starts talking about the "Nappy Meal." I was choking on my popcorn.
Happy Camper, you're right. I can't paint all Black folks with the same brush. We are not a monolith. So I'm speaking for the many folks who shared my experiences growing up in the hood. You'd be surprised how much the same information travels, no matter where you are. I once dated a girl who grew up 700 miles from where I did, and we knew the same games, the same kids songs and the same silly superstitions. You'd be surprised how much shared experience can exist in this country.
I hope everybody will check out Odie's other posts in this series -- on topics ranging from "House Party" to the overlooked "No Way Out" (1950) to (my favorite headline) "One Drop of Black Cinema: Joel Schumacher."
He may live in the Fortress of OdieTude, but Odienator himself is not monolithic. He's such a pleasure to read in part because he suits his tone to his subject, and he's got quite a range!
I'm glad to see "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!" mentioned (Did it have the ! in the title?) I thought it was hilarious and I've never even seen "Superfly" or "Shaft". I spent the first half of the 70s going to Disney re-releases. "Carwash" was a major cultural event in my junior high days, though. My all white church basketball team did lay-up drills doing the claps from the theme song. Please take a moment to imagine that....
Odie,
I love your writing, by the way. I think I left that out the first time around.
I totally am with you on the shared experiences thing. For instance: my friends and I all agree that an "urban comedy" just isn't an "urban comedy" unless someone at some point is being chased by Tiny Lister. (Or all former members of Full Force!)
Take care!
This is racist garbage. Black folks "get" some humor that white folks don't, white folks "get" other humor that black folks don't? Dumbest hate rant I ever read.
Ted: Please seen Odienator's comments above:
I can't paint all Black folks with the same brush. We are not a monolith. So I'm speaking for the many folks who shared my experiences growing up in the hood. You'd be surprised how much the same information travels, no matter where you are. I once dated a girl who grew up 700 miles from where I did, and we knew the same games, the same kids songs and the same silly superstitions. You'd be surprised how much shared experience can exist in this country.
I agree with happy camper, this is the type of idea that keeps racism alive today. Saying it works on different levels for black people than white people is just perpetuating stereotypes and moving us further from equality.
It isn't helpful to make statments like "the movie works on two levels of humor, one for Black folks and one for everybody else" I'm sure there are many white people who have been raised with enough exposure to black culture to "get" the "black folk" level of humor. Just as there are many, many black people who won't get that sense of humor.
I agree with Ted, this is the type of idea that keeps racism alive today. Saying it works on different levels for black people than white people is just perpetuating stereotypes and moving us further from equality.
It isn't helpful to make statments like "the movie works on two levels of humor, one for Black folks and one for everybody else" I'm sure there are many white people who have been raised with enough exposure to black culture to "get" the "black folk" level of humor. Just as there are many, many black people who won't get that sense of humor.
Lambman,
OK, so you're denying that black people and white people have cultural differences? I guess you're saying that the way to combat ignorance is through more ignorance.
Nice!
Also, would anybody like to guess what I stuck up my butt today?
re: lambman and Ted Freely
Your assertion of the equivalence of the movie working on different levels for 'white people and black people' with racism is a problematic one. When thinking about this particular issue, there are a number of things you need to keep in mind in order to have the proper context with which to frame it.
1: Genuine cultural differences do exist between different ethnic, social, and economic groups. This is because culture is another word for "the shared experience of me and my friends and neighbors, and what we hold in common."
2: The material processes at work in a community shape that community just as much as that community's traditions do; growing up in the suburbs is not the same as growing up on a farm is not the same as growing up in a ghetto is not the same as growing up in an expensive high rise.
3: Ours is a society which simultaneously values cultural differences and which embraces multiculturalism. The upside of this is that it encourages people to learn about and value cultures which are not their own, and that it can serve to bring understanding where there was once fear and an 'us vs them' mentality: we have different lives and faces, but our hearts have common places, and in the end, aren't we all Americans? The downside of this is that it destroys the thing that it values. The constant exposure of wildly differing cultures to one another accelerates the process of cultural assimilation, and the end result is a peculiar kind of monoculture: this is the truth of the American melting pot ideal. Eventually, even the specifically ethnic communities no longer really belong to the original culture, but to American culture at large: China Town is an Americanized China. Japan Town is an Americanized Japan, and so on. To paraphrase Star Trek: "We are America. You will be assimilated. We will add your cultural distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
An example of this principle in action is the adoption of Hip Hop and (to a lesser extent, Gangsta Rap) by a primarily white, middle class, suburban audience.
It is in this sense only that the two of your are correct (lambman and Ted Freely). An insistence upon unassimilated cultural differences does in fact perpetuate the unassimilated culture's distinctiveness from the dominant culture.
4: In spite of the melting pot ideal, as noted in point 2, the material processes at work in a community shape that community. Furthermore, tradition and pride in your traditions can be an effective form of resistance to assimilation (there is, after all, nothing more unpopular than 'tradition' in the mainstream culture). In some cases, this can lead a significant retardation of the process of assimilation, as in the case of the African-American community. Finally, both the history of segregation and racism in America and the history of Eurocentrism provide barriers within the context of the melting pot itself that prevent assimilation and allow for distinctly different American cultures to exist and even flourish... provided the people who make up those cultures were/are either heavily discriminated against or are not European.
e.g.: Chicano culture, African American culture, Irish American culture, and so on.
It is interesting to note that what is typically identified as 'African-American culture,' while distinctly different from the so-called 'white culture,' is less an African culture than an American one.
All that to say, in spite of the American trend towards assimilation and homogenization, we are a long way yet from a monoculture, and accusations of racism are perhaps ill-advised.
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