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Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 363
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 05:57 pm: | 
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The author of this piece is Kam Williams, a frequent contributor of reviews of non-fiction books and movies. I post this article, because this is one TV show that I did see and while I can see where children might like it I thought it was pretty corny.
The prize awarded are as embarrasing paltry as the program itself.
Yet another sucessful effort by folks who introduce programming that requires no writers, or much thought, but managers to garner an huge audience.
--Troy
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Yo Momma: MTV Tarzan Takes the Ghetto by Storm
by Lloyd Williams
"You’re momma’s so lazy, the last time she had a job, the minimum wage was slavery.”
-- White winner insulting black loser on MTV
In the climactic showdown in the movie 8 Mile, the character Rabbit humiliates his hapless black opponent in a rap contest staged right in the ‘hood in which they take turns ridiculing each other. Of course, since Eminem was the star of this supposedly autobiographical vehicle, everybody expected the white guy to get the better of the brother.
Recently, MTV debuted a new reality series entitled “Yo Momma” ostensibly inspired by the sort of braggadocio found not only in 8 Mile, but in the average hip-hop music video. Picture an unplugged version of gangsta rap, trash talk sans samples and beats, where all you hear is the loudmouth shouting.
The basic format has the host visiting a couple of different L.A. neighborhoods to find the most gifted trash talker on the block between the ages of 18-22. Then he has the two best square-off in a no-holds-barred finale where they mercilessly denigrate each other’s mothers on national television in order to walk away with a measly grand prize of $1000.
Though only on the air for a few weeks, the show has already shot up the charts, and presently enjoys the third highest rating among all cable programs in the coveted teen demographic. Given its sudden popularity, I decided to check out an episode and was frankly quite shocked at the offensive repartee, which struck me as almost deliberately designed to antagonize and inflame along ethnic lines, especially the insensitive barbs aimed at blacks by white participants.
“You’re mother is like an SUV, big, black with room for six construction workers inside,” went a winning quip leveled by a great white hope named Harp at a dumbstruck black kid who couldn’t think of a clever comeback. So the fast and furious abuser only escalated the attack with, “You’re mother gave birth to a black Shrek. That’s why you look like a [expletive]-ing ogre” and “You’re mother’s so old and fat, it wasn’t the Underground Railroad till she sat on it.”
I know that “playing the dozens” is an age-old oral tradition, but excuse me for asking exactly when did it become socially-acceptable, let alone cool, for a Caucasian to pervert African-American culture by resorting to every hurtful stereotype about slavery and skin color and in the most mean-spirited fashion he can think of? Worse, why, at the end of the day, is he proclaimed “King of the Hill” as if a modern-day Tarzan or kimosabe capable of conquering the slums?
Tragically, in one generation, the defining anthem of African-American youth has gone from asserting, “I’m black and I’m proud,” to being exogenously defined as the good-natured butt of racist jokes in demeaning tirades with punchlines like “You’re mother’s so black, they use her bath water to dye bowling balls.”
If you’re a responsible parent, you might want to monitor closely what your child is watching on television, because if we’ve learned nothing else from all the misogyny, self-hatred, self-destruction, conspicuous consumption, celebration of black-on-black street violence, and general jive superficiality running rampant in the rapidly vanishing Hip-Hop Generation, it’s that it doesn’t take very long for an impressionable young mind to become what it beholds.
And a mind is a terrible thing to lose.
Lloyd Williams is an attorney and a member of the bar in NJ, NY, CT, PA, MA & US Supreme Court bars.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4382
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 06:48 pm: |
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I know this is a serious subject with negative consequences but did anybody see the movie "Guess Who?" A couple of jokes Ashton Kucher asked Bernie Mack to get back at him for making fun of white people, were very offensive but they cracked me up. Joke #1; Qestion: Why do we know that Adam and Eve weren't black? Answer: Because a black man would never give up his ribs. Joke #2; Question: What are 3 things a black man can't get? Answer: A black eye, a fat lip, or a job. Forgive me, people. |
Brownbeauty123
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Brownbeauty123
Post Number: 216
Registered: 03-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 08:19 pm: |
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I was actually going to start a thread on this Troy. But was not aware if the posters here watched MTV enough to be familiar with the show 'Yo Momma'.
The white male opponents do not hesitate to make several 'You're so Black' jokes AT ALL even in just one round. It's like MTV is giving the thumbs up for white males to get back at all the years black comics made fun of whites.
White guys seem to observe that we so often go around talking about how other people in our race are so 'blue black' that they think it's okay for them to joke about it too. Because the black males often use these lame jokes against each other as well in this show.
When the white males make the derrogatory jokes no one even blinks an eye--even the host who is a very darkskin black male is laughing right along with the crowd as if it's the funniest thing he's EVER heard. The jokes are so rehashed, tired, and unfunny I find his reaction so rehearsed and unnatural.
I can't believe the show is gaining so much popularity--Yo Momma jokes are so 90s. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 476
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 08:59 pm: |
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Troy - I hadn't heard of this Yo Momma thing since I don't watch MTV and I think that this is beyond sick. I mean - it's one step forward and ten steps back for Black ppl. And since Viacom owns MTV and BET, perhaps they'll start airing this garbage on BET soon and further shove it down our throats about how inferior Black ppl are.
The FCC permits this? An entire program largely based on derogatory racist remarks and slurs. Why can't we organize a letter writing campaign or something to protest this. And organize a boycott of the products/companies that advertise during this show and on MTV in general? We've boycotted products before.
What's even more stupid - if their producers are selecting participants from the streets of Los Angeles or wherever, would you think it's going to create a negative backlash in those communities. Because ppl will shoot you dead if you say some crap like that about somebody's mama in L.A. You could say something stupid about somebody else's mama and get a beatdown about it. Who comes up with these retarded concepts for television programming anyway - because I could come up with something better than that. Something positive even.
So what are we going to do about it? |
Brownbeauty123
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Brownbeauty123
Post Number: 218
Registered: 03-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 10:40 pm: |
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Mzuri--
Just look at ComicView. They're infamous for the 'blue black' jokes regarding African Americans. What makes this show any different? Is it because the white males are participating?
The black males are using the very same jokes against their opponents.
In the last segment the finalists have a chance to diss anything related to the opponent--even their real life Mother who is viewing the challenge with the rest of the crowd--the black contestants even diss on how black their opponent's mother is.
What really irks me about the show is that the jokes are NOT original at all, which is an understatement, yet whenever a 'blue black' joke is made it always warrants this great outburst of laughter 98% of the time. At least from the times I watched it. It can have the most lamest and sorry delivery from a white kid or a black one --like "you're so black like the midnight sky" and the mini crowd will cackle or go bananas.
Considering this is really a lightweight, popcorn show you'd think the producers would leave out any racial slurs. The show is not that good for it to sink to such a low level. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4597
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 12:22 am: |
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Troy,
If the Black comedians had told offensive jokes about WHITE mothers, would Kam/Lloyd have felt better?
Seriously, given everything ELSE Black foks have been doing over the last 15 years to degrade their likeness and history, this "Yo Momma" thing seems very much par for the course. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 2469
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 04:24 am: |
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Either I'm getting old or they're resurrecting our trends prematurely.
Maybe it's a conspiracy to make me really old before my time.
You're right Beauty; Yo momma jokes are sooo 90s.
Why are they resurrecting the stupid stuff?
I saw them breakdancing awhile ago on one show--how lame is that...?
Anyhoo, somebody needs to comment on the psychology of "Yo Momma" and "Tarzan Takes the Ghetto." I can't handle it right now. I just think it's weird how "Yo Momma" is back to haunt us. I'm curious. What about "Yo Father?"
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Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 366
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 09:11 pm: |
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Abm the show is absolutely par for course.
Mzuri, "So what are we going to do about it?" is a damn good question. The answer is the same as it ever was -- nothing.
There are FAR too many people who enjoy the broadcast. According to Kam the show is already at the top of the charts. Too any people are making too much dough for this to end because a few old fuddie duddies like us think this crap is crap.
Besides there is a Holocaust going on in the Sudan, so relatively speaking...
The only thing we can do is educate our children and develop their taste so that they seek entertainment of higher quality. The problem is that we live in a society when the average Joe is intellectually unsuited for more sophisticated entertainment -- hence the popularity of these "reality" TV shows.
Times like this is when I really appreciated programming like the Cosby show. I'll just enjoy Law and Order until something else comes along.
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1030
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 10:58 pm: |
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Just turn the "Idiot Box" off and read a good book. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1031
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 11:08 pm: |
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That's a good point Tonya...but as they said in one of those "Scary Movie" films: when one character made fun of the father of another character, she said "I don't care, I don't know him." |
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