How ya living? Today everybody’s living in HD, literally. As technology gets better, networks run quicker, and motion sensor technologies take over we’re living more through our TV’s and computer screens than through the outdoor world. But there used to be a time when “In living color” was the vanguard of entertainment technology. There also used to be a time when IN LIVING COLOR, the Fox skit show, was the vanguard of comedy television.
Well folks, the show that launched the careers of JamieFoxx, Jim Carrey, J Lo and anybody named “Wayans” is back. Fox has officially ordered a new special from the Wayans to run mid-season as part of the 25 year celebration of Fox Television. If it goes well, this special will lead to the show coming back 18 years after it went off the air. But what is IN LIVING COLOR and is our country, with its burgeoning religious right, its widening class and party rifts, and the lack of posterity enjoyed by a much happier 90’s TV audience, ready for it to return?
First off, IN LIVING COLOR is credited with airing most of the racial stereotypes still plaguing America at the country, taking special care to poke fun at African Americans, lightening the topic of racism for the first time since the incendiary Civil rights revolution. This concept would set the irreverent tone for years, even evolving into the phenomenally successful DAVE CHAPPELLE'S SHOW, the last great skit-based variety show to grace television. Somewhere between the Rodney King Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, the Wayans irreverent humor poked fun at and helped air such touchstone issues as gays, black culture, white bigotry, foolish elderly, handicapped, bigotry in restaurants (look up the Denny’s fiasco) , and even the disgruntledness of the disenfranchised losers, derelicts, and homeless who found themselves even further left behind as the rest of the country enjoyed a financial and employment boom not soon to be rivaled. Will we be able to laugh at the unfortunate, at the stupid, at the broke while we’re running around with master’s degrees looking for jobs as busboys and supermarket checkers?
Secondly, IN LIVING COLOR and, namely Keenen Ivory Wayans, invented the modern parody. Before him it was all about poking fun at a genre, classic movies like AIRPLANE and POLICE ACADEMY which supplied the world with fresh jokes not tied to any one thing but a whole paradigm at large. Even Wayans’ blaxploitation parody I’MGONNA GET YOU SUCKA was more of a montage of plots and characters than a basic parody of one thing. But in IN LIVING COLOR they regularly took music videos, press events, TV shows, and movies and rearranged them into farces filled with biting social commentary wrapped up in comedic talent (Kim Wayans’impression of Tracy Chapman and Jim Carrey’s rendition of ICE ICE BABY cometo mind). Eventually, after the show was cancelled the Wayans would go on to produce SCARY MOVIE, the first parody that directly mirrored another movie’s plotlines with slight word and character changes. This launched Anna Faris’ career, though it also launched the dismal state of modern satire movies, where they literally take a hit movie, change names to include the word “Fart” in it, throw in a few characters from other hit movies with similarly changed names (see EPIC MOVIE’s Captain Jack Swallows or, most recently, VAMPIRES SUCK) and pawn it off as original comedy. So that’s one strike against them, not for inventing a new style of parody but for inventing a new style that would get so overdone and cheesy that it single-handedly brought on what I consider the shit-colored age of film satire. But since this has been overdone, will they be able to do it again or will their comedy just feel stale, played out? For fuck’s sake, they don’t even have music videos to mock anymore. They'll have to invent a new form of satire and, well, that's asking a lot.
Now watch the opening credits - they launched a few amazing careers. Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, J Lo (as one of their dancers), I mean that’s fucking lightning in a bottle for a show that lasted only 5 years with a black-centric theme. Can any white folks name any characters from Tyler Perry’s shows? Or even any of his movies? I thought not. Even more, look at the second tier – Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, Kelly Coffield, all talented comedians with high-profile roles in many great movies who are still working today. No other skit show can say most of its talent is still appearing on top shows and movies today. None. That talent was mind-blowing and deep. Will they be able to pull together a cast like that again? The odds are against them. Especially since then the Wayans were all up-and-coming young comedians with their fingers on the pulse. Judging by movies like LITTLE MAN and the lack of any Wayans brothers (and sister) comedy specials in the last decade, I’d say that’s a no. And look at Jim Carrey's last movies - or the fact that Jamie Foxx hasn't done a comedy since his own miserable show - if they try to just back the original cast, that'll just be depressing.
Finally, they excelled in political incorrectness. Bush was on his way out and Clinton was on his way in. Everybody was ready to be fat and happy, relax, laugh. Today, with Tea Parties and Occupies, with global warming and power-mongering politicos, it’s a tough time to break the rules. THEPLAYBOY CLUB couldn’t have sex; GLEE is a walking model for political correctness; all the offensive humor has been pushed to the plethora of cartoon shows that have started since IN LIVING COLOR went off the air (back then, there was only THE SIMPSONS). CHAPPELLE’S SHOW did well on cable but how would it have done on network? The letter-writing campaigns would’ve started from the black white supremacist and not stopped until the show got cancelled; hell, it probably would’ve inspired a political movement, the WE DON’T LAUGH AT MEAN JOKES party, sure, we’ll have conservatives and liberals agreeing on the same goal for different reasons, it’d be great.
It will be interesting to see. Keep an eye out as they announce more, as they get ready to air these specials mid-Spring. Will it be Michael Jordan’s return or James Cameron’s? Will it be I’MA GET YOU SUCKA smart funny or SCARY MOVIE 1-4 dumb funny? Will they have the next Jim Carrey or the next Mark McKinney? Will they throw the punches in the faces of the viewers, getting Mom and Dad at home to open their eyes to the ugly realities of the way things are or will they let the censors win and run another staid, unfunny comedy program?
Either way, it’ll be worth watching. Because, seriously, have you ever seen America be so unfunny? Or so self-important? Or so obsessed with rightness, politics? Struggling so much? No, it's time to laugh. And the last time I remember really doing that was as a young boy watching IN LIVING COLOR. For nostalgia alone I say okay. But for America - if done right, this special cum series might just be what we need to get our heads out of our asses and move forward.
- Ryan
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