Now y'all have me wondering which comedies would be considered more "black humor" or more mainstream.

Eddie Murphy's career is a weird one. I think Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop are straight mainstream comedies, IMO. Coming to America and the Nutty Professor are mostly mainstream but lean a little more into the black humor. Life and Boomerang I'd say are definitely black comedies through and through.

Then the year 2000 hit and he switched gears to entirely family comedies.

Wild ride.
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So is "Oh Brother Where Are Thou" just a white version of "Life"?

Though honestly, I don't know that I ever got that "Madea" vibe from Life. It just seemed like a buddy comedy with a couple of black comedians.

I may also be too big a fan of Martin Lawrence, now that I think on this.

We'll always have "Nothing to Lose..."

I mean c'mon, I defy anyone to watch the "scatman" scene and tell me they didn't laugh.
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Regarding Eddie Murphy, he's an interesting one. In Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, his being black is used as a device to play up how different he is relative to other characters, but the movie isn't about him being black. He's just different. You could have put a white actor in those movies without changing the basic plot. Maybe some of the jokes would need to change a bit, but it's hard to separate out Eddie being unabashedly black from Eddie just being hilarious. So I agree that those are mainstream comedies.

I would actually argue that Coming to America is mainstream as well. If you used all white actors and had them coming from Lithuania or Moldova, I think the movie still stands. It was enhanced a little by them being from Africa just because it reinforced how different America was for them, but Crocodile Dundee kind of pulled off the same trick. I think maybe there was some unique black humor in that preacher or huckster scene and the hair gel plot device, but those weren't really central to the movie. For the most part I would say that it was a mainstream movie that just happened to be all black. What would you say were some black humor elements?

I didn't see Boomerang. I've seen snippets of the Nutty Professor, which seemed mainstream, but I didn't see the whole movie to make a call.

I would conclude that Eddie mostly does mainstream movies, but he uses (at least before he went the family movie route) his being black as a comedic tool very effectively. I don't know if some people might find that exploitive, and some of his early SNL stuff probably doesn't age well, but overall in his classic movies, he's just a funny guy who happens to be black and it often makes him a fish out of water.

So if I conclude that Eddie is, and always has been a mainstream comedian, then what is a "black movie"? That's a really good question.

I don't like this answer, but on first blush I think it would have to be set in a venue that seems somewhat unique to black people, and/or the plot would have to center around being black, and/or it would have to have dialogue that's more around "black humor" or black-centric culture. I don't know how to identify black-centric culture other than to say I recognize it when I see it.

Friday may be an example. Again, I haven't seen it, but it looks like it's set in a large urban area and revolves around a drug deal and threats. I don't have a polite way to say this, and I'm sure most black people don't live in that setting, but I don't know any white people who live in that setting. It's hard to put myself in the character's world.

It's weird to think about, because if I can place myself in Luke Skywalker's shoes in Star Wars, then I should be able to place myself in a black character's shoes in a movie that's set in a black community with black-centric humor and dialogue. Why is that harder for me?

I wonder if in some way it's because Luke Skywalker is so different that I set aside everything, but in a "black movie" everything is close enough to my existence that any differences are magnified. It's like traveling overseas. I went to India and everything was so different that I just rolled with it, but when I went to Australia it was sometimes harder because things were really close but just slightly enough off that it would put me off balance - odd spices in the pizza sauce, and people who were 20 percent more extroverted than I'm used to.

It makes me wonder how deep a difference is in a "black movie" versus a "white movie". Presumably there's a theme and perhaps a bigger message in most movies, which should be universal. So is it just the window dressing that makes a movie "black" - how the dialogue is written and spoken, and where the movie is set? Does being black in America lead to different reactions or different thinking within a plot? I think it's deeper than that, but I wonder if it's not a lot deeper.
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I lasted 20 minutes watching the new Night Court 2 series. God that was awful.
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I went to movies quite often until I hit 40 years old. At that point things changed to a rehash, or appealing to children of vision.


The movies I didn't or couldn't watch all the way through are:


Gone with the Wind. I tried and tried.


Any 1950s western. Gary Cooper, Joel McCray, Gene Autry, Glenn Ford were all interchangeable. The worst actor in this genre was Randolph Scott. Good lord was he bad. A D-list John Wayne.


Moving on to comedies.


Comedies for comedy sake include:


Mel Brooks in his prime. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein


Animal House
Play it again Sam


The best comedy in my mind is... wait for it...






















Catch-22


A great satire on war and being where you don't want to be.
So many great scenes that are hilarious, mixed in with great thought-provoking craziness of WWII.


Jon Voight: There's a bumper crop of Egyptian cotton and we can make money.
Martin Balsam: How does that work?
Jon Voight: We trade cheap silk for their cotton.
Martin Balsam: Where do we get the silk?
Jon Voight: Right here! (Opens crate) 4000 yards.
Martin Balsam: Where did this come from?


Cut to Alan Arkin on a bombing raid


Alan Arkin: WHERE THE HELL IS MY PARACHUTE!
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Since this kind of moved into favorite comedies, mine are:

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Ruthless People
Galaxy Quest

others include

The Man With Two Brains
Arthur (the original with Dudley Moore
Spaceballs
Kingpin
and of course Airplane
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I will say that the fighting gets more and more ridiculous as the movie goes on. Not in the stereotypical martial arts movie way, instead a plot device causes the characters to try to find more and more bizarre actions to take in combat in order to be more effective. That's how the movie goes. Very unconventional. I'm trying to avoid spoilers but there is one scene that is just perfect...


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My son is (was?) a huge fan of this series. Under his prodding I attempted to watch it but only made it through 3-4 episodes. Under his constant pressure to give it a second chance I tried again. Don't remember when I gave up again but I didn't make it through the 1st season. Not a single character on the show that I gave a damn what happened to them.
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That show The Crown everyone watched about the British Royalty, I never saw that and a lot of people were watching that slop.
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Don't forget Vampire in Brooklyn.
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No, I actually agree that Coming to America is more mainstream. I think it definitely did lean a bit more into the black humor from time to time. As you mention, the Soul Glow bits and the preacher/Randy Watson scene as well as the bits in the barbershop. Still, I'd say that one's like 80-90% mainstream comedy, which is probably why it's so beloved.

I would also agree that it's difficult for me to articulate what differentiates a black comedy from a.. erm, non-black comedy. Setting is a good one as you mention. Movies that take place in a predominantly black neighborhood like the Friday trilogy are prime candidates as well as a movie like The Barbershop, which takes place in a predominantly black barbershop obviously. Casting and target audience are probably the easiest markers. A movie like Soul Plane or Pootie Tang, the Madea movies, or Undercover Brother feature casts that are 90+% black. There is no doubt who those movies are catering to.

I do find your bit on being able to see yourself as Luke Skywalker a bit interesting. Like I mentioned, that's not something I have issues with given my background. I suppose I haven't encountered that issue as much since I don't have much experience with comedies from Hispanic or Asian cultures. I've watched a bit of the George Lopez show and seen Hispanic comedians talking about their fear of the chancla and blah blah blah. Perhaps I don't have issues with those because 1) I actually have spent a fair amount of time around those cultures (I live in Florida and appear to be some sort of Hispanic) and 2) the comedians I'm seeing are telling jokes that are watered down for a broader audience so I'm more likely to be able to relate..?

Interesting stuff to consider either way.

Whew. I haven't seen not a one of these. These appear to be all pre-1990s flicks, which would put them before my time.

How do you feel about the newer wave of comedies, say since 1990? I pegged you as a Christmas Vacation fan, for sure. Don't ask me why.

Hah, yeah, I was going to mention that one.

It's so dumb but I love it.
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The oldest movie on my list (Arthur) is from 1981. The most recent (Galaxy Quest) is from 1999.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge comedy fan, generally don't go to see comedies at the theater or go out of my way to watch them elsewhere. I don't typically go in for really stupid stuff (didn't care for Dumb and Dumber, for example) but there are exceptions.

You really should check some of these out, though. Particularly Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Ruthless People.
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So you're not a Christmas Vacation fan?

I feel like I don't even know you anymore!
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Oh what you have missed...


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It was another typical today's version style remake of someone else's ideas.

I just dont see it being the show the original was. Laroquette overshadowed Rauch.
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