October 24, 2022

"I don’t know what planet we’re on, where you think people don’t need laughter, and that people need to be censored and canceled. If a joke is gonna get me canceled, thank you..."

"... for doing me that favor. It’s sad that society is in this place where we can’t laugh anymore. I ain’t listening to this damn generation. I ain’t listening to these folks. These scared-ass people, these scared executives.... I know my audience. My audience comes to my shows every weekend and they leave feeling great and laughing. One thing about the Wayans, we’ve always told the worst joke the best way.... I think ‘White Chicks 2’ is necessary.... I think we’ve tightened up so much that we need to loosen our ties a bit and laugh a little bit."

Said Marlon Wayans, quoted in "Marlon Wayans slams cancel culture: ‘I don’t know what planet we’re on’" (NY Post).

29 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

So he's saying he'll be okay no matter what.

Good to know.

n.n said...

The Age of Uranus. That's not funny, and we're not serious. Why "white chicks"?

Joe Smith said...

Good for him.

rhhardin said...

When Trump brings a little humor to politics you see what happens. It's men against women.

wendybar said...

Good for him. Bring back the funny.

baghdadbob said...

White Chicks was nominated for 6 Razzies, and has a 15% Rotten Tomatoes score. It not only didn't get canceled, it has become a cult classic. It's so bad it's good.

Michael K said...

This generation, born since 1990, is the worst for humor and common sense since serfdom ended.

There is even a pretty good book about it.


The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupefied Youth to Dangerous Adults Hardcover – February 1, 2022
by Mark Bauerlein (Author)

Big Mike said...

Our world needs more Marlon Wayans and many fewer Woke Progs.

Sebastian said...

"what planet we’re on’"

Planet Prog. It's nice to see a little pushback, of course, and good to know the culture war isn't over just yet, but until the anti-cancellers oppose wokeness and woke power consistently, not much will change.

Joe Smith said...

Of course, a white guy making a movie called 'Black Chicks' would get him cancelled faster than a Mexican getting thrown out of Martha's Vineyard...

Friendo said...

Amen, brother.

William said...

I was okay with the cancellation of Harvey Weinstein. The revelations about him did not just implicate him but pretty much most of Hollywood in his crimes. We all owe a debt to Harvey. Everyone on earth now knows what hypocrites the Hollywood elite are.

Freeman Hunt said...

If he makes "White Chicks 2", I'll buy a ticket just because he said this.

Saint Croix said...

I ain’t listening to this damn generation. I ain’t listening to these folks. These scared-ass people, these scared executives...

If you want to actually make some comic art, you should make a movie mocking the shit out of Millennials. Or Hollywood executives. Turn your anger into comedy and mock the shit out of them.

You're in a different environment now (obviously), so update your art.

This world is ripe for mockery. You just have to find your woke targets and make fun of them.

I Want To Go To Girl Prison

Marlan Wayans robs a bank, gets caught, and gets sentenced to prison.

"I'm a girl, judge! I'm having my period right now and I am not in the mood."

"Mr. Wayans, you are biologically male at the moment, is that correct?"

"I'm transitioning, Judge. It's a process. But I am a woman, and I need to be in woman prison, with my sisters."

"I'm not sure I believe you."

(High girlish shrieking and girlie dance, pulls out cell phone and starts filming the judge)

"Okay, okay!" says the judge. "Of course. I understand. It's a fluid situation. I got it. I sentence you to 10 years in the Correctional Institute for Women."

"It's a safe space! It's a safe space. We're all locked up together. Thank you Judge! Prison is a nightmare. But you made it a little better."

Marlan Wayans spends the next 90 minutes getting laid and trying to avoid chemical castration and being caught as a straight man. $100 million, easy, and make that fucking movie.

Yancey Ward said...

The Wayans Brothers are brilliant. Loved their show and I loved their movies. A lot of that couldn't get produced today on major network television or in Hollywood by the big studios.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

#1 cancel

"ELECTION DENIERS!"

To the ovens! It's against democracy and stuff.

gilbar said...

THAT'S NOT FUNNY!

Kevin said...

As my generation was raised to say, "F*** 'em if they can't take a joke!"

Howard said...

The Planet Claire

PM said...

He's 50. Was edgy funny. Now just edgy.
Welcome to it, Bud. Vote the dipsticks out.

Saint Croix said...

Marlon in Prison Group Therapy...

Barbara: "He was waving his penis in the shower!"

Marlon: "No, no. No waving. I wasn't waving."

Barbara: "Penis! Penis in the shower!"

Dr. Noogi: "Okay, let's stay calm and centered."

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "You need to quit picking on my lesbian boo!"

Marlon Girlfriend #2: "That's right!"

Marlon: "I am transitioning and this is a sensitive time for me."

Barbara: "Penis! Penis in the shower!"

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "He is a woman."

Marlon Girlfriend #2: "She."

Marlon: "She."

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "She is a woman and you need to get your mind right."

Barbara (standing on her chair and screaming at the world): "Penis! Penis! In the shower! Black penis! And No Circumcision!"

Marlon Girlfriend #2: "Oh you did not go there."

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "Racist homophobe."

Barbara: "His penis is winking at me!"

Marlon Girlfriend #2: "Girl, you gone batshit crazy."

Marlon: "It's that Harry Potter."

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "Flying on her broom and shit."

Barbara: "We need to cut his balls off so this is a safe space. That's all I'm saying."

Marlon Girlfriend #1: "That ain't right."

Marlon: "You can't rush the transition. It's a process. And she needs to respect my dignity. I am woman. But I don't roar. I purr. Like a kitten. Like a pussy cat. I am a pussy cat."

(Girlfriends nod in unison).

Dr. Noogi: "Let's all stay calm. Breathe. Breathe through our vulvas."

Marlon (whispering to Girlfriend #1): "Where's my vulva?"

Lurker21 said...

The "Men on Film" skits definitely would get him cancelled today.

The country has changed a lot in 30 years.

A performer I never heard of, Leslie Jordan, died today in a car crash.

He might also have had to change his act if he were starting out now.

BIII Zhang said...

Wayans needs to ask his brothers who they voted for. Call them out.

J. Farmer said...

Marlon Wayans is a little late to the party. Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock were talking about this in 2015. The Marxist philosophy professor Ben Burgis wrote Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique Of The Contemporary Left about 18 months ago. Ironically, the few times that White Chicks has been brought up in connection to cancel culture is as an example of an anti-white racist double-standard in the context of some blackface controversy (e.g. Megyn Kelly, Little Britain, Jimmy Fallon). That is, people who were complaining about blackface were accused of hypocrisy for not also denouncing White Chicks. Al Roker even took the bait.

All that said, White Chicks wasn't totally without controversy at the time of its release. And while I share Marlon's distaste for "cancel culture," I disagree with his notion that it is a new phenomenon.

For years, advocacy groups have used tools like letter-writing campaigns, organizing boycotts, attacking sponsors, and lobbying the FCC and/or Congress to have material that was considered "indecent" removed. The rap band 2 Live Crew were arrested in 1990 for their album Nasty As They Wanna Be. The album Body Count was pulled from shelves a couple of years later over the song "Cop Killer." When Ellen DeGeneres decided to have her character on the Ellen sitcom come out as a lesbian, there were organized efforts to pressure ABC against airing it and to pressure sponsors against supporting it. A local affiliate station in Alabama refused to even air it. A couple of years later, an organized effort was underway to cancel Teletubbies when Jerry Falwell denounced the Tinky Winky character as covertly pro-gay. In 2001, Politically Incorrect was cancelled for Maher's "we've been the cowards" remark. Phil Donahue was fired from MSNBC in February 2003 for his criticisms of the Iraq War. The Dixie Chicks faced cancellations, boycotts, destroyed records, and radio stations pulling their songs after they criticized George W. Bush and the Iraq War a month later in March 2003. Rick Sanchez was fired by CNN for an interview in which he scoffed at the idea that Jews were an oppressed minority in America. There was the Colin Kaepernick/NFL/Nike brouhaha in 2016; Kathy Griffin was cancelled for the headless Trump photo in 2017; Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for a UN speech on Israel. Katie Halper was fired last month over criticisms she made of Israel. And these are just off the top of my head.

William F. Buckley, Jr. launched his public career in 1951 with the publication of God and Man at Yale. It is a book-length attack on the notion of "academic freedom" and proposes that any Yale faculty insufficiently committed to Christianity, individualism, and democracy should be gotten rid of.

J. Farmer said...

Marlon Wayans on 24 Oct 2022:

In fact, the “Requiem for a Dream” star told Variety last year that he was even ready to produce a sequel to “White Chicks.”

“I think ‘White Chicks 2’ is necessary,” Marlon said at the time. “I think we’ve tightened up so much that we need to loosen our ties a bit and laugh a little bit.”

“I don’t think Hollywood understands what a juggernaut ‘White Chicks 2’ would be,” he continued. “And the world just keeps giving us more. ‘White Chicks 2’ is writing itself.”


Marlon Wayans on 11 May 2022:

Marlon Wayans appeared on GQ's Iconic Characters series. In it, he was asked about a White Chicks sequel: "The seemingly limitless talent is flattered that the film has continued to withstand the test of time, but fan requests for more white chicks is falling on deaf ears. “Makeup movies — until they learn how to digitally do it, special effect-wise, ooh that’s a lot of work. Everybody says, ‘do a ‘White Chicks 2.’ I’m like, ‘go f—k yourself! You do a ‘White Chicks 2.’ I’m doing Black man movies.”

J. Farmer said...

@Yancey Ward:

The Wayans Brothers are brilliant. Loved their show and I loved their movies. A lot of that couldn't get produced today on major network television or in Hollywood by the big studios.

They certainly produced some good satire in the past (e.g. Hollywood Shuffle, I'm Gonna Get You Sucka, and Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), but a lot of their work since the 2000s (e.g. Scary Movie series, White Chicks, Norbit, and Little Man) has been gimmic-filled with a lot of lazy, uninspired writing.

mikee said...

If White Chicks 2 is necessary, I for one think Blazing Saddles demands a modern remake.

You'd do it for Randolph Scott!

JAORE said...

As noted above, a lot of their work in the last decade or so is (IMO) cheap laughs and falls flat.

In fact some of their work hinges on racial stereotypes including ones that put black people in a bad light.

But just because I don't think it's funny, just because I cringe at some of the humor, does NOT mean I'd wish it away. If it sells tickets or garners sufficient eyeballs, so be it..

J. Farmer said...

@JAORE:

In fact some of their work hinges on racial stereotypes including ones that put black people in a bad light.

Siskel and Ebert debate that exact topic here.

The second half of the 90s and the early 00s were the golden age of race relations in America. A black middle class had emerged, the crack epidemic was subsiding, crime rates had begun to fall, welfare reform was on its way, and the racial tensions of the late 80s and early 90s began to subside after the OJ Simpson verdict. The word "ghetto" became an adjective to describe socially dysfunctional black behavior in a similar way to how a middle class white person would describe someone as "white trash" or "trailer trash." This distinction was most famously described by Chris Rock in his "Niggas vs. Black People" routine from his 1996 HBO comedy special Bring the Pain.

The change is even noticeable in black artistic production. Black films in the late 80s and early 90s were often socially conscious black dramas like Do the Right Thing, Boyz in the Hood, and Menace II Society. In the latter 90s, they tended to be comedies like Friday, The Players Club, or Barbershop or romantic films like Waiting to Exhale, The Preacher's Wife, and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Gangsta rap's dark, gritty, and bleak outlook would give way to the lighter, more upbeat sound of the bling era.

I used to date the end of this golden era to September 2005 when Kanye West blurted out "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on live television in response to the Hurricane Katrina controversy. But you could probably push it a few years further, perhaps to the Oakland riots over the BART shooting of Oscar Grant.