Thursday, March 12, 2009

Too Black or too bad?

"D.L. Hughley Breaks the News" and David Alan Greer's "Chocolate News" have apparently been cancelled.  Apparently, some wonder if it has to do with them both being Black shows.

Personally, I don't think their shows were too Black for tv.  Based on what I saw, they were too bad for tv.

By the way, that ain't the jiiiiive version of "bad."  It's the literal one.

Flat jokes.  Poor transitions.  Brute-force approach to comedy.  Shallow consideration of the issues.

Of course, that's what I got from watching very little of their shows, but it was enough for me to form my opinion*.  Conan O'Brien was very unpolished in his earliest hosting days, but I found his approach more palatable.  I think that was largely because of his humility and humor.

I don't know if Conan did stand-up, first (I doubt it) but I'd expect Hughley's and Greer's collective decades in front of audiences to count for a heck of a lot more than I saw on the screen.



* - and I fully admit that's all it is - an opinion.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tried to watch D.L.'s show, once, and I couldn't stand it for more than 5 minutes. I vowed never to subject myself to that kind of brutality again.

And, D.L.'s cool and err'thang, but he was never really that funny to me.

I'd expect more from David Alan Grier, who is just hilarious.


(ummm, is it ironic that my word verification for this comment says "ufaill"?)

Angie said...

West what was your opinion of the Boondocks?

West said...

@ B. Good: That's funny. I sometimes wonder if there's a message in those things for me, as well.

Angie:I found it amusingly shocking, sometimes clever, and occasionally deeply relevant*.

As a brief example, I've still got a problem with "nigger," but I'm as as amused by their casual use of the word as I would be bothered by the same behavior in real-life.

Maybe that sounds hypocritical, but I don't see it that way.

Why do you ask?




* - in the wrong way, sometimes