chitlin circuit holiday entertainment

So I finally did it. I watched a Tyler Perry film. The cultural critic in me had to know what it was about his brand of comedy that propelled him from the Chitlin Circuit to Hollywood.

It's the holiday season and I'm visiting my mom and relatives in smalltown east Tejas. The perfect opportunity to lounge in front of the gaudy big screen that takes up too much space in mom's living room and watch some down home entertainment. It won't take any convincing for mom and aunt to watch Diary of A Mad Black Woman with me as both of them have already seen and enjoyed the movie that thousands of other black folk have also seen and enjoyed.

Within 5 minutes I'm ready to bail. I think to myself, This is the stupidest s&#t I've ever seen in my life! Is this supposed to be funny? And yet I realize the appeal it has for some audiences. To be sure, most black people I know--myself included--have relatives that bare close resemblances to the characters in that film. Crackhead cousins, dirty uncles, foul-mouthed and boisterous "big mamas." Perry's filmic landscape is filled with caricatures of these folk and then topped off with a dose of Christian morality and proselytization.

For me, as I suspected, the film was neither funny nor entertaining (in part due to a little known pet peave of mine: black men dressing up and imitating their grandmas). But I'm sure Tyler Perry isn't losing any sleep in his high thread count sheets over what some cultural snob thinks about his movies. Afterall, I'm not his target audience. But the Perryization of black film does suggest to me that black actors and filmmakers are still caught up in a perpetual "hollywood shuffle" in which black folk--with very few exceptions-- must either shuck and jive or sing and dance in order to make it to the big screen.