David Alan Grier and DL Hughley Have New Comedy/News Shows, Should We Be Frightened?

I guess it would be too much to ask Dave Chappelle to come back.

This doesn't mean that I don't think comedians David Alan Grier and DL Hughley deserve their own shows ...

What am I saying? They're the last two black comics who should have their own shows. Katt Williams should have his own show before these two and I'm not even a fan, so ... seriously cable networks -- Grier and Hughley?

It's not that I didn't think they could pull off a good show. I know they can't pull off a good show. I watched most of Grier's Chocolate News and Hughley's DL Hughley Breaks the News through my fingers.

Both have the ability to be funny in their moments, but I don't think Grier's been funny since he stop directly working with someone for "Wayans" as a last name. And Hughley, to me, has never been funny. I've always found his comedy mean spirited, petty and unimaginative. (But he was really nice that one time I interviewed him for work!) But Comedy Central and CNN did not ask me which black comics would be good at a politically-based comedy show.

(Aisha Tyler, anyone? She's smart and funny. Anyone! Did they even bother calling her? Chris Rock? Steve Harvey? Wanda Sykes? -- Non sequitor: God, I'd LOVE to watch Wanda Sykes do a political comedy show with Aisha Tyler. They could invite Monique and do an all black girl parody of The View. Jasmine Guy could play the Barbara Walters character! Wait ... no one steal my show idea! I have to make some phone calls! -- Marlon Wayans could do a show. Hell, even Sinbad or Arsenio Hall would have been good and both those guys need a second bite at the apple.)

But nope, no one asked me. So this is what we have:

A recent skit from Grier's "Chocolate News" on "Thugs Against High Gas Prices."

A clip of DL Hughley talking to Freddie Mac, not the mortgage giant, but "Ashy Larry" as Freddie the Mac Daddy of Federal Loan Financing.

Both shows are "edgy," and by edgy I mean profane because, really, that's appears to be the only kind of edgy that matters. Grier, while not exactly Eddie Murphy, manages to pull off playing a multitude of characters, but seeing him still makes me think of In Living Color and thinking of In Living Color only makes me wonder if Chocolate News would be more palatable to me if it was Damon and Keenan running the show again? Wouldn't it be better to see seven black performers with a job rather than two? Or to just see all those Wayanses hire themselves to put on a show again? Yeah, "Little Man" was an embarrassment, but I say, c'mon, TV, give them another chance! They can be good again!

As for Hughley's show I was amazed by the "shut your mouth bitches" line from Ashy Larry, if only because I'm watching CNN. It's one thing to be wild and raunchy on Comedy Central, home of everything raunchy in comedy, they have no morals. They show Sarah Silverman with a potty mouth and a bed-wetting problem, South Park and that gross Kenny Versus Spenny thing that I hope to dear God was canceled.

Seeing Grier play a transsexual whose boob keeps popping out is actually at home in that environment. But Hughley is his own island on a network that is primarily about straight news. And it is surreal and painful to watch actual reporters interact with Hughley as opposed to joke reporters like the ones on Chocolate News and The Daily Show. Real reporters are not funny and I image the ones who showed up for Hughley's premiere episode were wondering why CNN was wasting their news gathering time? You work hard, you pound the pavement, you pester sources and you beg your producer for camera time and this is what they give you?

Hughley seems out of place on the network, even if he did get a newsworthy nugget out of yet another defecting Republican, this time former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan who said last week that he is voting for Barack Obama on Hughley's show. I hate to say this, but ... Glen Beck's show made more sense. Now, I don't like Glen Beck and Beck has run off to FOX News, leaving his old gig at CNN Headline News, but Beck was/is supposed to be funny and did a political/news-of-the-day interview show that didn't make me want to drink Drano. It would have made more sense for CNN to find someone not necessarily like Beck, but someone with his basic skills set, like Whoopi Goldberg, Dennis Miller or Lewis Black, heck, Eddie Murphy might do it if you ask nice enough, but someone who has the ability to be funny and can also pull off a decent interview.

Naturally, I wasn't the only person "amazed" by Hughley's show. Dr. Boyce Watkins (and many other critics, primarily black) are pretty much ready to grab the pitchforks and torches and send DL back to the comedy plantation from wince he came.

In the following clip, Watkins shouts out every black comedian as being cool-to-great with the exception of Hughley who he says he's never been impressed by.

"You don't bring a gun to a baby shower. You don't put a liquor sign in a church," Watkins gripes, before getting into the flip side of it, that CNN has had many black commentators and journalists, yet the first African American to get their own show on CNN is DL, a comedian. Watkins name drops Roland Martin, mentioning that he's been on a regular on CNN for a while yet has no show.

Um ... yeah. I noticed that too.

Here's Watkins' rant in full where he declares DL America's latest "nappy headed ho" in reference to statements DL made during the infamous Don Imus/Rutgers Women's Basketball team scandal. (Fast-forward to 1:52 minutes in to skip Watkins rambling about his recent trips around the country.)

Officially, as a lover of the First Amendment and a believer in our often messed up free market economy, I am all for Grier and Hughley getting the same opportunities to humiliate themselves and other black people on television just as countless individuals have done before. Their shows might get better. It might pave the way to Aisha Tyler eventually having her own show, but I'm probably not going to make the point to pencil in Hughley and Chocolate News as must-see-TV unless something revolutionary happens in the writing of the shows. These shows were not made for me.

Which takes me to Watkins' other concern about DL -- that this show, much like CNN's "Black In America" and DL's statements about Don Imus, aren't for or about black people -- that this is humor insulting black Americans to delight a non-black audience. Is Watkins right? Whereas I, the women at What About Our Daughters and Watkins saw something of concern, David Zurawik, a critic with The Baltimore Sun, thought the premiere showed promise.

(I)t looks like CNN could have a winner in its new comedy show, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News. And more important, Saturday night television and its audience could be enriched by Hughley's engaging and non-conventional take on American life -- if the cable channel gives the production time to mature and find its voice.

Is this a case of black Snobs like myself and Watkins being too hard on a pair of successful black comedians or is this yet another case of great for the performer, bad for all of blackness played out in front of a live studio audience yet again?

BET Shrugged: Hudlin Is Gone, But Crap Remains

Producer/filmmaker Reginald Hudlin left his perch as BET's president of entertainment this week and I felt nothing.

Hudlin, and his older brother Warrington, were born and raised in the Metro East in Centreville, Ill. near East St. Louis, so I've always tried to keep an eye on their careers. In Hudlin's three years with BET I can't really have a response because there is simply no response for a network that devoid of substance. Hudlin brought a few things to the table, but at the end of the day, this is America and BET is owned by Viacom.

Bring on the reality shows that are clones from other Viacom reality shows on MTV from five years ago!

"From the moment he joined the BET family, Reggie infused our program development with incredible creativity, energy and passion," BET chairman/CEO Debra Lee said in announcing Hudlin's departure.

Under Hudlin, BET launched 17 of the top 20 highest-rated shows in the network's 28-year history, including "Lil' Kim: Countdown to Lockdown," "American Gangster," "Baldwin Hills," "Sunday Best," BET's first scripted series "Somebodies" and the network's highest-rated series ever, "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is." (The Hollywood Reporter)

I realize that the crappiness of BET is not entirely Hudlin's fault. The BET Sux Movement existed before they got rid of Donnie Simpson and "Video Soul." And the BET Sux Movement will not stop just because Hudlin left. This is just another battle of class and commerce in the black community.

Bougie black people complain that BET is degrading and part of the problem. BET says it's just putting on what people want to watch. BET is owned by Viacom which wants to make money, so BET throws on stuff to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to rack in the most viewers. Voila! Crap on television for bougie, churchy and all variety of black people who don't like the term "video ho" to complain about.

Probably the most un-PC thing my mother says is something she heard often as a kid growing up -- If you don't want a black person to know something, put it in a book.

It's harsh and not funny, but reflects the huge problem we have with anti-intellectualism in our community. It's the same anti-intellectualism that runs through all of American culture, but feels like a pandemic in the black community. Throughout my life I've met people who are out-right hostile to the notion of "having an open mind" or "reading for pleasure." And until Barack Obama started running for president, I didn't know a lot of people who followed politics with any degree of seriousness.

Or voted with any degree of seriousness, for that matter.

Now, I don't know how you make being smart sexy to people because even white people struggle with that. But they have an advantage in the fact that there's simply more of them. All of the smart, quirky ones can just buy a Mini Cooper, move to a loft apartment in any American city and go hang out at the nearest, locally-owned coffeehouse with a copy of "The Kite Runner" and The New York Times and nerd mack for days over some chai tea and the latest Norah Jones, Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews Band CD.

They can just pretend the NASCAR, Toby Keith, hockey moms with monster trucks rallies, troglodyte-cum-philistine crowd doesn't exist. They can stick their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la" when someone tries to tell them the earth is only 6,000 years old.

Us black people, we're a minority -- we need each other. To get folks voted into office. To get all sorts of things done. There's not as many of us in general, so there are even less nerdy, buppie, boho, bougie, snobby people running around. And heaven forbid anyone having a different opinion. Sacre bleu!

Even if you know some other college educated, chai tea sipping Negroes to kick it with, chances are if you are interested in worshiping Jesus or going to any event featuring some kind of athletics, barbecue, dancing, soul or hip hop music you are going to have to deal with some folks who may think you're a pompous, know-it-all who doesn't know a damn thing about what's hot in the streets.

The only way to (almost) completely circumvent this unpleasantness is to immerse yourself fully in the alabaster diaspora of White Liberal Guilt Land, aka "Trendy-Part-of-the-City, USA," being the "token" black guy/gal at the sushi bar or yoga studio or coffeehouse.

And this is why educated black people hate BET so much. Because we have this fantasy that if BET were either A) cleaned up or B) taken off the air, maybe we could get the entire race "off the pole." It seems silly that if most black people are middle class why is there still a need to push this fetishization of urban crime and poverty onto our kids?

Oh yeah. That fetish makes money. Lots of money. Especially when sold to the non-black people who can't get enough of it. The market has decided which part of blackness it wanted and it wanted to see less Wynton Marsalis. More Soulja Boy.

That said, Hudlin plans to return to his roots as a film producer. All I ask is that he be more responsible with that power than Tracey Edmonds.

Obama: A Bound Man?

A few people have sent me this video of Cornell West and Julianne Malveaux discussing Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

In this interview with Tavis Smiley, the duo express disappointment, felling Obama dismissed the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by not "saying his name." But their cries are really about Obama not wrapping himself in the Kente cloth of "The Movement." But their logic is flawed. Obama has never presented himself as part of the Movement. He's merely the byproduct of it. He never was a Civil Rights Activist, unlike Jesse Jackson, Obama is pure politician. He has some street cred as a community organizer, but his business, by and large, has been the business of any politician who's aspired for higher office.

This almost returns us to the territory of the "is he black enough" question. It's true that black people are often enamored with or drawn to political figures who make their mettle by getting into verbal fist fights with the establishment. They want to hear acknowledgment for those who cleared the path Obama has glided down. But when the prospects of becoming the "first black president" still conjures up images of fear in some, (Papa Snob often references Negrophobic nightmares of Michelle and Barack hosting the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for Christmas dinner at the White House, causing some white people to faint away.), Obama can't afford to appear like the ones who came before him. He has to be different.

As much as I'd love to see him kicking ass and taking names in the name of "The Movement," I understand today's political realities. West and Malveaux shouldn't hold their breath waiting on Obama to talk about "The Movement." That talk is likely to never come. He cares, obviously, about minority issues, but to win this election, he can't play on his minority status. He will always be a man bound in his efforts to ascend to the highest office in the land -- just like any other candidate.

What do you think of the video?

UPDATE: Roland Martin, Michelle Obama and TV One's Hour Long Interview

Jack and Jill Politics reported Thursday that Michelle Obama would be resurfacing in an hour-long interview she's to give to none other than radio host and CNN regular Roland Martin on TV One.

There's not a lot of news leaking to be found of the interview but I seriously doubt that this thing is going to be hostile.

Now, TV One ... which network is that again?

The interview will air at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 24. AOL's Black Voices reports that Martin will talk with Michelle about everything "from the secret of her happy marriage to the surprising reason why she decided to support her husband's pursuit of politics."

Um ... booooo. If I wanted to hear that I'd pick up a copy of one of the eleventy-billion magazines where she's on the cover. You have to come harder than that, son. I need some dinner before desert and I'm sooo bored with desert Michelle. I want the Michelle that eats bacon and takes names. Would someone free Michelle O. from her own personal 'shut the black lady up' prison! Free! Free! Set her free!

Google Stalking TJ Holmes: Retroactively

Retro sighing of TJ from last year.

An assist from reader, megthebar, who helped me procure this photo of TJ Holmes from The Morning News in Arkansas. TJ, like Mama Snob, is an Arkansan. He grew up in West Memphis and went to the University of Arkansas (Go Razorbacks!)

Holmes was in "The Natural State" to receive a special award for notable Arkansas Alumni. TJ receivedg the Young Alumni Award. The story first ran in the paper October 27 of last year.

Holmes, a native of West Memphis, received a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism in 1999 and now works as a news anchor for CNN in Atlanta. Before joining CNN in September 2006, his career took him to KSNF-TV in Joplin, Mo., KTHV-TV in Little Rock and NBC11 in San Francisco, the fifth market in the country. When Saddam Hussein was executed, T.J. Holmes brought the news into living rooms across the world, the same day that CNN also covered the memorial services of President Gerald Ford and James Brown. Sitting in the anchor chair for eight straight hours, Holmes took the lead as information came in fast and furious with no scripts. He describes it as the biggest and best day of his career.\

You can read the entire article here.

That said I have no idea if the woman TJ is pictured with is his girlfriend, wife or random chick. Her name is Dana Baxter. She appears to be very pretty. But this photo is old. As far as I know he's single to mingle. I call dibs!

For more pictures of TJ, click here
To get caught up the all the Google Stalking pieces, click here.