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The Original Kings of Comedy, 2000, 115 minutes, Rated R
By Carla Robinson
The other day, I spied an old Richard Pryor LP and lamented the death of
African-American stand-up comedy. Ever since Pryor’s retirement, it’s been
hawking and wheezing, briefly resuscitated by Eddie Murphy (before he was too good for
stand-up) and, possibly, Chris Rock. Yet, inexplicably, it’s more popular than ever.
I asked myself, why would people want to watch a great Black tradition meet such a
miserable, protracted demise? Do the people who attend shows like BET Comic View snicker
when they see a cripple hobble by?
I’ve decided that contemporary Black comedy falls into two categories: Black people
do this/White people do that and toilet humor. If there’s an exception to this rule,
it’s the occasional sex gag. Enter The Original Kings of Comedy, the film that
single-handedly helped me see the purpose of today’s Black comedian: validation. When
people like Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac take the
stage, they illuminate the intricacies of African-American life, making us feel worthy,
grounding us in a way of being.
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© 2000 MTV Networks
The Kings - Bernie Mac, Cedric
"The Entertainer," DL Hughley and Steve Harvey
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This is great. But, they do so
precariously. No one can deny their talent, especially when compared with other comedians
bumping around the chitlin’ circuit, but neither can anyone call them comic geniuses.
Mostly, they remind me of summer evenings on the front porch listening to my uncle Dave
crack on people (especially Hughley, who’s made a tidy living off being quick with a
quip). It’s good fun, but not relevant to anything and far from transcendent.
(Let’s look at this: it takes four of these guys to do what one Redd Foxx, Pryor, or
Moms Mabley did alone.)
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Still, here we are with a movie. A Spike Lee Joint, no
less. Visually, Original Kings is about as choppy as anything I’ve ever seen, but how
nice that Spike is so huge that he can just show up with a couple of cameras and shoot
whatever. And sell it. Calling himself a director, in this case, is a real stretch. The
behind-the-scenes sequence is the biggest joke in the film. It was a great opportunity for
a narrative, a little probe into the blood and marrow of stand-up comedy, but no.
It’s a few cobbled together scenes of the guys smoking cigars and playing geriatric
basketball.
Notice I haven’t given away any punch lines or determined which of the kings deserves
to be dethroned. Everyone I’ve asked about the film has his or her favorite comic and
bit, and least favorite. Opinions vary. For me, Bernie Mac emerges as the sleeper hit.
He’s merciless, vulgar, utterly inappropriate, and it’s rip-roaring when he
prepares to fist fight a two-year-old. Cedric was my favorite going in, to see Black
culture through his eyes is always an indelible treat. With Steve and D. L., there were no
surprises. If you like them, they’re funny, if you don’t, well…. My
suggestion is this, if you have an Uncle Dave, wait for the video release and invite him
over. That’s the perfect context for watching this movie.
M
September 2000
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