Comment of the day: "Big Momma is a term of endearment"

Hollywood is prone to recycling the same tropes over and over again, and there are no shortage of obnoxious ones to choose from -- but certainly one of the most nauseating is the black-male-actor-as-fat-sassy-black-woman. To that tiresome formula, the trailer for Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family promised to add...

By Jef Otte

April 25, 2011

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Hollywood is prone to recycling the same tropes over and over again, and there are no shortage of obnoxious ones to choose from -- but certainly one of the most nauseating is the black-male-actor-as-fat-sassy-black-woman. To that tiresome formula, the trailer for Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family promised to add nothing, and I made no bones about my personal distaste for it in This Week's Most Ridiculous Trailer on Friday, where I noted that the conceit is not only hackneyed and shitty, but carries the stink of the modern negro minstrel show. Reader Kimstyle disagrees, and suggests I get some black friends.

You obviously have no sense of humor.... and not much knowledge either.. Before you believe you know something and actually write and article and check the facts... asnd so you know Big Momma is a term of endearment... Maybe you should find some black friends and let them give you a clue. Go Tyler !!! you must be doing something right!

I'm not sure what "facts" I got wrong, Kimstyle, since you don't cite any -- but if you're referring to "Big Momma" being a term of endearment, I have no doubt that it is. I would never suggest Hollywood doesn't know how to pull the heartstrings of the lowest common denominator.

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