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Tyler Perry is tired of Spike Lee calling his minstrel shows a minstrel show

via nymag.com

Tyler Perry makes more money than all but the wealthiest of the TIs, and yet he's pissed at Spike Lee for calling his minstrel shows a minstrel show. Yesterday, at a press conference for his latest Madea film (no, really) he had harsh words for Spike Lee, who once famously called Perry's TBS sitcoms coonery and buffoonery. You'd think Tyler Perry would be too busy rolling around with other guys on a bed made of money to care what Spike Lee thinks.

Meanwhile, Spike Lee's career in film has effectively been reduced to appearing as a talking head in documentaries about professional sports, as if anyone gives a shit about professional sports. When's the last time Spike Lee had a real movie out, that World War II movie? (Which, FWIW, I thought was brilliant, even the parts that were kinda retarded.) I don't even think I was living in my house in a shanty town when that movie came out. I checked just now, and it doesn't look like Spike has anything in the works? Sad. Remember when he used to drop films with a frequency similar to the Michael Eric "Cornholio" Dyson book of the month club? It's not like he's got anything better to do with his time, if he's going to all of these basketball games. The TIs just don't want to cut him a check.

Tyler Perry could cut him a check, but obviously he's not going to - and to me that's the sad part about this beef. Never mind whether or not you think Tyler Perry's films qualify as minstrel shows. To state your opinion on the matter would only serve to reveal that you have, in fact, seen a Tyler Perry film. (I have. Remember, I wrote about For Colored Girls for XXL?) Tyler Perry has the means to produce black films on a par with any white film (probably even Avatar), financially anyway, and so far all he's done with it is indulge his penchant for dressing like a woman. He's not doing anyone any good, other than himself and perhaps Mister Cee. He took For Colored Girls, which was supposedly one of our great literary achievements (though I suspect that it was always some ol' bullshit), and tried to make a prestige picture out of it, but he failed, because he just doesn't have the chops. If only Spike Lee and Tyler Perry could patch up their differences, they could join forces. Spike Lee could use the money Tyler Perry makes from his minstrel shows to make something black people could actually be proud of. Spike Lee could go back to being a director, rather than the world's least articulate (or as he pronounces it, articulent) sports commentator, and Tyler Perry could say that he actually contributed to something worthwhile. Which I'm sure would be good for his self-esteem. He wouldn't have to throw a bitchfit every time someone calls one of his minstrel shows a minstrel show.