The Skank Robbers featuring Wanda & Shenehneh Coming to a Theater Near You WTF?

Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx and Halle Berry are set to star in The Skank Robbers, a comedy featuring the characters Wanda from the 1990’s television sketch comedy series In Living Color , and Shenehneh a character from Martin Lawrence’s 1990’s sitcom Martin.


The Skank Robbers?

With Wanda & Shenehneh is going to be a feature film.

Seriously WTF?

No, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK?

Want to know what really sucks about this movie? The fact that TWO ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS are gonna star in it. Two people who have won those gold statues that are supposed to elevate an actor’s career are going to star in a 90-minute film based on a pair of outdated 5-minute TV sketches featuring brothas dressed up like women from 20 years ago.

Ugly caricatured women.

Ugly caricatured women who perpetuate the WORST stereotypes about sistas.

Oh and the icing on this shit cake: Jamie Foxx is writing, producing, and directing this nonsense.

*FACEPALM*

Seriously, out of all the material out there for a pair of Academy Award winners to star in, produce, or direct they get on board for this? Out of all the potential projects out there for two African-American Academy Award winners to throw their considerable clout behind, they choose to re-hash old material from 20 years ago they’ve all outgrown talent and craft wise.

These are our Black A-list performers. The cream of the crop.

What a fuckin’ embarrassment.

What’s even sadder is the fact that this movie is getting full support from Hollywood. Along with a greenlight, this project has a release date (August 19, 2011) and theatrical distribution. Meanwhile a quality comedy like Black Dynamite (one of the best spoofs in decades with and some of the best production values I’ve seen when it comes to set design and costumes) gets a limited release and no support. Instead of these award-winning performers working towards taking black cinema to the next level they set it back.

Jamie, Martin, and Halle need to grow up and realize they’re too old for this nonsense. Now I like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But as much as I enjoy that show, Will Smith ain’t making a movie about it in 2010. Why? He’s 40, and is too OLD to play that role. I also liked Disney’s Newsies, but ask Christian Bale if he’d do another movie based on that material now after playing Batman for two straight films and you’d get punched in the face. Both men have evolved in their craft and have no intentions of going back to old material. Why can’t these three talented performers find material that’s more suitable for their age?

The time passed for Wanda & Sheneneh in 1994.

I was always turned off by those sketches when they came on TV when I was in college. To me Wanda & Sheneneh weren’t funny then and they aren’t funny now. I mean, seriously, what’s the obsession with Black men in dresses in the media? Madea, Big Mamma, Wanda Shenehneh, Martin’s momma, Myrtle Urkel, Flip Wilson as Geraldine, Larry Johnson as Gramamama, what is so fascinating about watching a brotha put on a dress and act feminine? Is it funny to watch a black man emasculated onscreen? Does it entertain America to watch a brotha cooning onscreen? Is it amusing to watch brothas made up to look like America’s BITCH?

Black America needs to be bitchslapped by Homey the Clown with a sock if they pay money to see this.

Halle, Jamie, Martin where is your DIGNITY? Your SELF-RESPECT? YOUR PRIDE?

But I guess things those intangibles don’t matter as long as the check clears and it gets your name in the press. (See Montana Fishburne, Daddy’s little porn star)

Seriously, where’s the NAACP? Hey Ben Jealous, don’t you think it’s time for a PROTEST? Over the past decade I have seen some of the most offensive material come out of Black Hollywood since the 1930’s and the NAACP has been silent. Worse Black America has been silent. A whole movie about Wanda & Shenehneh? This is what Hollywood greenlights? This is what gets distribution and a release date a year in advance while a dozen other better stories about the Black experience languish in development HELL?

Forget Hollywood, for a moment. This is what a Black man thinks is quality entertainment for other Black people? An Academy Award winner like Jamie Foxx thinks it’s a good idea to spend money on a trailer and then broadcast it before the BET Awards, the cesspool East of MTV. Then he thinks it’s okay to spend millions more dollars on this 20-year-old nonsense and make a movie out of it. Does Jamie think so little of his brothers and sisters that he isn’t willing to put forth the effort to create a good original comedy?

Now I understand why he gets less respect than Cuba Gooding Jr.

And Martin Lawrence, someone who stated in INTERVIEWS for Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins that he had OUTGROWN the Martin character and characters from that show is deciding to bring back Shenehneh now? What would make dude think it’s a good idea to regress to material he feels he is beyond? Is it the paycheck? Is money that tight brotha got to put on a dress?

Then there’s Halle Berry who after three years out of work, thinks this it’s a good project to get involved in a disastrous project like this after three straight flops at the box-office. This kinda crap wasn’t well-received in B.A.P.S over a decade ago, so why would she be so eager revisit these kinds of stereotypical characters?

I mean what’s wrong with these Negroes in Hollywood? Have they lost their minds? Don’t they know the difference between funny and offensive? Do they have any idea what good taste is?

Some may think this is funny to watch brothers and sisters embarrass themselves, but I’m not laughing.

I could understand if this type of film was coming from a guy with no experience or understanding of the impact of racist images in black cinema like Tyler Perry. But this embarrassing project is coming from three people who know better. Who worked their way through Hollywood. Who experienced first-hand the numerous barriers African-Americans have faced regarding racism and sexism and know how hard it is to get a quality project for black actors into production. Moreover they understand the damage these images will do to the African-American community.

But I guess harming the image of black people doesn’t matter as long as Foxx, Lawrence and Berry cash their checks. An individual’s success is more important than reinforcing negative perceptions of Black people worldwide.

And I thought Lee Daniels was the devil.