Tyler Perry - Criticism and Parodies

Criticism and Parodies

Criticism of Perry’s work focuses mainly on a perception that it perpetuates negative racial stereotypes.

Despite praising Perry in 2006, in 2009 director Spike Lee criticized his work when interviewed by Ed Gordon on Our World with Black Enterprise, saying, "Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is 'coonery' and buffoonery. I know it's making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better ... I see these two ads for these two shows and I am scratching my head ... We got a black president and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep 'n' Eat?" When Gordon cited Perry’s success among black audiences and asked Spike if Perry wasn’t just giving black America what they wanted, he responded, "We've had this discussion back and forth. When John Singleton, people came out to see Boyz n the Hood, but when he did Rosewood, nobody showed up. So a lot of this is on us. You vote with your pocketbook, your wallet. You vote with your time sitting in front of the idiot box, and the man has a huge audience, Tyler's very smart. ...We shouldn't think that Tyler Perry is going to make the same film that I am going to make, or that John Singleton or my cousin Malcolm Lee . As African Americans, we're not one monolithic group so there is room for all of that, but at the same time, for me, the imaging is troubling and it harkens back to Amos 'n' Andy."

In September 2009, Jamilah Lemieux made similar remarks on National Public Radio. While thanking Perry for employing blacks in front of and behind the camera and for making work with humor and "positive messages about self-worth, love and respect", she criticized him for making television shows "marked by old stereotypes of buffoonish, emasculated black men and crass, sassy black women." She took him to task for his Madea character saying that through this, "the country has laughed at one of the most important members of the black community: Mother Dear, the beloved matriarch. Our mothers and grandmothers deserve much more than that." She stated that she appreciated that he was dismissive of critics' comments concerning his work, "but many black folks have expressed some of the very same attitudes about your work that white critics have." She stated that blacks "have been fed the same images of ourselves over and over and over because they sell." She felt that his success had been "mired with the worst black pathologies and stereotypes" and called on him to "stop dismissing the critics as haters and realize that black people need new stories and new storytellers."

Lemieux’s criticism of Perry was cited and expanded upon by the author Tom Burrell in his 2010 book Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority. Burrell cited Perry’s 2008 film Meet the Browns as an example of when "we black people pull the trigger for our own image assassination." Burrell also stated, "...it's not entirely fair to expect Perry to chart a new course alone. His movies and TV shows would not be so successful if blacks didn't have a raging appetite for messages and images that project us as dysfunctional or incompetent. Nothing that occurred during Amos 'n' Andy’s radio and television reign could match the words and actions of black comedies like Madea and The Browns. Our attraction to self-demeaning images came way before, and goes far beyond, Tyler Perry." Burrell called for new images of blacks in entertainment and a new vision of black self-image.

Perry (and Madea) were satirized in a June 2010 episode of the Adult Swim animated series The Boondocks; the Los Angeles Times called this episode "one of the sharpest public criticisms of Perry".

In February 2011, actor Idris Elba caused controversy when he criticised Perry. Elba, who has previously starred in one of Perry's romantic comedies (Daddy's Little Girls), lamented the trend for cross-dressing caricatures of black characters – a phenomenon many would recognize from films such as the The Klumps and Big Momma's House series – describing it as "buffoonish". Elba maintains the view that change should occur in Hollywood to address the recent under-representation of black actors in Hollywood and the controversy it has caused. Elba said: "Imagine a film such as Inception with an entire cast of black people – do you think it would be successful?" Elba asks. "Would people watch it? But no one questions the fact that everyone's white. That's what we have to change."

Cultural critic Touré stated in an April 21, 2011 NPR All Things Considered interview that "Tyler Perry is perhaps the worst filmmaker in Hollywood" and was quoted as saying earlier that Perry is the "KFC of black cinema".

On May 4, 2011, Perry was satirized by South Park in the episode "Funnybot". He was given an award for Worst Comedian ever, and the black characters in the episode, Token Black and President Obama, express their own disbelief that they can't stop watching his comedy and giving him money. At the end of the episode Perry, as Madea, is buried and encased in steel with Obama's declaring, "I am pleased to announce that the greatest threat to mankind has now gone forever. Justice has been done."

In an article for The Boulevardier, the magazine's editor-in-chief, Alexander T. MacGregor, Jr., heavily rebuked Perry's works in his article titled "Mental Slavery of the Modern African Americans", stating "I would argue that he is one of the most dangerous men in America, as his machinations have only worked to feed African-American stereotypes, and validate the ignorant behaviour of some African Americans in society by giving their actions credence."

Following the House of Payne series finale on August 10, 2012, Tyler Perry received many complaints and comments on his website and Facebook page about the cliffhanger that ended the series finale, in which Miranda walks out saying she wants a divorce.

The title of Joshua Alston's A.V. Club review of Temptation (dated April 18, 2013) aptly describes the article's content: "Why white critics' fear of engaging Tyler Perry is stifling honest debate". Several other journalists have lauded the article and contributed to that conversation, such as ThinkProgress' Alyssa Rosenberg in "Are Critics Afraid to Go After Tyler Perry? How to Get Over It—And Write Better About Race Every Day" (April 22, 2013) and The Nation's Michelle Dean in "Race and Tyler Perry: Do We Really Need More Commentary From White People?" (April 19, 2013).