Spike Lee starts feuds more often than he makes relevant movies these days, and one obvious target of his criticism has been hacky director Tyler Perry, whose movies Lee famously derided as “coonery and buffonery.” (Lee later backtracked, saying he was annoyed that “coonery and buffoonery” were the only quotes anyone pulled from the interview. But hey, that’ll teach you go for the easy rhyme. I’M SICK OF THIS COONERY, SCHOONERY, BUFOONERY, AND ALL AROUND PONTOONERY!)
Now, on the eve of the Madea’s Big Happy Family release, Tyler Perry is firing back — against Lee, and predictably, all the h8erzz.
“I’m so sick of hearing about damn Spike Lee,” Perry said during a press conference Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif. “Spike can go straight to hell! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, ‘this is a coon, this is a buffoon.’ I am sick of him talking about black people going to see movies. This is what he said: ‘you vote by what you see,’ as if black people don’t know what they want to see.”
“I am sick of him – he talked about Whoopi, he talked about Oprah, he talked about me, he talked about Clint Eastwood. Spike needs to shut the hell up!”
“I’m so sick of being asked about Spike Lee! So I told him to go to hell in front of a room full of reporters! My logic is ironclad!”
The filmmaker admitted he can’t understand why so much of the criticism of his films comes from his fellow African-Americans, when he doesn’t see similar criticisms of other groups coming from their communities. “I’ve never seen Jewish people attack Seinfeld and say “this is a stereotype,” I’ve never seen Italian people attack The Sopranos, I’ve never seen Jewish people complaining about Mrs. Doubtfire or Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. I never saw it. It’s always black people, and this is something that I cannot undo. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois went through the exact same thing.” [BoxOfficeMag via ThePlaylist]
W.E.B. DuBois, hahahahahaha… Oh, my sides. Now that I’m through laughing at that comparison, here, Tyler. Here’s an old article about The Sopranos being denounced by National Italian-American Foundation, The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (holy sh*t, that is the most vague name ever), and the anti-defamation arm of The Order of the Sons of Italy in America. And we don’t even need to bring up Jersey Shore.
But really, talk about an argument where no matter who wins, everyone loses. Tyler Perry is right about Spike Lee being an A-hole. Hey, Spike, can’t you just say Tyler Perry’s movies suck without calling him an Uncle Tom? We’d all be onboard with you there. It’s the same thing that always bugs me when people call Jeff Dunham a racist. Hey, maybe he just does hacky comedy. You don’t have to turn every crappy artist into Hitler, it’s just what people do to make themselves feel better about criticizing. Not to mention, the subtext of Spike Lee’s argument that Tyler Perry represents coonery and buffoonery is the idea that every black person on film has to be “dignified”, which is actually a lot more backwards and racist than a big black man in drag who smacks people upside the head, when you think about it. (Because something reminds you of a minstrel show might give it negative connotations, that doesn’t necessarily make it racist). But hey, what do I know, I’m just a guy who loves Seinfeld for the hilarious Jew jokes. In conclusion, both of these rich A-holes can get f*cked by a grizzly bear.