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Since its black history and I grew up watching great comedy movies
COMING TO YOU LIVE!!! IT’S FILM FIGHT!!!!!!
In the left hand corner we have one of the greatest spoof films of all time Paris Barclay’s “Don’t be a menace to society while drinking your juice in the hood” VS. The classic original black comedy Ice Cube’s “Friday”
I am going to try my hardest not to be bias based off the results of my surveys.
“Don’t be a menace” to me will always be a movie I could watch over and over. The film was produced by Paris Barclay, and as stated by Esther Iverem “The film, partly written by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, relies on its audience’s knowledge of current black popular culture. To understand most of its references, you should know, for example, John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood” and “Poetic Justice,” the Hughes brothers’ “Menace II Society,” Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever”.” The cast was great Including Shawn Wayans (Ashtray), Marlon Wayans ( Loc Dogg), Tracy Jones (Dyshiki) and they played their characters well, spoof movies have always been a go to for me and its full of memorable moments that people still reference today. This is a movie I would watch with my kids and their grand kids (The PG-13 Version) when they come of age, because it reminds me of “living color.
Friday has its own appeal when it comes to comedy because of it’s originality. The cast was amazing together they really felt like family which made the story more relatable as stated by Todd McCarty “Rather like a cross between “Up in Smoke” and an episode of “The Jeffersons, “”Friday” is crudely made, sometimes funny bit of porch-front humor from the ‘hood. Mix of sassy attitude, over-the-top mugging, timeworn cliches, stereotypical characters, stupid jokes and a dash of social reality more often proves embarrassing than amusing, even if the result is not as relentlessly dumb as a number of other recent pix.” It has an amazing cast including Ice Cube (Craig) as well as Chris Rock (Smokey), Nia long (Debbie), Tommy Lister ( Debo ) and the late great John Witherspoon (Pops). This is the first entry to a classic comedy series that still has the world waiting for the next film. The original cast was amazing together they really felt like family which made the story more relatable.
Both films start with a regular day in the hood and follows the main characters life and shows you the what, where, when, how and why. Now I genuinely believe that the story is what makes the film good and in this fight “Friday” has the better story hands down. With this being said “Friday” must always make sense and can’t travel outside of its linear main story line, but where “Friday” can’t go “Don’t be menace” goes. Don’t get me wrong “Don’t be a menace” has a good main story that closely resembles “Menace to society”. Since its a spoof film it doesn’t have to stick mainly on its story or even make at all, because the film can’t take itself seriously and it uses that against the viewers making it even funnier. They both have a common audience so most of the content in the film is targeted towards young blacks and their daily life in the hood, but in a more comedic approach which take away from the messages in the movies although they tend to take the “message” moments seriously because its all fun and games but this is the harsh reality that poor minorities in America face.
The peoples favorite was “Friday” which I can understand but wholeheartedly disagree with. I think the reason people choose “Friday” is because of how popular the entire sires not only did Ice Cube make one masterpiece he continued to make two more with a third one on the way. The fact that the story continues is a clear advantage that “Friday” has over “Don’t be a menace”. In conclusion “Friday” will take home the belt but this will not be the end of FILM FIGHT!!!!!!!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/dontbeamenaceriverem_c04287.htm
Sunny On Films 