the original kings of comedy ( 2000 ) / * 1/2directed by spike lee . starring steve harvey , dl hughley , cedric the entertainer , bernie mac . running time : 115 minutes . rated aa for mature subject matter and coarse language by the mfcb . reviewed on september 12th , 2000 . that's a cliche , to be sure , but it's also true . much of it comes from the fact that the act of killing is reasonably straightforward , whereas making people laugh is considerably more elusive . and , by extension , it's because while being dead is a pretty objective state ( certain metaphysical concerns notwithstanding ) , being funny is a lot more personal and subjective . what i find absolutely uproarious might be stupid or silly or just plain boring to somebody else . sense of humour is as individual as we are . as such , i will not really attempt to assess how funny " the original kings of comedy " is . i will merely indicate that i didn't find it at all amusing . certainly , there were moments which elicited a few chuckles , but i spent most of the film's nearly two-hour duration sitting in my seat slack-jawed , wondering what i was missing . because not only does the audience in the movie clearly love the act ( it'd be a curious concert film otherwise ! ) but many others at the screening i attended got a kick out of it too . so the humour in the picture clearly has an appeal -- just not for me . all that said , though , there are aspects of " the original kings of comedy " which are candidates for discussion and which are not quite so subjective as the quality ( or lack thereof ) of its humour . it is in many ways a very flawed undertaking and while those who appreciate its brand of comedy may be able to overlook this , it makes the experience all the more intolerable for those who do not . " the original kings of comedy " is spliced together by director spike lee from two performances in charlotte , on february 26th and 27th of this year . the show consists of four respected ( if not exactly famous ) black comedians plying their trade . dl hughley , cedric the entertainer , and bernie mac are presented in single individual segments running about thirty minutes each . introducing each act is steve harvey , which is to basically say that harvey gets three separate ten-minute blocks of stage time to put on his act instead of an unbroken half hour like the others . the picture is also peppered with brief behind-the-scenes clips which add little to the proceedings as a whole . the film's major problem is the sheer lack of variety amongst the four comedians , virtually all of whose humour runs along similar lines . all four indulge in lots of " black people versus white people " commentary ( which is often hilarious , but gets really tedious on its umpteenth iteration in the span of two hours ) . all four stay confined to very broad-based topics , largely eschewing any political or intellectual commentary . and all of them lace their monologues with an endless litany of profanity . whereas the best comedians know to use swearing to punctuate their punchlines , here it is often used in place of one : a much lower brand of humour for sure . further , there is little insight offered through the jokes . there is a lot of racial content , but it mostly consists of potshots at caucasians and/or african-americans . certainly , we are afforded only the barest of glimpses into what it is like to be a black man in america . these comedians are happy to talk about the world around them , but reveal precious little about themselves in the process . most of the comedy is of sitcom variety , and while this is fine in half-hour doses on prime time television , it feels like an opportunity wasted in a major motion picture . the comedian who comes closest to achieving some sort of relevance with his segment is bernie mac , who discusses the effects of his sister's drug habit on his family ( he is now sharing custody of her three children with his brother-in-law ) . unfortunately , mac couches this portion of his monologue in exceedingly unpleasant jokes , constantly referring to his six year-old nephew as a " faggot " and talking about physically beating his own child . mac's brand of humor is extremely edgy , maybe too much so ; it makes for an uncomfortable performance which straddles the line between comedy and cruelty and , perhaps , goes a little too far . mac's half hour also illustrates the restrictions imposed by recording the film in a live environment . mac has a thick accent ( as does cedric , to a lesser extent ) , and i found that the concert's sound facilities -- obviously a poor comparison with anything that would be taped in a studio -- often distorted his words to the point of unintelligibility . lee is also occasionally forced to choose some rather poor camera angles , though in general he does a good job of setting things up to capture the performers at the best possible angles . of the four comedians , i found harvey's material the best . this may have been aided by the fact that , alone amongst the quartet , his screentime is split up , so that he does not overstay his welcome . intriguingly , harvey's best material comes when he is adlibbing to the audience . for example , when a rastafarian-looking man in the front row tells him that he's doing computer technology education , harvey retorts that the last two words that come to his mind when he looks at the man are " technology " . . . or " education " . he also has a few amusing rehearsed skits , like one about black people on the " titanic " . but good gags like this are few and far between . i found " the original kings of comedy " to be an unpleasant morass , a sterile waste of a long two hours . maybe my sense of humour just isn't geared in the right way . maybe i'm not the demographic that the " kings " are appealing to . i guess much the same reaction would be had if newfoundland's comedy troupe buddy wassisname and the other fellers were dropped off in the south bronx to do a show . if you understand the reference , i expect you'll see the point . if you don't understand the reference . . . well , maybe that makes the point , too . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at the popcorn gallery , <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/originalkings . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/originalkings . html</a> _______________________________________________________________________ / shannon patrick sullivan | " we are all in the gutter , but some of us \ | <a href= " mailto : shannon@mun . ca " >shannon@mun . ca</a> | are looking at the stars . " - oscar wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | popcorn gallery movie reviews www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies . html | | doctor who : a brief history of time ( travel ) /drwho . html | 
