Tyler Perry’s Crabs in a Barrel

Anytime somebody in the Black community gets a little flavor going for them you can smell the Old Bay wafting off their critics.

Whether it was Tavis and West going after Obama, or the ever ubiquitous Black intelligencia going after BET or Bill Cosby – for that matter – someone’s always got a complaint if you’re successful. It’s the rules of the road when you’re Black and successful.

Tyler Perry has had his fair share of critics over the years, and I’m the last one to pretend that I haven’t had plenty of dinner time conversations amongst my professional peeps about how I find Madea movies boring, and haven’t seen one of his plays on the chit’lin circuit.

However, you have to give Perry his props.  The brother has a strong, non-stop work ethic and he’s making serious bank … in fact, he continues to laugh all the way to it.  Honestly, I think most of his TBS sitcoms are perfectly respectable sitcom fare. Apparently, I’m in the minority, since not only does Perry seem to have a whole new crop of haters nipping at his heels, but they’re getting all high falutin’ about their hate as well.

Melvin Childs is about to drop a bomb with his new book “Never Would Have Made It”. The book is billed as a tell all about how Child’s was betrayed by Tyler during the playwright/producer’s rise to fame and all the shady back-room deals, shifty money and shenanigans it took for him to finally make his way to the top of the overacting comedy producer heap.

Child’s is so pissed he even made a video trailer for the book complete with an overacting crying father and gospel soundtrack.

Now, I’m down for some celebrity gossip as much as the next guy. But, there is something suspiciously five-and-dime about this latest work.  The book sounds like a finalist for the Crab of the Year Award. Hollywood can be aggressive and cutthroat, but unless he’s about to say that Perry did him like Suge Knight did Vanilla ice over the script to Madea Goes to Jail I’m just not buying this story.

Dr. Jason Johnson, Politic365 Chief Political Correspondent, is a professor of Political Science at Hiram College in Ohio and author of the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell. You can read more at www.drjasonjohnson.com or follow him on Twitter @Drjasonjohnson

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One Response to Tyler Perry’s Crabs in a Barrel

1. Rxstar says:

   7:26pm December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm

   Let me respond in the words of the great wordsmith and hip hop scholar, Dr. Jay-Z

   "If you put crabs in a barrel to insure your survival
   You're gon' end up pulling down niggas that look just like you
   What up, Blood? What up, cuz? It’s all black, I love us"

   This book will not be on my Christmas list.

   Reply