Is Martin Lawrence a sell out
Comedian Martin Lawrence looks to return to edgier comedy after several recent movie failures.
Martin Lawrence may star as the lead character in Back to America where he would play a working class man from Queens, New York who finds out that he is the heir to a throne in Africa.
The plot appears to be a spin on the popular cult movie Coming to America. The movie is said to be Lawrence’s opportunity to return to edgier comedy where he experienced much of his early success.
Lawrence is one of the funniest comedians of this generation, but in the world of “What have you done for me lately” he’s had several corny attempts at being “Disney Funny”.
It seems like the natural progression of most black comedians (Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker) is to be as raunchy and ghetto as possible when starting out their careers, and then clean up their act for the “Disney money”.
But eventually the “Disney money” runs out and they come back to us, their core audience, looking for acceptance to their old form. When comedians do it we call it “smart business” but when rappers do it we call it “selling out”.
Sounds like a double standard to me. Who’s laughing now?
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