In Living Color

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Fast Facts
The Greatest Characters
The Greatest Celebrity Impersonations
The Worst Characters

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In Living Color:  Aired from 1990-1994.  One of the funniest and most interesting sketch comedy shows ever made. The main idea of the show is that it has a mostly black cast.  It's black by design, not by principle.  What I mean by that is that anybody can watch it.  It's not a preachy Spike Lee-type show or anything like that.  It's not trying to shove some social message down our throats.  It's just funny!

    The show is also unique because it's one of the few sketch comedy shows that had its own dancing girls.  The Benny Hill Show had their Hill's Angels, and In Living Color had the Fly Girls.  The Fly Girls would always wear sexy "street" outfits and there was always quite a diversity:  black, white, Asian, Hispanic, etc.  And sometimes they were brought into the skits.

    They would often introduce new hip-hop acts which, frankly, I could do without because I don't like rap.  I think they could've put in a few more sketches instead of the rap numbers.

Fast Facts:  Homey D. Clown's real name is Herman Simpson.

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The Greatest Characters:

Andrea Dice Clay-  I LOVE Kelly Coffield!  The female version of raunchy stand-up comedian Andrew Dice Clay.  She had this down REAL good!

Anton Jackson, the Homeless Man- Damon Wayans as the unforgettable bum.  You know it's going to be a good skit when this character comes on the screen!

Calhoun Tobbs-  The insulting bluesman!  Played hilariously by David Alan Grier.

Classic Movie Actress-  Kelly Coffield has quite a talent.  In these skits she played a classic movie actress whose world was in black-and-white and she crossed over into the world of technicolor for hilarious fish-out-of-water situations.  She really does a good job of impersonating the overacting we usually see in the top movie actresses of the 1930s-1940s.

Cousin Elsie-  An ugly, old perverted sex freak of a black woman who would try to get nasty with anyone or anything including relatives, dead relatives, and babies to name a few.  Played by Kim Wayans.

Handi-Man-  I.e. "The Adventures of Handi-Man".  It's pretty evident that with its characters, In Living Color was slapping politcal correctness in the face.  This was pretty daring then and even now.  He was a fully-fledged handicapped superhero.  Handi-Man was some kind of cripple, maybe even slightly retarded, who was like a Superman for the handicapped.  And he always won.  They weren't really trying to be hurtful toward handicapped people with these skits, they were just making a silly character.  The physically-able supporting characters were even goofier.  Played by Damon Wayans.

Homey the Clown-  Also known as Homey D. Clown.  Real name:  Herman Simpson.  He's the angry black clown, always with his sock.  "Homey don't play that!" became one of the hippest catchphrases in 1990s America.  Played by the outstanding Damon Wayans.

Magnifico-  Played by Jay Leggett.  This is a clear spoof of the once-popular Fabio.  In this case, Magnifico was an overweight version of the star.  "Yes I have gained a pound or two, but it is no matter.  The cameras love me!  I am Magnifico!".  God bless Jay Leggett for one of the funniest post-Wayans In Living Color characters ever done!

Men on Film-  Two extreme gays who talk about movies and all kinds of other subjects, "From a male point of view".  Damon Wayans played Blaine Edwards and David Alan Grier played Antoine Meriwether.  This was extremely funny!  Whenever they did these sketches, they never ran out of material for these characters.  It was just one gay joke after another.

Miss Bonita Letrell-  Kim Wayans is funny and that's all there is to it.  You know she's going to say something cool after she meets someone, and every time she surprises us with what she says!  That's a talent.

Mo' Money! (The Homeboys)-  Damon and Keenan Ivory Wayans play two hip-hop hoodlums up to no good with their illegal get-rich-quick commercials.  "Mo' Money!  Mo' Money!  Mo'Money!".  This is funny!  Now I liked the "Mo' Money" movie with Damon Wayans, but it was completely unrelated to these sketches.  I think it would've been funny if the Homeboys were given their own movie!

Mr. and Mrs. Brooks-  The old married couple (for 50 years) that were more than happy to tell everyone they were "still together" although they continuously, but unsuccessfully try to kill each other in almost every possible way.  But before that, they exchange insults with each other calling the other "Mr." or "Mrs." Brooks.  David Alan Grier played Mr. Brooks.  Kim Wayans played Mrs. Brooks.

Tom and Tom-  "The Brothers Brother".  I loved these skits with two pro-white black guys named Tom.  Played by Damon and Keenan Ivory Wayans.

Wanda Wayne-  I don't usually find men in drag funny, but this was an extremely funny character played by Jamie Foxx.  She was meant to be the ugliest black woman you've ever seen.  "Natural" curly blonde hair, cross eyes, and BIG lips.  Not to mention that she was built more like a gorilla than a petite, young lady.  The basic premise of these skits was that Wanda was always looking for a man, the man was always uninterested (to put it lightly), and the man was almost always played by Tommy Davidson.

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The Worst Characters:

Fire Marshal Bill-  Just what the h*** is this about, anyway?  It was sick, gross, and wrong.  I think they put this character in when they were running low on steam and couldn't come up with ideas.  If it wasn't for shock value, this character would have nothing at all.  Played by Jim Carrey.  He's done a lot of better stuff than this on and off the show.

The Head Detective-  Now this is pretty stupid.  I don't mind stupid, but this gag was unfunny to begin with, and they made a long series of sketches about it.  A detective who is nothing more than a head with feet and little hands takes on bad guys with the help of his normal human partner Adam.  Damon Wayans played Head, and Keenan Ivory Wayans played his partner.

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The Greatest Celebrity Impersonations:

Woody Allen-  I've always loved Kelly Coffield's work on the show, and she did a really outstanding job as Woody Allen.  This had to be hard to do, because she had to play a man, and she had to get all his nervous mannerisms down.

Michael Bolton-  This HAS to be one of the top funniest things Jim Carrey ever did!  He looks like Michael Bolton, sounds like Michael Bolton, and the jab about how he did a lot of covers of songs from dead soul singers was right on the money!  And how he sings like he's in terrible pain!  FUNNY!

Charles Bronson-  Another one of the really, really funny things Jim Carrey did on the show.  The "Make a Death Wish Foundation" skit is one of the sketches from the show that I always remembered best.  Just look at the facial expressions in the pictures below and try to tell me that you don't think this is a dead-on impersonation!

Downtown Julie Brown-  T'Keyah Crystal Kemah did this impersonation.  I've always loved T'Keyah's work on the show.  She's as cute as a button, and she really got the look and the personality of the MTV VJ down good!

Michael Jackson-  Tommy Davidson did a great Michael Jackson spoof.  As far as Michael Jackson impersonators go, the top two in my opinion are Tommy Davidson from In Living Color and Phil LaMarr from Mad TV.

Grace Jones- Kim Wayans as Grace Jones.  Need I say more?  This is awesome!  And as soon as she comes on the screen, you know right away who she's impersonating.  This is funny stuff!

Pee Wee Herman-  Jim Carrey captured Pee Wee's voice perfectly.  Very funny!  I'm a Pee Wee Herman fan, and I think any Pee Wee fan can appreciate the cleverness of Jim's impersonation, although it's not meant to be the most flattering.

Don King (The Early Years)-  An elementary school version of Don King played by Damon Wayans.  This is funny!

Little Richard-  I'm a longtime Little Richard fan, but I do think comedians have a lot to play with in poking fun at him.  Anybody can enjoy a good Little Richard gag.  Jamie Foxx does a good job here.  It's not completely dead-on, but I don't think anybody can REALLY capture Little Richard except Little Richard himself.  The skits are hilarious.

M.C. Hammer-  The most interesting and colorful of celebrity impersonations had to be Tommy Davidson as M.C. Hammer.  These had to be expensive to shoot because they recreated Hammer's elaborate stage shows with entourage, wardrobe, etc.  And they always made it count, because they slammed the over-commercialization of this once popular rapper.

Prince-  I'm a Prince fan, and I think any Prince fan can appreciate this hilarious impersonation by Jamie Foxx. 

Shabba Ranks-  Who?  If you don't know about Shabba Ranks, all you really need to know is that he is a Jamaican hip-hop singer.  His heyday was in the early 1990s and he's not noted for being a good-looking guy, although he surrounded himself with plenty of attractive women.  Marlon Wayans was FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY as this character.  When they did the mock music video called "Mr. Ugly Man" I laughed myself silly.

Don Rickles-  Jim Carrey did this to perfection.  The timing, the personality, everything.  As you may or may not know, Don Rickles is noted for his off-color ethnic jokes, and everyone's a target!  And Jim really did a good job of bringing the goofiness of that comedian to brilliant life.

Isabel Sanford-  One of the funniest things the show ever did, and it wasn't even by a regular performer.  I thought this impersonation was so special that I made pictures of this character as big as I possibly could for all of you.

Al Sharpton & Lou Farrakhan-  David Alan Grier as Al Sharpton.  Damon Wayans as Lou Farrakhan.  They regularly paired these two together in Abbott & Costello type comedy skits since one's fat and one's skinny.  And they are just like the real civil rights leaders!  It's funny!

Suzanne Sommers-  Another great Kelly Coffield job!  Come to think of it, I don't think she ever had a miss on the show.  Everything Kelly did was cool in one way or another.  Sometimes some of the other players, although I liked them all, did characters that were duds.  Kelly was ALWAYS great!  And this impersonation of the Thigh Master maiden was really something hilarious.

Jimmie Walker-  Tommy Davidson as Jimmie Walker, playing the character of J.J. from the TV show "Good Times".  When Jimmie dons the name of L.L. Cool J.J. and does the song "Mama's Gonna Kick Me Out" to the tune of L.L. Cool J's popular hit "Mama's Gonna Knock You Out" it's really something to see!  He looks just like J.J.!

Oprah Winfrey-  I'm a great fan of Kim Wayans' work, and this is another reason why.  She captured the crankiness of Oprah with great success.  And when she's stuffing her face with all kinds of food and expanding...that's real funny!

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