4/14/11

The Majak Mixtape - This Mixtape Will Rock Your World


How you livin' Mixtapers?! Welcome to another stunning, flawless, amazing, serving you TWO SNAPS UP REALNESS better than your favorite edition of the Majak Mixtape, where pop culture goes to dance itself to the next commercial break with the help of SW-1. It's Thirsty Thursday and besides being the day that we put our livers to the test with some karaoke madness at The Recovery Room here in La Crosse, it's THROWBACK THURSDAY. Last week we tackled the animated mindfuck that was "Jem!" and her Holograms.

This week we're turning our attentions to one of the greatest sketch comedies shows of all-time that introduced us to the comedic genius of Jim Carey, the crossdressing wonder of Jamie Foxx and the bootyliciousness of one Jennifer Lopez while giving us characters like Fire Marshall Bill, Men On Film, Wanda, The Brothers Brothers, and scores of dead-on celebrity parodies of notable folks like Whitney Houston, Tracey Chapman, Oprah, and Arsenio Hall. That's right folks. Bust out your parachute pants and make sure the fade on your flat-top haircut is on-point because we're saluting the magic of "In Living Color."

But before we get to that, let us get to tea. Though we aren't ones to gossip so you haven't heard this from us:

First up, Catherine Zeta-Jones has gotten in touch with her inner "Girl, Interrupted" and has checked into a facility to deal with her bi-polar disorder according to "People." With the stress of husband Michael Douglas' battle with cancer, we're not surprised that this might have put some strain on Zeta-Jones' mental health. Plus we appreciate a star with mental issues actually seeking out treatment that doesn't involve Dr. Drew. Or a tour across America selling WINNING t-shirts. We hope all the best for Ms. Zeta-Jones and all that jazz.

Oh p.s., kudos to RadarOnline for classily using a photo of Catherine Zeta-Jones that has the actress rocking some "Black Swan"-esque to really hammer home the point that she's gone to a mental health center.

Speaking of "People," Jennifer Lopez recently was spotted on the cover of "People" for its annual Most Beautiful People issue. Frankly, it should be called Most Powerful PR Person since that cover has little to nothing to do with actual beauty. We mean, Jennifer Lopez is beautiful and all but what makes her more beautiful this year than last year? Being suddenly flushed with relevancy does WONDERS for a girl's skin complexion. The cover is more of a barometer of who has the most public attention this year than it does as some sort of huge gauge on Hollywood beauty. We mean, any list that includes current day Jessica Simpson on it has to be inherently invalid from the get-go right?

In other news, Kobe Bryant has issued an apology to a gay rights group for calling a referee a "fucking faggot" during a NBA game according to those fine reporters at TMZ. This comes on top of 100K fine for making the comment. You know how much money that is? A drop in the bucket for Kobe but could pay off at least two or three groupies or probably four cast members on "Basketball Wives" with that cash.

Anyway, we loved that Kobe initially came out and said that he had never intended to offend anyone. Really, in a fit of anger he decided he was just going to what? Aggressively compliment the referee? Get the fuck out of here with that Kobe.

And that, my lovelies, is the tea for today.

Snap your fingers and keep reading as we serve up some "In Living Color" nostalgic realness for you!



Welcome to another installment of THROWBACK THURSDAY, the fine, fresh, fierce, got nostalgia on lock place where we take on the past from a male point of view. Today, we're taking on the glory that was the Fox sketch comedy show "In Living Color." Headed by the Jackson family of comedy, the Wayans, "In Living Color" was the African-American answer to "Saturday Night Live" as the show took on Black celebrities, movies, films and other issues that weren't being satirized by other comedy programs.

Though it only had a brief run four year run from 1990 to 1994, the show at its peak captured the public's fascination with its brand of edgy comedy, up-and-coming urban musical guests, and of course the lovely ladies that made up the Fly Girls dance troupe. And really, even if you never found the show funny (IMPOSSIBLE) or hated the musical guest (YOU DEAF) or found the Fly Girls to be silly (Okay, we'll give you that one), you can never hate a show that gave us a theme song as on-point as Heavy D's song for the show.

Either in its original form:


Or the awesome reworked version they trotted out for the third season:


"In Living Color" gave to us a slew of amazing characters that they trotted out on a weekly basis. There are so many of them that we'd to devote a full month to the show to be able to cover them all. There was Kim Wayans, our personal favorite cast member, and her character Ms. Benita, who never gossiped and especially never wanted you to hear nothing bad about her neighbor Miss Jenkins. We have to give the show and Kim credit for coming up a sketch that was essentially a comedic monologue and trusting that the audience would go along with it. They trotted out the character multiple times but nothing comes close to the sheer brilliance of her first appearance on the show in season one.


Kim Wayans was always our favorite person on the show from her parody of Grace Jones:


or Oprah:


The whole cast was filled with comedic geniuses like David Alan Grier, who gave us a variety of characters including blues musician Calhoun Tubbs:


As well as Funky Finger Productions with Tommy Davidson:


And of course David Alan Grier participated in one of the greatest sketches of the show with Damon Wayans. Get your fingers snapping as we salute the magic of Men On . . . series of sketches as they took on fitness:


on football:


and of course film:


"In Living Color" was pretty fierceless in its sending up of stereotypes. We particularly enjoyed their take-on Black people in the entertainment industry. Never has an indictment of the limited roles for Black people been quite as funny as The Black People's Award.


While the show was a predominately a Black show, Jim Carey shined on it with his array of kooky characters like Fire Marshall Bill:


Vera de Milo:


And he and Kelly Coffield were amazing as dorky elementary school kids:


Long before Jamie Foxx was blaming it on the alcohol or singing Ray Charles tunes every time he picked up an award, he was rocking our world as Wanda the Ugly Girl:


With En Vogue:


And with Mr. Ugly Man


And this tribute could not be complete without the magic of Damon Wayans and Homey D. Clown:


And with that, we end our little tribute to "In Living Color." As always we wish you love, peace and downloads! BRING ON THE CEPHUS AND REESIE!


(Tyler Perry wishes his plays were this good)

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