Comments on: You Can Do What You Wanna Do

You Can Do What You Wanna Do

empath — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:57:04 -0800

Debuting 20 years ago, In Living Color launched the Hollywood careers of Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, David Allen Grier, most of the Wayans family, Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez. The comedy might not have aged all that well, but the musical performances and parodies are still a lot of fun.

Public Enemy Jodeci Heavy D featuring 2pac Mary J Blige MC Lyte Kris Kross Leaders of the New School Naughty by Nature Shabba Ranks and Maxi Priest Black Sheep Big Daddy Kane Gangstarr Eazy-E And the parodies: MC Hammer - Can't Touch This Snow - Informer LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out Sir Mix A Lot - Baby Got Back Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman Michael Jackson - Black Or White Paul Abdul - Promise of a New Day Shabba Ranks Bonus: The filthy electro Sta Remix of the Theme Song

By: empath

empath — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:59:26 -0800

Yes, this does make me feel old, thanks for asking.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:01:00 -0800

You're not the only one!

By: cashman

cashman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:01:46 -0800

Digable Planets

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:01:51 -0800

Man, Fire Marshall Bill was creepy.

By: empath

empath — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:02:48 -0800

btw, nothing would make me happier than having people post all the ones I couldn't find.

By: Threeway Handshake

Threeway Handshake — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:03:20 -0800

Oh wow. Now I remember how it was a big deal when people figured out that Paula Abdul had her video edited to make her look skinny and everyone was upset that she used pitch-corrected vocals.

By: cashman

cashman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:07:33 -0800

nothing would make me happier than having people post all the ones I couldn't find. I wish I could find the 93 til Infinity performance.

By: cashman

cashman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:10:30 -0800

Jim Carrey's vanilla ice is so great. I remember literally rolling on the floor laughing at that for years. The "oyoyoyoyoyoyyoy" part and his dancing is just so on point. we just take real rap and dupe it.

By: Brainy

Brainy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:12:56 -0800

Debuting 20 years ago wat.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:16:39 -0800

Jim Carrey as a female bodybuilder is a standout in my memory, for some reason. But, I would watch the show primarily for the def hip hop guest performances.

By: Malice

Malice — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:16:59 -0800

I miss In Living Color. It was so much better than SNL.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:18:17 -0800

I'm struck by how high the mikes are turned up over the music in the musical numbers. You can really hear them doing their thing.

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:20:19 -0800

empath: "Yes, this does make me feel old, thanks for asking." The other day, a co-worker made a derogatory comment about acid-washed jeans. I said, "Somewhere Debbie Gibson is shedding an electric tear." They said, "Who is Debbie Gibson?" Fuck, that smarted.

By: djduckie

djduckie — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:25:07 -0800

I forget how old i was, but i had to be under 8, we were actually a test family or something for In living color, we watched an episode in advance and then they called and asked my dad questions about it. The only thing i remember was the "great black moments" and the guy invents the "self-service pump" by telling the white guy to do it himself. Oddly enough there was a small chunk of my life when i wasn't in to sketch comedy, and this was around then.

By: 1adam12

1adam12 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:30:35 -0800

Let's not forget Carrie Ann Inaba, another former Fly Girl who is also semi-famous.

By: bardic

bardic — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:30:38 -0800

The Black Sheep performance is awesome.

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:31:17 -0800

Despite what the original post says, I've actually been surprised how well some of the In Living Color skits I've seen has held up comedy-wise. I mean some of its just as offensive as it always was -- and I hate to think just how much more awful the "Men on..." sketches made life for two gay black guys I went to high school with -- but some of it still makes me laugh, in spite of myself. Though come to think of it, they may just be Mad TV skits that I'm mis-attributing. But as far as the "twenty years since" tag goes, I wonder if anyone else is feeling something beyond "old" with that lately. For me, it's just proving how jumbled my pop culture memory is. Because to my remembrance, there's no way that In Living Color wasn't a couple years older than Twin Peaks, and the movie Pretty Woman pre-dated them both. But yet they all came out that fateful spring. (Actually because of the universality of VHS cassettes and their rentals and how they were a focus of my life, you could have told me that Pretty Woman came out in any of the 90s and I would have believed you.)

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:31:46 -0800

Triple snap in Z formation!

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:34:32 -0800

Oh my god, this brings me back. I can't believe my parents let me watch this, really. Even if I tried I doubt I could ever forget Vera, Fire Marshall Bill, or Homey the Clown.

By: ShawnStruck

ShawnStruck — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:38:48 -0800

Oh my god, that Snow parody hasn't lost its edge at all. That was AWESOME.

By: 1adam12

1adam12 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:41:25 -0800

Nice & Smooth ... wow. I remember the first time I ever heard Greg Nice rap, and I thought, "There's no way that an MC whose act depends on electronic effects (a simple echo in his case) can ever succeed!" Today? T-Pain. Stupid me! Thanks for this, brings back a whole ton of memories.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:41:52 -0800

The comedy might not have aged all that well I was actually just talking with my best friend about this very subject yesterday (prompted by one of those bad VH1 retro shows, one of our favorite things to do together being to watch awful TV). I remembered In Living Color as being the absolute funniest thing on TV when it originally aired - everyone would be talking about it the day after it aired, imitating "Men On Film" (I still do an occasional "2 snaps up in Z formation") or Fire Marshall Bill or whatever. However, A. I was 12 and B. the bar for outrageous comedy was a lot lower then, and there had never really been anything like it before. Any random 5 minutes of Chappelle's Show blows In Living Color away, but In Living Color paved the way for all the edgy-urban-sketch-comedy shows that followed.

By: mannequito

mannequito — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:42:03 -0800

Is that actually Flava Flav in that Heavy D/2Pac performance? I can't tell any more, these days he's so regularly spoofed ...

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:45:27 -0800

Also, the Wayans brothers seem to have gotten progressively less funny over the years somehow. "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka", which I think is the first thing any of them did (Damon was a bit player on SNL before that if you want to count that), is a classic and still hilarious. In Living Color was amazing at the time, but as discussed doesn't hold up too well. Their 90s stuff, like "Don't Be A Menace To South Central" and the first Scary Movie, have the occasionaly really hilarious gag or line but are mostly dreck. Then their more recent work, like "White Chicks" and "Little Man", has been totally unwatchable. How can you actually get WORSE with experience?

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:49:08 -0800

Is that actually Flava Flav in that Heavy D/2Pac performance? Yup. Hip hop was like a big extended family back then and rappers and DJs would regularly shuffle around with other acts.

By: nooneyouknow

nooneyouknow — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:58:57 -0800

Motherfucker I was supposed to be asleep by now. Men on Film I Tracy Chapman - I Write a Fast Song Homey D. Clown Cephus and Reesie

By: solipsophistocracy

solipsophistocracy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:01:42 -0800

I love this show. I used to watch it every Sunday night with my family. Hearing the theme song still always gives me that "ohhhh, crap. School tomorrow" pit in my stomach.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:13:19 -0800

Actually I can go back one step further: Keenan Ivory Wayans got the green light for developing this based on his work for Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle. I just wrote about this this week.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:16:27 -0800

OhmygodhomiedontplaythatbartsimpsonhypercolorshammerpantsvanillaiceninjaturtlesawkwardjuniorhighmixerssneakingcigarettesinbackofthebowlingalleyrollerskatingrinksOHGODITSALLCOMINGBACKTOMENOWWONTSOMEBODYMAKEITSTOPawkardbarmitzvahshopliftingcandybarsattemptsatfootballpiercedearnicknamehangingoutatthemallandplayingarcadegames. THANKS A LOT.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:20:58 -0800

I'm going to have to wait until I fire up the desktop to enjoy these live performances, but this post did inspire me revisit my favorite ILC skit: Spike's Joint. Frankly, I think it holds up pretty well. The Mo' Betta Butter actually made me LOL. Thanks for this post, empath.

By: dhammond

dhammond — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:21:59 -0800

LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING!

By: scalefree

scalefree — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:30:16 -0800

I can't find any reference to it (it's remarkably hard to Google for; go figure) but I remember first seeing Living Color play Cult of Personality on this show.

By: stinker

stinker — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:31:44 -0800

Wow a network-friendly rap by Eazy E, whodathunk? A few days ago I saw a kid about 12 years old with a brand spanking new N.W.A. t-shirt walking down my street in Anchorage. My first thought was "Cool!" and then I thought "Wait..." but then I remembered that I was only 13 when I was listening to N.W.A. as a junior high kid on Cape Cod. And I sure did love In Living Color, especially the Fly Girls. Usually Rosie Perez wasn't on the show, iirc, she choreographed the routines.

By: Bonzai

Bonzai — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:12:39 -0800

I'm pretty sure Rosie Perez didn't get her start on In Living Color. Do The Right Thing came out in '89. IMDB has her listed as a choreographer, did she do regular appearances (other than the linked Spike Joint sketch?)

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:33:32 -0800

In Living Color was, and still is, like some parallel universe Saturday Night Live where African Americans were considered the rule rather than the exception in TV sketch comedy. (The closest that any show has come to it would probably be Mad TV, which had Orlando Jones, Phil LaMarr, Aries Spears and Debra Wilson, if not all on at the same time, at least in rapid succession.) I even enjoyed things like"The Wrath of Farrakhan", which is for my money the best Star Trek parody ever on TV, even though Louis Farrakhan is pretty repulsive. I dropped it from my viewing schedule when they had cliffhangers for both Homey the Clown and Men on Film at the end of one season--I didn't get the feeling that they were really making fun of cliffhangers, which is too bad--but it was a hell of a run there for a while.

By: nooneyouknow

nooneyouknow — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:42:22 -0800

Homeboy Shopping Network - Mo money! Mo money! Mo money! Great Moments In Black History - Self-Service Gas Station Dirty Dozens Game Show The Dirty Dozens Tournament Of Champions The Wheel of Dozens The Dirty Dozens Home Game Hey Mon/The Hedley's At Home Oprah Della Reese's Pieces Al Macafee Hall Monitor Benita Butrell: Carnival Booth Lean On Me, Beautiful: The Joe Clark Story Part II Calhoun Tubbs Hefty World Condominium Estates Loomis Simmons Power Stretch Star Trek: Wrath of Farrakahn

By: zardoz

zardoz — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:56:40 -0800

I miss In Living Color. It was so much better than SNL. In Living Color then was better than SNL is now, but SNL in the early 90s was Golden Age of that show, and that lasted a good 5 or 6 years. In Living Color had a bit of a underdog, low-budget feel to it that made it cooler in a way, especially if you were into hiphop, and I watched it regularly. But it was never as funny as SNL. It was kind of the MAD TV of its day. Jim Carrey was too over the top for me; David Allen Grier was probably the funniest member on that show ("Wrote a song about it. Like to hear it? Here it go.")

By: prinado

prinado — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:12:30 -0800

Man, this one never gets old: Family Feud: the Jackson family vs. the Royal Family Related: Michael Jackson - "Black or White"

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:22:22 -0800

Dirty Dozens Game Show Everything else I said aside, "yo mama so fat she sat on a quarter and squeezed a booger out George Washington's nose" is a downright epic mama joke.

By: hal_c_on

hal_c_on — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:12:08 -0800

If I'm not mistaken Rosie Perez's career was LAUNCHED by being that memorable shadow boxer in "Do the Right Thing".

By: killdevil

killdevil — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:06:19 -0800

This post, it is good. That was 20 years ago? T_T

By: Ghidorah

Ghidorah — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:12:58 -0800

scalefree, that's Living Colour, right? ^{Vivid was my first CD. Most people assumed I was talking about the show, not the group. Difficult times for a budding pedant. Yet, here I am, pointing out the superfluous U.}

By: Ghidorah

Ghidorah — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:21:51 -0800

Watching the Farrakhan bit, two things struck me: how blunt they were in mocking Farrakhan, who, for the most part wasn't usually joked about. People either liked him or not, but didn't make a lot of Nation of Islam jokes. The other thing was the Asian actor doing Mr. Sulu. Considering George Takei's current revival (especially in response to Tim Hardaway's comments on gays), and how much fun he's having, I'd love to see him say the "I want to do the NASTY" line. The guy in the skit did a good job, but the real Sulu would have been unbeatable.

By: pernoctalian

pernoctalian — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:39:04 -0800

My favorite ever song parody from that show has to be Vanessa Williams. Nowhere to be found this morning, alas.

By: robbyrobs

robbyrobs — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:09:32 -0800

Chris Farley as Roger Ebert on men on film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZhjURoUlQc

By: davelog

davelog — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:52:51 -0800

Man, 20 years already? It's been that long since Jim Carrey was actually funny?

By: dragonsi55

dragonsi55 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:09:21 -0800

"Achy Breaky Head" Carrey doing dangerous comedy. Can anyone find & post pleez...

By: CRM114

CRM114 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:10:36 -0800

I don't see or hear Tupac on that Heavy D feat Tupac link. Anybody help me out?

By: milarepa

milarepa — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:30:55 -0800

Man, I miss hip hop.

By: davey_darling

davey_darling — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:38:59 -0800

djduckie: The only thing i remember was the "great black moments" and the guy invents the "self-service pump" by telling the white guy to do it himself. I still quote the line (out loud or in my head) when somebody asks me for something "Git it yo damn self".

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:46:01 -0800

Color Me Badd people! (This version is different than the one on their album, without the Tick Tock You Don't Stop sample.)

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:57:58 -0800

Man, people need to bring back the high top fade. Fuck this point is awesome.

By: djduckie

djduckie — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:14:33 -0800

homeboy shopping network is reminiscent of a similar sketch that Damon Wayans and Anythony Michael Hall did on SNL for the one year they were both on there. Chris Rock defected from SNL to ILC because he got tired of being the staple black guy. Which is weird because, and I'm not saying they were wrong, but you have these black guys that feel like tokens on the show (on the beginning of a stand-up special Damon is seen with his two sons, one taking the "appease the white man stance, and the other taking the militant, nation of islam-esque stance, and both site what happened on SNL as an argument for why he should do whichever) , and then Tim Meadows is the "black guy" (for lack of a better term) during the remainder of the "Bad boy" era, and does really well for himself. He had a really popular recurring character and got his own movie out of it, and has had a decent career since. Still one of my favorites. Tracy Morgan, who started out as the "other black guy"(referencing a sketch) has done pretty well for himself as well. Now Keenan Thomson is one of the staple actors on the show, and, though i don't watch it, from what i can tell one of the most utilized.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:16:27 -0800

I'm a big fan of the amazing sampling and audio collage and looping that's been going on in hip hop pretty much since its inception, when I'm listening to records, but viewing many of the hip hop clips here, I'm reminded of a feeling I've long had: rappers should've been using more live musicians for live shows. It just would've been more exciting, it would've been better. Hearing Chuck D and Big Daddy Kane and the rest in recorded form with loops and samples is great, it's what hip hop is all about, but seeing those guys on those TV sound stages doing their hip hop moves and swaggering around the stage against the prerecorded backing tracks just always struck me as, I dunno, a little flat. A little lonely, in an odd kind of way.

By: absalom

absalom — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:43:47 -0800

chunking express : The high top fade IS coming back, just probably not in any of the circles you travel in. A significant number of my students have taken to sporting them this year, and have been since school started.

By: PuppyCat

PuppyCat — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:03:05 -0800

Brings back awesome memories of the summer of 1990, which was the summer before I started college. That was a fabulous time. I loved that show.

By: kryptondog

kryptondog — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:15:18 -0800

God, I loved this show so much. I watched reruns on FX almost every night throughout most of high school, and it consistently put me in tears laughing. I give this post the around the world and back snap.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:16:49 -0800

I don't see or hear Tupac on that Heavy D feat Tupac link. Anybody help me out? At 37 seconds in. It's not much, and he just mainly is a hype man in this one.

By: noway

noway — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:24:45 -0800

For those wondering above, I think Rosie Perez first got TV work and exposure via Soul Train.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:25:45 -0800

My friend Ricardo used to wear his pants backwards when we were in grade 7; he was the only kid who could really pull off the whole Kris Kross thing. What's strange is that I like early 90s R&B and Hip Hop now in a way I never liked it at the time. I thought Kris Kross was the dumbest thing ever. Now? The Daddy Mack will make you jump jump. Nostalgia probably colours our tastes.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:30:10 -0800

Actually, Rosie Perez got her first break as a featured dancer with the Cotton Club review in Harlem, backed up by the Duke Ellington band. She's older than she looks.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:32:16 -0800

I thought Kris Kross was the dumbest thing ever. Now? The Daddy Mack will make you jump jump. Time has not lessened the desire to give them a huge wedgie.

By: PsychoTherapist

PsychoTherapist — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:32:51 -0800

"Wroteasongboutitwannahearithereitgo." I still say that from time to time.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:47:10 -0800

Pete Rock and CL Smooth. What? Eric B and Rakim. Oh Hells Yes. In Living Color was really on point with the musical selection.

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:59:34 -0800

Without In Living Color, there'd be no House of Buggin'! House of Buggin'? Remember? *tumbleweed blows by*

By: Vervain

Vervain — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:13:28 -0800

PsychoTherapist, you are not alone. The Calhoun Tubbs thing gets reliable laughs amongst my coworkers, especially when we go the extra mile and make up a song on the fly. Side note: I knew my little brother had finally blossomed into a thoughtful adult when he gifted me with the first season of In Living Color on DVD. No hints on my part--he just remembered that I had loved that damn show, all those years ago. Aww.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:25:06 -0800

A few commenters have noted the similarities between In Living Color and MADtv. The similarity was no accident.

By: molecicco

molecicco — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:42:12 -0800

House of Buggin'? Remember? Me! Yes! I do! I always liked John Leguizamo. I still remember watching that Black Sheep "The Choice is Yours" performance. People sure jumped a lot in the 90s.

By: cereselle

cereselle — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:42:36 -0800

My husband and I still ask each other "Want a copy of School Daze?" "No thanks." "It's free." "Free?" "Yeah." "No thanks."

By: chrchr

chrchr — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:08:27 -0800

flapjax at midnight, watch the Gangstarr video linked in the post. It features DJ Premier doing some live mixing under the MCs. It has a different feel than the sets where the rappers perform over a backing track. That's an exciting, dynamic performance, and that's what hip hop is supposed to be. Everybody loves live music, but to ask rap artists to perform with a live band kinda misses the point, it seems to me. Hip hop is music that can be made without access to musical instruments and training. It's like saying, "I love the Ramones, but would it kill them to learn some more chords and maybe throw in a guitar solo?"

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:16:28 -0800

Yeah, I loved this show growing up, but the "Men On..." sketches make me wince to this day. When you consider how few gay characters of any kind made their way onto network television, the fact that these became the most persistently visible and quotable for years was pretty depressing. As a young person in a small town struggling to figure out what it meant to be gay, it was about the worst thing I (or any of the crueler kids at school, for that matter) could have seen.

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:15:52 -0800

What the hell did Homie the Clown beat people with? I could never figure that one out.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:27:34 -0800

What the hell did Homie the Clown beat people with? Pretty sure it's balled up socks in a leg of pantyhose.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:27:51 -0800

Yeah, I loved this show growing up, but the "Men On..." sketches make me wince to this day. It's funny -- I wound up watching Revenge of the Nerds the other day for the first time in like 20 years. I wanted to show it to my friend because he had (somehow) never seen it. And, like, 90% of it held up, and was WAY funnier than I remembered it being -- except for the awful Asian stereotype character, Takashi. Man, did that piss me off. I mean, the whole movie is all about Jocks vs. Nerds, and how stereotypes are unfair, and how even nerds can rock the house because of their superior brain power. And then they throw in this awful Asian stereotype character, who's like the butt of all the jokes. And I mean, as far as Asian stereotypes go, this one is even worse than Mickey Rooney's from Breakfast at Tiffany's. I mean, I know they were just trying to do the "Silly Foreign Guy," but man ... so not cool, and so not funny. Even worse, he's not even supposed to be smart like the other nerds. Anyway, it was a really sour note in an otherwise hilarious movie. And your comment about the "Men On..." sketches totally made me think of that.

By: QIbHom

QIbHom — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:52:12 -0800

scalefree: "I can't find any reference to it (it's remarkably hard to Google for; go figure) but I remember first seeing Living Color play Cult of Personality on this show." Me, too. They rocked.

By: joost de vries

joost de vries — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:01:16 -0800

scalefree, maybe you're thinking of this performance of Cult of Personality on Arsenio. Even if you're not; it's pretty cool.

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:34:49 -0800

Rosie Perez got started on Soul Train. Here she is tearing shit up. Spike Lee saw her on that and let her rock her stuff in Do the Right Thing.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:34:58 -0800

Living Colour played SNL on April 1, 1989. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of?

By: Ghidorah

Ghidorah — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:52:20 -0800

The high top fade has at least one nationally visible proponent, Brandon Jennings, possible Rookie of the Year in the NBA has worn one for at least part of the season.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:44:44 -0800

OK, I'm here to clear this up once and for all: Rosie Perez got her first, first start as an understudy for one of the chorus girls in Sissle and Blakes' Shuffle Along. The year was 1921. That predated her Soul train appearances by a good 60 years.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:03:20 -0800

Eric B and Rakim. Oh Hells Yes. Hells Yes indeed - however, I was surprised that Rakim said "niggas" several times in that and it wasn't censored. Surprising especially given that the early 90s was probably the most overly-sensitive time in history as far as television goes. I mean, yeah, Redd Foxx would drop the N-bomb on "Sanford and Son" in the 70s, but I thought it had been strictly taboo on network TV since then.

By: ltracey

ltracey — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:39:25 -0800

The parody of Janet Jackson's Rhythm(less) Nation stays with me to this day.

By: Mael Oui

Mael Oui — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:15:42 -0800

I refuse to believe it's been twenty years! Also, I probably should not have been watching this show when I was ten.. I came in to post a link to Jim Carrey's 'Informer' spoof, but now that I see that (and so much more!) posted here, my only thought is whatever became of Kris Kross? I wonder if they still wear their clothes backwards for kicks. (Incidentally, I did agree that that was wiggedy-wiggedy-wiggedy-whack.)

By: scalefree

scalefree — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:36:07 -0800

scalefree, maybe you're thinking of this performance of Cult of Personality on Arsenio. I know it wasn't Arsenio. I'm starting to think it was SNL because I'm reading about bad blood between the band & the show over the show's logo, which makes a performance unlikely to have happened. In any event whatever show it was I saw them on, it was an impressive performance.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:00:53 -0800

House of Buggin' was yet another Fox show that got canceled so quickly that my memory of it is colored by To-An-Athlete-Dying-Young Syndrome, i.e. it didn't have time to jump the shark. My favorite bit was the guerrilla broadcasters outing various celebrities as being secret Latinos/Latinas.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:47:57 -0800

"How can you actually get WORSE with experience?" Eddie Murphy? Steve Martin? Ice Cube?