Nowadays, the Wayans family has become synonymous with bad comedy. Let’s start by discussing their decline.
In 2000 Keenen Ivory Wayans directed some of his brothers in “Scary Movie”. Although I never found it remotely funny, the film was a big hit. The film became the spoof film to emulate and a new wave of parody films arrived. However, a lot of these new parody movies got panned by audiences and critics alike. One of them was “Scary Movie 2” with the Wayans trying to strike gold a second time but failing miserably.
Keenen then directed his brothers in “White Chicks” where two black federal agents go undercover as rich white girls. A few years later, he directed “Little Man” where a short criminal pretends to be a baby (the premise was lifted from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon). Neither of these films did anything to undo the damage of “Scary Movie 2”. Now, Keenen, Shawn and Marlon had done three duds in a row.
Many of the Wayans family had individually done bad films before such as Damon in “Earth Girls Are Easy” and Keenen in “The Glimmer Man” but now they had failed as a family collective. However, there was a time when they were considered genuinely funny.
In 1988, Keenen directed and starred in “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”, a relatively amusing spoof of the blaxploitation pictures of the 70s. Damon was given a small role while Shawn and Marlon make brief appearances.
In the 90s, several members of the Wayans family were part of “In Living Colour”, a sketch comedy series. The series lasted for five seasons with well over a hundred episodes. It was created by and starred Keenen while also featuring Damon, Kim, Shawn and Marlon. The series had many truly hilarious skits. The show also starred a young Jim Carrey before he got really famous with “The Mask” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”.
The show’s humour still holds up surprisingly well but a lot of the cultural references and the style are very dated. In fact, it’s not only some of the Wayans’ brothers best work as it’s also some of Jim Carrey’s best work too.