Back in the early 80s, Keenan Ivory Wayans was merely a stand-up kicking around the circuit with Robert Townsend. They appeared, separately, on Evening at the Improv, and worked hard at making a name for themselves. It wasn’t until they came together for the blistering satire Hollywood Shuffle, a movie eviscerating Hollywood for not giving black actors substantial roles, that they really gained traction in our mainstream culture. Keenan finally hit the mainstream with I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, a parody of 1970’s Blaxploitation films.
As the genre title suggests, the Blaxploitaton genre was a double edged sword for the black community. On the one side, the movies were usually white-produced and white-directed films made with black actors that embraced all the negative stereotypes of the black community. On the other side, they were some of the only movies to deal with the challenges the black community was facing, even if it was through genre fare, while also empowering the lead black actor or actress against a usually white evil infecting their community. Modern sensibilities have embraced the empowerment while ignoring the stereotypes, but it wasn’t all that easy.
The central plot of Hollywood Shuffle has Robert Townsend struggling between holding to his principles so he could be a genuine representation to his community, and being given a role in yet another white-produced white-directed blaxploitation film. Shuffle lays the problem out: you can play along with the system, or you can starve; the system doesn’t care. Early in the film, Townsend indulges in a commercial for Black Acting School, where white instructors teach black actors how to act “Black,” including how to talk Jive, how to walk, and how to dance.
Hollywood Shuffle and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka present two sides of a coin. If Hollywood Shuffle was a cutting screed against the racism, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka was a parody that pointed at the tropes as it lovingly embraced the genre as a whole. Wayans plays Jack Spade, an army vet who returns home after his brother dies by overdosing on gold chains. With the help of a group made from old blaxploitation actors, Spade tracks down the source of the street gold to John Vernon’s Mr. Big.
Compared to latter day love letters through parody (Black Dynamite), Sucka was far pricklier in its humor and embracing of the genre. Consider Fly Guy’s release into the public, where he walks into public dressed in a gaudy pimp suit complete with aquarium platforms; now, instead of being the badass on the street, he’s laughed at by everybody as his platforms break. It’s a film that points out the racism of the genre, sometimes by the juxtaposition of tropes with reality, yet still embraces the genre. It’s a complicated laugh that cuts deep enough for humor but not enough to eviscerate. It’s that complex dissection that keeps I’m Gonna Git You Sucka as a required viewing all these years later.
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka airs on MGM HD at 10pm.
