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The original cast of In Living Color!.note 

"You can do what you wanna do...In Living Color!"

In Living Color! Wrote an article 'bout it! Like to read it? Here it goes!

A half-hour sketch comedy show that aired on Fox from 1990 to 1994, created by Keenen Ivory Wayans and starring several of his brothers (Damon, Shawn, and Marlon) and one sister (Kim). The series is largely known as the launching pad for the careers of the Wayans family, Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier, and Tommy Davidson — as well as Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba, who were part of the show's "Fly Girl" dance troupe.

It was effectively Saturday Night Live for the black and Hispanic set (SNL didn't have a lot of black cast members at the timenote  and wouldn't get a Hispanic cast member until Horatio Sanz was hired in 1998note ), featuring R&B and hip-hop musical acts.

Memorable recurring characters include the ex-con clown Homey D. Clown (Damon Wayans), the flamboyantly gay film critics for the "Men On..." seriesnote  (Damon Wayans as Blaine Edwards and Grier as Antoine Merriweather), abhorrent and Mirror-Cracking Ugly admirer Wanda (Foxx), mannish bodybuilder Vera DeMilo (Carrey), and the cartoonishly destructive safety officer Fire Marshall Bill Burns (Carrey).

Unfortunately, the edgy comedy of the series — not only its raunchiness but sometimes cutting racial satire — eventually brought down the wrath of network executives who regarded it as Too Hot for TV, and the Wayans family ended up leaving the series over the course of the fourth season. Season Five still had Carrey, Grier, Foxx and Davidson, but the quality suffered for the absence of many of the recurring characters (not only those the Wayans played but Carrey's, as he was making fewer appearances due to his burgeoning film career) while five new cast membersnote  didn't connect with audiences. The show ultimately was cancelled, freeing the breakout stars to go on to varying degrees of success in film, TV, and stand-up comedy. It was scheduled to be revived with a new cast in 2012, but due to negative reception from focus groups and executives over the new pilot the project was shelved.

The show has been on and off television in reruns. It's aired in reruns on FX, BET, Centric, and FXX, and currently splits time between Aspire and TV One. All five seasons are on DVD, but most episodes are edited to remove any and all traces of licensed songs, such as characters Waxing Lyrical, characters singing the actual song, popular 1990s songs playing during the Fly Girls interstitials, and the music video parodies. If you want to see the show as it was back in the 1990s, your best bets are reruns or YouTubenote .

The show is also notable for being the reason the National Football League books high profile musical acts for the Super Bowl halftime show. During Super Bowl XXVI on CBS in 1992, Fox decided to broadcast a special live episode of In Living Color! at halftime so viewers would have something to watch other than the then-bland halftime shows consisting of marching bands and pageants. The stunt worked and the episode drew in 22 million viewers while also causing the second half of the Super Bowl to lose 10 Nielsen ratings points as people stayed on Fox to finish out the episode. Thus, the NFL began booking popular singers to perform, starting with Michael Jackson the next year, to keep as many viewers glued to the game as possible.

Not to be confused with the funk-metal band Living Colour or a BBC radio comedy sketch show of a similar name.

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This show contained examples of the following:

  • The '90s: A lot of early rap talent appears, and many of the sketches reflect then-current news and pop culture. Unless you lived through the 1990s, you'll definitely have to Wikipedia many of the social and political references.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Jamie Foxx's Ugly Wanda. Her Spear Counterpart, Luther (Marlon Wayans), is this to her in one episode.
  • Action Girl: Vera De Milo and Kim Wayans as Grace Jones are two examples in the show. The former can do things like easily rip telephone books in half and use washers and dryers as weights (due to abusing steroids) and the latter has said that she likes to "chew glass, ride sharks and bite the heads off of gummy bears."
  • Actor Allusion:
    • Chris Rock often did sketches as Cheap Pete, a bit part he played in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.
    • In the Background Guy skit in which he cavorts around a Haunted House, the house's owner in the foreground is describing strange phenomena she's experienced inside, such as the television set turning on of its own accord "and Once Bitten was on!"
  • Aerith and Bob: In the "Old Train" skit, the two participants in the word scramble are named Methuselah and Jane Pittman.
  • Alliterative Name: Wanda Wayne.
  • All Periods Are PMS: Jim Carrey and Kelly Coffield play a couple where the guy ends up jumping from a five-story window to escape his ranting, PMS-ing wife.
  • Amazonian Beauty: Spoofed with Grace Jones as played by Kim Wayans.
  • Ambiguously Gay: One skit has Tommy Davidson portraying a choreographer who teaches the L.A. Raiders how to dance in order to do a "proper" football victory dance.
  • And This Is for...: In the "Jackson Family Rock Em, Sock Em Robots" skit, when Joe is fighting (and is eventually defeated by) Tito, the latter cries out as he's punching Joe's robot "And that's for scaring Michael, that's for cheating on Mom and most of all, that's for naming me Tito!"
  • Anvilicious: Invoked. On A Different Message, everything the characters say makes a point, from the importance of conserving energy to not wasting money shopping to dentists who recommend chewing Trident over other gums.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the "Wrath of Farrakhan" skit, Farrakhan defiantly proclaims that his people have survived "four hundred years of slavery, two hundred years of apartheid, and twenty-five years of The Jeffersons in syndication".
  • Ax-Crazy: Fire Marshall Bill, who's possibly a pyromanic.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": Li'l Magic.
  • Bad Impressionists: An "East Hollywood Squares" sketch where James Earl Jones shows off impressionist skills with such characters as Tweety Bird and Lucy Ricardo, not changing his voice in the least for his lines.
  • Bag of Holding: Wanda was implied to carry one of these, considering her ability to produce almost any item someone might ask for at any given time from her purse - up to and including cans of gasoline.
  • Bait-and-Switch: "King: The Early Years" begins as if its a story about Martin Luther King Jr., showing a white kid and a black kid getting into an argument at school. Instead, it turns out the King in question is the infamous boxing promoter Don King, who organizes a fight between the two kids and gets paid by the other kids to watch it!
  • Baldness Mockery: A sketch involved a "Reality Check" for a man who was bald and trying to deny this by sporting a combover. Whilst the narrator/host kept comparing his baldness to another man with a full head of hair, eventually he shows up at a bar with a hair dryer which blows his combover away, causes the patrons to laugh at him and he runs away in embarrassment.
  • Becoming the Mask: Also quite possibly an example of Early-Installment Weirdness, The Brothers Brothers in their first sketch admit to selling out in order to gain popularity and suggested that their personas were just an act. Later sketches however had them go above and beyond them being simply Boomerang Bigots and imply that their statements/behavior is the real them.
  • "Begone" Bribe: "Anton at the Recruiter" ends with the recruiting officer giving him money to go away and pretend that he never tried to enlist in the Army. He ends up bargaining for more money a la an auctioneer.
  • Better than Sex: Implied in one sketch featuring a drink called Minute Maiden and its Spear Counterpart Minute Man. The people advertising it were an astronaut who went two years without a woman while in space (Jim Carrey), Martina Navratilova (Kelly Coffield) and Ray Charles (David Alan Grier).
    Ray: I know they call it "Minute Maiden", but it sure seems like Sheniqua to me...(take a sip, frowns in confusion, and then sets the drink down while grinning) Okay, who's the prankster that gave me the wrong flavor?
  • Big Eater: In the Oprah skit, she snacks on various junk foods while talking with her guests, including candy bars, a loaf of French bread, a economy sized bag of barbecue potato chips and even ends up roasting chickens on a spit over an open flame.
  • The Big Rotten Apple: Lamphaded in David Alan Grier's spirited rendition of "Broadway" in one Cold Open:
    "Ooh, look out for that taxi cab! Ow! I just got stabbed! On Broadway..."
  • Black Comedy: Several of the sketches are this or darker parodies of other Lighter and Softer productions. America's Funniest Security Camera Videos, for instance, instead of goofy home videos that are usually harmless, features an armed robbery where a store clerk is assaulted then shot and a potential hostage was so horrified at being held at gunpoint, she dies of a heart attack on camera.
  • Black Jezebel Stereotype: Played for Laughs in the "Wrath of Farrakhan" skit, where Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan beams aboard the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek and rallies the crewmembers against Captain Kirk. In particular, he claims that Nyota Uhura has never been allowed to do anything of note and, emboldened by his words, she then angrily berates Kirk for not allowing her to contribute anything to the crew, other than occasionally serving as his "Chocolate fantasy".
  • Black Sheep: Subverted in the Cousin Horsie—er, Elsie sketches. While it's obvious that she's greatly disliked by her relatives due to her unfiltered personality, revolting manners, unattractiveness and being oversexualized with men, women and even the dead, it ultimately comes out that she's not related to any of her victims; she's just a nosy leech.
  • Bland-Name Product: Sketches tend to use the actual names of companies being parodied, but the spelling is slightly off (for example, "The Exxxon Family").
  • Boomerang Bigots: The Brothers Brothers (Keenen Ivory and Damon Wayans), who are essentially bigoted white men in the bodies of black men.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In the Misery II skit, when his hostage begs him to let her go, Rick James is angered by her ungratefulness, citing "All the things I've done for you: cooking, cleaning, letting you suck face with my girlfriend while I watch!"
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: A necessity for the Miss Benita sketches, as the viewer is usually treated as a neighborhood resident she is acquainted with. The exceptions to this rule are the court room & high school reunion sketches, which require actual characters for Benita to play off (though she still occasionally breaks the fourth wall in the latter sketch).
    • Fire Marshall Bill, Anton Jackson and Homey D. Clown also regularly break the fourth wall in their sketches.
  • Bungled Hypnotism: In the "Vortex of Fear" sketch, a stage hypnotist hypnotizes an audience member (played by Jim Carrey) to act like a chicken — and has a fatal heart attack immediately afterwards. The audience member is doomed to spend the rest of his life acting like a chicken!
  • The Bus Came Back: Benita Buttrell, after 28 years!
  • The Cameo: In-universe (or in-sketch, as the case may be), Magenta Thompson makes an appearance during the "Super Fly" sketch. As usual, Super Fly tells her "Get out of my way, bitch!"
  • Camera Abuse: Played for Laughs in the opening sequence for the first two seasons. The cast members played with brightly colored paint in different ways, such as throwing paintballs at the camera, spray-painting the lens, or rolling a paint-covered bicycle tire over the lens.
  • Camp Gay: Blaine Edwards (Damon Wayans) and Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier), the critics from "Men on..." who only focus on the masculine aspects of film, books, television, art, vacation, cooking, etc. Anything and everything that has to do with women (even tangentially) earns a unison response of "Hated it!"note 
  • Catchphrase:
    • "Homey don't play that!" (Homey D. Clown) and "LEMME SHOW YA SOMETHIN'!" (Fire Marshall Bill) among many, many others.
    • Calhoun Tubbs always punctuates his songs with "Aaahhhhh haaaaaaaa!"
      • (Take any topic)..."wrote a song 'bout it. Like to hear it?. Here it goes."
    • Inverted with Magenta Thompson (Kelly Coffield) who's film repertoire is only 2-second bit parts with someone saying "Get out of my way, bitch!" to her rather than said by her.
    • "...Hated it!", the gay critics from Men on... whenever something featured women.
    • ''"Mo' Money, Mo' Money MO' MONEY!" — Homeboyz Shopping Network
  • Cat Up a Tree: A Rescue 911 parody called Rescue Whenever which featured a Black man (played by David Alan Grier) in Compton calling 911 because he was robbed and beaten in a home invasion only to be dismissed by the cops while an Asian man (played by Steve Park) in Beverly Hills calling about his cat up a tree with numerous police and other officials hurrying to the scene.
  • Character Tic: Anton Jackson has a habit of picking his nose. In one skit where he's being sued, he takes the judge's gavel and uses the handle to pick something from his nose.
  • Check, Please!: A businessman says it after his blind date Grace Jones cut an alligator's tail off.
    Harvey: Waiter, check please!
    Grace: (holding the severed tail) Would you like a piece of my tail, Harvey?invoked
  • Cheerful Child: Would-be child star Li'l Magic, whose biggest claim to fame is being "Miss Smile Bright 1987! See?" She's not as talented as her Stage Mom would have her believe, but she's not faking her cheerfulness or manipulating others with it (likely because she can't).
  • Chez Restaurant: Chez Whitey's, a place that puts Homey D. Clown off.
  • Cliffhanger: In a rare sketch comedy example of this trope, the Season Two finale has two skits with cliffhanger endings: In "Men on..." Blaine is turned straight by a blow on the head, while Homey D. Clown appears to sell out to The Man. Both are resolved at the top of Season Three.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Candy Cane towards Jurassic Benny.
  • Clip Show: There were several best-of episodes (one specifically featuring music video spoofs) plus an all-Hilarious Outtakes show.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Keenan's Arsenio Hall does this repeatedly, especially in interviewing David Alan Grier's Marion Barry: he confuses his being booked (as in arrested and arraigned) as writing a book, vaguely expresses jealousy at people "following him around" after the press learning of said arrest, believed that the arrest video was a movie and when he played the video against Barry's wishes and the mayor cried that he ruined him, he thinks that him pointing his finger at him in anger is him "striving to be number one".
  • Comically Oversized Butt:
    • In the Edna sketches, with Kelly Coffield playing an annoying and rambunctious grade schooler, her teacher (played by Kim Wayans) is given a ridiculously oversized butt which Edna has discreetly insulted her about on occasion.
    • In the first Arsenio Hall sketch, Keenen Ivory Wayans' Arsenio is given both a large butt and an extended right index finger.
  • Comical Overreacting: Mr. Hedley of the "Hey Mon" skits will often resort to this if he learns that someone has only one job (no matter how well it pays) or is unemployed.
  • Corrupt Church: "The 595 Club" with televangelists Reverend Ed Cash (Damon Wayans) and the Reverend Dr. Carl Pathos (Jim Carrey).
  • Coattail-Riding Relative: Arsenio Hall is regarded as one to Eddie Murphy, despite their not being blood relations. Even the intro to the first skit featuring the former has the announcer saying, "Now here's Eddie Murphy's best friend—and don't you forget it!"
  • Courtroom Antics: One Benita Buttrell sketch had her testifying as a witness against two men from her apartment complex who were accused of misappropriation of funds. Aside from gossiping about them, she also goes after the prosecutor, the bailiff, Miss Jenkins (but not before "fainting" at the mention of her name), and the presiding judge. The latter was so flustered by her behavior, that she declared a mistrial.
  • Crosscast Role: Besides Foxx as Ugly Wanda, one of Jim Carrey's recurring characters is steroid-abusing female bodybuilder Vera DeMilo. David Alan Grier plays Li'l Magic's Stage Mom.
  • Crossover: Some of In Living Color's cast members would go on to host Saturday Night Live and/or have some connection to it:
    • Jim Carrey: Originally auditioned as a cast member for the 1980-81 and 1985-86 seasons (those, along with the 1994-95 season, are considered SNL at its worst). He went on to host the Season 21 finale in 1996, the first 2011 episode (Season 36), and Season 40's Halloween Episode (2014) before becoming a recurring guest performer in Season 46 as President Joe Biden.
    • David Alan Grier: Hosted SNL in Seasons 21 (highlighted by the "Wake Up and Smile" sketch) and 22.
    • Jamie Foxx: Hosted in Seasons 25 (the first new episode of the 21st century, in fact) and 38.
    • Jennifer Lopez: Hosted in Season 26 episode (2000-2001) and 35 (2009-2010); currently, she's the only Hispanic celebrity to be a host and musical guest for two separate episodes. The first appearance has a sketch in which the In Living Color Fly Girls (all played by SNL cast members) visit her and complain she's fallen out of touch with her roots since becoming a celebrity.
    • Damon Wayans: Was a featured player on SNL during its 11th season (1985-86), but was fired after playing a cop character as a Camp Gay (the voice of which he would use later for his "Men on..." character Blaine) in retaliation for Lorne Michaels and the writers not giving him decent roles in sketches. Despite this, he came back to do stand-up in that season's finale (slated to be the last episode of the entire seriesinvoked because of how bad it was) and hosted in another season that was plagued with Seasonal Rot: Season 20 (1994-95). This brought back two of his recurring In Living Color characters, Anton Jackson and Blaine; David Alan Grier also appeared as Antoine Merriweather for the latter sketch.
    • In addition, Chris Rock (although not an official cast member) guest starred in several episodes during Season Five, following his exit from the cast of SNL.
  • Curse Cut Short: In a "Homeboy's Shopping Network" sketch, the angry husband of a woman whose jewelry is being sold on television phones up the duo and threatens them, only for them to disconnect the call before he finishes calling him a "son-of-a-bitch".
  • Dean Bitterman: Al McAfee, whose only purpose as school principal is to harass the students for doing innocuous things that he believes to be dangerous or disorderly (as well as sexually harass a fellow teacher he has a crush on) or to ignore or just be completely oblivious to anyone who really is doing something wrong or sneaky.
  • Death Glare: Homey is the master at giving these, especially whenever one of the children he's supposed to be entertaining says something stupid or they sing over him during the ending song.
  • Delusions of Eloquence: Oswald Bates, an inmate who delivers self-educated political ramblings. The humor is based on his misuse of vocabulary words, and anatomical terms in particular.
  • Dem Bones: One sketch riffs how the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series are getting too old for the movies. Captain Kirk calls for Bones to come to the bridge, only to find he really lives up to his name this time.
    Skeleton in a wheelchair: Dammit Jim, I'm a corpse not a doctor!
  • Depraved Kids' Show Host/Subverted Kids' Show: Several examples, all involving hosts who don't even try to pretend they don't have tons of personal issues!
    • Homey D. Clown (Damon Wayans) rants about how the white man keeps him down while ostensibly performing as a hired entertainer for kids (which he has to do as part of his parole).
    • Candy Cane (Alexandra Wentworth) is a Yandere who tries to hook up with a Barney the Dinosaur Expy because she wants to have kids before her biological clock runs out, but is constantly dumped and threatened to be arrested for her stalkerish ways.
    • The one-shot Season Five sketch "The Scary Larry Show" is hosted by a former Vietnam vet who now works as a mailman and still has flashbacks of the war, which he spins as trips to Imagination Land.
    • A Real Life example — Pee-Wee Herman actor/creator Paul Reubens's porno theater arrest in 1991 — was the basis for a sketch in which Pee-Wee (Carrey) sells a new Pee-Wee Herman doll modeled after Reubens's mugshot.
    • One skit subverts the concept: Mister Rogers (Carrey) goes to a store and hits on female customers before holding up the place, getting away with it because a policeman can't believe he's capable of such a thing, and then picking up a hooker with the money. The subversion is that he isn't the real Mister Rogers, but an excellent impersonator who gets away with being a pervert and an asshole to everyone because no one would suspect Mister Rogers of being this way.
  • Dirty Old Man: Seen on occasion:
    • A "Heaven or Hell" music compilation offer showcases Rev. Jimmy Swaggart as one (even with his choir of females ending up dressing as prostitutes and singing "Me So Horny").
    • Another skit has Mr. Rogers portrayed as one as well, though unlike the Swaggart example, this wasn't based on truth, just the rumor that he couldn't have been as nice as a guy as he was seen on his show (although he was).
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Homey D. Clown told a story through a slideshow about how he went to a "White restaurant" and assaulted a doorman after being asked to wear a necktie before being allowed inside. The slideshow even suggests that Homey was offered a free necktie meaning the violence was even more unnecessary.
  • Disrupting the Theater: One skit has a movie theater where this behavior is actually encouraged — the volume is turned down on the film in order for the various conversations to take precedence. The only person to complain is a character played by Jim Carrey who is subsequently kicked out.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Kelly Coffield played Samantha Kinison in some early sketches. Culminated in one of the most hilarious sketches ever when Sam himself joined in to play the other half of a very dysfunctional couple! Coffield also played "Andrea 'Dice' Clay", a female version of Andrew "Dice" Clay.
  • Dodgy Toupee: One of the "Reality Check" public service announcements had David Alan Grier mocking a man with one. He compares him to a younger man with a full head of hair and then walks into the bar he's in with a hairdryer blowing it off, causing the patrons to laugh at him and for he to leave in shame.
  • Doorstop Baby: The "Three Champs and a Baby" skit sends up Three Men and a Baby by substituting a trio of famous boxers (Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson) for the film's protagonists.
    Sugar Ray: Who ordered a baby?
    Muhammad Ali: Does it come with pepperoni?
  • Double Standard: In "Amy Fisher's Bang For Your Bucks" seminar, after following the steps of the program, a young woman played by T'keyah Crystal Keymah complains that she was sent directly to jail for her crime. After that, Amy and Joey Buttafuoco (played by Alexandra Wentworth and Jim Carrey, respectively) say that the program will only work if you're white.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: "Career Aid" makes light of Lionel Richie being beaten by his wife Brenda Harvey. Somehow, it's hard to imagine the show doing the same for Tina Turner's abuse at the hands of Ike...
  • Dresses the Same: One Wanda sketch had her and a random woman at a club wear the same purple party dress. Naturally, she starts to insult her.
  • Driven to Suicide: Several examples and always Played for Laughs:
    • The "Lean on Me, Beautiful" sketch had one beauty school student, who according to Mr. Clark, was ugly and used chemicals in his hair, ending up jumping out a window. He gets better, though.
    • Another sketch had a man being told to escape from his PMS'ing wife by jumping from a five-story window. His fate is never explained, but it's logical to believe that the fall killed him.
    • One Wanda sketch had her be accosted by a vampire, although she was turned on by his attention. Upon seeing her face, he ultimately chose to die by the sunlight of the next morning.
  • Drunk Driver: The first Grampa Jack sketch ends with him attempting to drive while intoxicated as his horrified sons and other relatives all try to stop him. According to subsequent sketches, though, he has done it before and since!
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Keenan's take on Little Richard on East Hollywood Squares feels this way — griping how he's been in the business longer than his contemporaries and has yet to receive even a Grammy.
  • Dueling Shows: An episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has him expressing annoyance and disappointment in losing his viewers to The Arsenio Hall Show. The sketch ends with both his entire band save for the drummer leaving fir Arsenio and the audience whooping like the Dog Pound.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first Fire Marshall Bill sketch (the fire safety in school sketch), Fire Marshall Bill has hairnote  and in it and a few later skits his demonstrations aren't as destructive (read: he often appears in one piece after the building he's in explodes).
    • Benita Buttrell's gossip is more mean-spirited towards people who didn't deserve it in her first appearance. Her subsequent skits would have her gossip be funnier and aimed at mostly unlikable people.
    • Blaine and Antoine's attire isn't as over-the-top in the early "Men on..." skits. Case in point: the first skit "Men on Film" has the former in pink socks and a matching handkerchief. The following one for "Men on Books" has him decked out in a silk pink pantsuit with a matching cape.
  • Elvis Lives: One sketch had a reporter encountering Elvis who was spotted in the woods alive, albeit he was more like a Bigfoot-esque character than the sentient human he was in real life.
  • Ending Fatigue: In-universe, a Running Gag in the Cephus and Reesie skits is their tendency to draw out the endings of the songs they cover, be it "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" or the theme from The Flintstones, beyond all reason.
  • Enemy Mine: A Season Five skit has Rush Limbaugh and Reverend Al Sharpton (played by Jay Leggett and David Alan Grier respectively) team up with each other, despite their opposing worldviews, in a tag-team wrestling match against Howard Stern and Robin Quivers (played by Jim Carrey and T'Keyah "Crystal" Keymah respectively), who offend both men deeply.
  • Epic Fail: Magenta Thompson was rejected by a commercial for dog food (where her only "appearance" was her hand in the shot stirring the food) because it looked too bitter.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Discussed in one of Benita Buttrell's skits with her saying that a group of neighborhood children are so bad that even Chucky wouldn't play with them.
  • Expy: Jim Carrey's character in the "Foundation for Golf Heritage" sketch is basically an impression of Strother Martin's character in Cool Hand Luke, even using his famous "...failure to communicate" line from the film.
  • Faint in Shock: Paul, the "lucky" winner of a blind date with Wanda in her first sketch (on a dating show), eventually faints upon realizing that he is trapped with her.
  • Fake-Hair Drama:
    • One sketch had a Deconstructive Parody of the Rapunzel fairy tale. Unfortunately, the Princess in this story's hair wasn't real, leading to the Prince falling and hurting himself when he tried to climb it and she getting mad at him for ripping her hair out.
    • Some of the Lil Magic sketches has her Stage Mom's hair weave either being only halfway completed or in a didgy wig. One home movie she did where she played Helen Keller even had her accidentally knock her Mom's wig off and it to be off-kilter for the rest of the film.
  • Fell Off the Back of a Truck: Spoofed with "The Homeboy Shopping Network" with the pair of "hosts" gleefully selling merchandise from the truck instead of waiting for it to fall off.
  • Film Noir: Spoofed in segments with Kelly Coffield as Velma Mulholland, a stereotypical Femme Fatale who is somehow Deliberately Monochrome while dealing with the full-color real world of The '90s...much to the confusion of those around her.
  • Former Child Star: One sketch had Sally Struthers (Kelly Coffield) advertising a "Save the Children" hotline to save former child stars who appeared in Diff'rent Strokes and The Partridge Family.
  • Freddie Mercopy: A possibly unintentional example is Carrey's recurring Environmentalist Activist, a dead ringer for Mercury's 1980s look of short, slicked back hair and a large mustache!
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • In the skit featuring the wall of women that basketball great Wilt Chamberlain slept with, some names featured on the wall include comedienne/actress Ruth Buzzi (whose surname is misspelled with a "y"), Drew Barrymore and 1940s singing group The Andrew Sisters.
    • In the first Oprah skit, there is a brief shot of a audience member wearing a Simpsons t-shirtnote 
  • The "Fun" in "Funeral":
    • One Grandpa Jack episode was set at his alcoholic and abusive mother's funeral. Hinjinks include him breaking out into a chorus of "The Ol' Gray Mare" (complete with pelvic thrusts), trying to attack his Black son-in-law and several members attempting to steal the jewelry and gold teeth from her body. It ends up subverted when she wakes up, owing to another alcoholic coma.
    • A Cousin Elsie sketch had her at a distant Uncle's funeral. While there, she constantly forgot his name, faints in "grief", and tries to make out with her "cousins", the Reverend when he is ordered to give her CPR and finally the Uncle's corpse.
    • Downplayed in a Calhoun Tubbs sketch; whereas the man's grieving family and friends take it seriously, he sings a song mocking his womanizing ways and how his gambling habits have left the family broke.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • The "Background Guy" skits with Carrey are based around this.
    • In the Oprah Winfrey skit where she exploded in anger, Damon Wayans' character ends up eating the chip that fell into his lap.
  • Gag Nose: One Buttmans sketch had their daughter dating a boy named Richard, or "Dick" for short, whose nose resembled a...well, yeah. At the end of the segment, instead of the rest of the family lampshading said nose, Mr. Buttman expresses disappointment at his daughter dating a White guy.
  • Gag Penis:
    • Implied with the Cosby Condoms commercial, where Bill pulled out an oversized condom from the pack, calling it the "Hey-Hey-HEY!"
    • Another skit was a spoof of The Six Million Dollar Man where Jim Carrey played a man whose penis was made bionic after an accident and he was able to have an erection so strong that it could lift a car up.
      Woman: (amazed) How did you do that?
      Million Dollar Man: ...I don't want to talk about it.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Constantly. At the time, a number of pundits viewed the show as a dangerous menace to society, and decades later, a lot of the sketches (the ones that aren't dated due to the march of time) are still shocking. Though there were two blatant examples that were cut from sketches:
    • In a Homey D. Clown sketch where he's acting as a substitute teacher, Homey's alphabet cards are out of order, and the children proceed to mock him for it. Damon Wayans, ad-libbing, proceeds to say something that gets bleeped immediately, and is told point-blank by the directors and producers that it wasn't gonna fly on TV.note 
    • In one of the early "Ugly Wanda" sketches, the titular character is chasing her horrified love interest (Tommy Davison) around a massage parlor. At one point, Jamie Foxx (Wanda) grabs hold of the back of Davidson's underwear, and accidentally pulls them down too far, giving the studio audience full view of Davidson's family jewels.
    • The Thighmaster skit with Kelly Coffield portraying Suzanne Somers ends with her husband coming home with a squashed-in head. Use your imagination to comprehend how exactly that slipped by the censors. Even better, there's a clip on YouTube where Somers is actually lampshading this notion several years after the fact.
    • Much of the dialogue of the "Men on..." skits fell victim to this, to the point where some of it only aired once and the majority of it hasn't been seen since. Examples include the infamous "drop the soap" line and "I never got to see the dick!", both featured in the same "Men on Films" skit, the comments implying that both football legend Joe Namath and Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis were homosexuals from "Men on Football" and the implied "ejaculation" scene from "Men on Exercise".note  However, some examples that made it by successfully are the "Two snaps and wipe your mouth" from "Men on Cooking" and Blaine telling Antoine, "Don't swallow" when giving him his water bottle during a fight movie they did and he replying, "I never do."
  • Gold Digger: Robin Givens (played by Kim Coles) while on "Love Connection" convinced Mike Tyson (played by Keenan Ivory Wayans) to buy her a emerald, ruby, and sapphire necklace and a car on their first date.
  • Gonk:
    • "Ugly Wanda" Wayne (Jamie Foxx).
    • Cousin Elsie, oh so much (Kim Wayans).
  • Gossipy Hens: Kim Wayans' Benita is one. See Hypocritical Humor below.
  • Granola Boy: Jim Carrey's Environmental Activist who is an over-the-top spoof of Political Overcorrectness finding "PC violations" in virtually anything, ruining casual events like art galas and kids' birthday parties.
  • Greedy Televangelist: Several skits revolved around televangelism duo Ed Cash and Carl Pathos, who frequently and transparently fleece their followers, be it through blackmail, or straight-up gunpoint robbery. Carl Pathos specifically was based off real-life televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and his many, many controversies and sexual escapades that occurred during his ministry.
    Ed Cash: No, no; we tried to do it the Lord's way, now we gon' do it the good ol' 125th St & 7th Avenue way! (brandishes gun) Give up the money now! Pay the Lord!
    Carl Pathos: (pulls out gun) You wanted heaven, NOW REACH FOR IT!
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Mike Tyson. When he had his own talk show, he not only punched Sinbad for making "unfunny" jokes about big butts on women (which he likes) but also a parrot for talking and being too "greedy" for a cracker.
  • Halfway Plot Switch: A parody commercial for "Tester's Choice" coffee (which is a send-up of real coffee brand Taster's Choice) soon morphs into a Fatal Attraction parody since the female neighbor who the male neighbor borrowed the coffee from ends up being a Alex Forrest-inspired Yandere.
  • Handicapped Badass: Handi-Man.
  • Hand Puppet Mockery:
    • One memorable skit had Jim Carrey portraying Paul Reubens after the latter's 1991 arrest for indecency in a porno theatre. Although he was dressed like Pee-Wee Herman, the puppet itself was modeled after Reubens' mugshot.
    • In the "Three Champs and A Baby" skit, Mike Tyson (Keenan Ivory Wayans) had a puppet of Buster Douglas to entertain the baby claiming that he took a fall in the ring to gain $2 million dollars.
  • Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Homey D. Clown.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?/Straight Gay: Parodied with Carrey's "Overly Confident Gay Man" who constantly reminds everybody around him he's gay in one way or another.
  • Hidden Depths: Anton Jackson. While on the outside he is a stereotypical homeless person and comes off as annoying, he's actually seen to be very resourceful (and made a makeshift "mansion" out of cardboard boxes), can do his taxes, has a gift for the arts where he can both sing and act, and can physically defend himself in a fistfight, having been taught the "martian arts" prior to attempting to enlist in the Army.
  • High Hopes, Zero Talent:
    • Lil Magic, who's a terrible actress, dancer, and especially singer, is nonetheless sent on countless auditions by her obnoxious Stage Mom.
    • The Funky Finger Productions creators, Clavell and Howard Tibbs III, are this in addition to being con men. They're so bad, a lot of their material comes off as Stylistic Suck.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Any skit including Joe Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson family, implies this. Most famously, he and Tito star in an ad for Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots with the latter winning and the former deciding to whup him because he lost.
  • Hilarity Ensues
  • Hobos: Anton Jackson.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: A "Reality Check" public service announcement had David Alan Grier compare Aretha Franklin's beautifully sung "Respect" to a man's (Jim Carrey) horrible singing. He then yells at him that he can't sing while driving and scares him out of his car.
  • Hostile Show Takeover: One sketch had Ross Perot (Jim Carrey), who was running for president at the time, interrupt The Weather Channel, a comedy show, a late night phone sex line, and even DJ Twist's disc jockey station all in a bid to convince viewers to vote for him.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Miss Benita "ain't one to gossip", but...
    • Just don't say nothin' bad about Ms. Jenkins near her (though that doesn't stop her from gossiping about her either).
  • I Banged Your Mom: Downplayed: in the first Love Connection skit with Mike Tyson talking about his date with Robin Givens, he at one point saw what he described as a "cute girl with a nice butt", introduces himself and shoves his tongue down her throat. Then a guy comes up to him, screams "Hey, that's my mother!" and he proceeds to get curb stomped by the champion.
  • Improv Comedy Is Inane: In a sketch of HBO's Tired Comedy Nite, one of the featured comics is named "the stupid improv guy" who isn't too liked by the crowd until does a "trick" where he hangs himself onstage which earns him a standing ovation.
  • Incredibly Long Note: One of the contestants on the "Miss Black Person USA" held a ten-second note while singing a song for her talent portion (and won).
  • Insane Proprietor: And how, in the Crazy Tom's Electronics sketch. This guy trades off a brand new top of the line VCRinvoked for an empty glass liquor bottle. After introducing the staff, he then recalls a regular dialogue he shares with customers:
    Crazy Tom: People come up to me, they say 'Crazy Tom?', I say what?
    Tom quoting the Customer: Just how can you give away high quality electronics at prices like these and still make a profit?!
  • I Was Young and Needed the Money: Parodied during the "Anton at the Recruiter" sketch.
    Recruiting Corporal: I am in the business of signing up real-life soldiers, maggot!
    Anton: Maggot? I ain't no maggot! Hey, I ain't never been with another man before! Who told you that? Clarence? He's lying! He's lying! I'm telling you—alright once, I was desperate, I needed the money, I was drunk and dying out! Don't hold it against me...
  • Jerkass: Homey D. Clown as a byproduct of The System.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • One Lil' Magic sketch where she was rehearsing for a commercial had the stage manager, right before using the clap board for the one take, proclaim to her face, "Damn, you're an ugly kid!"
    • The ending of the first Go On, Girl sketch had two feminists (Kim Coles, Kim Wayans) who became rivals due to dating the same man had the latter point out to the former, "Didn't you lose on Star Search?", which then prompted a catfight.
  • Kitschy Local Commercial: One skit has Jim Carrey playing an attorney specializing in accident settlements named Lony Parker. He is obviously reading off of cue cards and his delivery is stilted, with poor inflection; he even pronounces the "H" in "Me habeas Espanol".
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: To the waiter (Carrey) in the skit where a businessman is on a blind date with Grace Jones.
    Waiter: May I get you something, monsieur?
    (Grace socks him in the face)
    Waiter: I mean, madame.
  • Last Disrespects:
    • The first Calhoun Tubbs sketch had him playing at the funeral of his "dearly departed friend" and proceeds to make fun of him and his family by calling him a womanizer who lost the family's home due to not having life insurance.
    • The Dysfunctional Home Show had the funeral of Grandpa Jack's mother. He arrived drunk, tried to fight his son-in-law, tried to steal the watch off of her corpse (despite being willed her money) and told people that everyone was better off without her. Subverted once she woke up, screaming at the family for not recognizing another of her alcoholic comas. This whole business had already happened twice — just that year!
  • Lesser Star:
    • Of the recurring sketches for the Conjoined Twins entertainers, Les and Wes, Les is seen as a washed-up Unlucky Everyman in comparison to Wes, a popular and talented action star.
    • One sketch combined this with a Take That! to Saturday Night Live alumni Chris Rock (Shawn Wayans) and Garrett Morris (Jamie Foxx), as both men were considered underused and therefore less famous than their White counterparts and overshadowed by one of the most famous alumni (and most popular Black alumni) Eddie Murphy.
  • The Loins Sleep Tonight: A commercial for something called the "Ejector Bed" had a woman eject her lover from their bed after he disappoints her sexually.
  • Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: In the first Wanda skit that had her on The Dating Game, her date ends up losing both of his shoes when he freaked out and jumped into the host's arms upon first viewing her.
  • Losing Your Head: The premise of "The Head Detective". Fire Marshall Bill ends up doing this at the end of most of his sketches — in the last one, his head is subsequently crushed as part of Gallagher's watermelon smashing act.
  • Mad Libs Catch Phrase: Blaine and Antoine from the "Men on.." skits had several, where they would always end their program with "Two snaps and..." or a specific type of snap (i.e., Men on Videotapes had "Two snaps and a rewind" and Men on Football had "Two snaps and yo' back's in motion" while both of them shake their asses at the camera on two different ways while Men on Vacation got a special "Around the world and back snap".)
  • Malaproper:
    • Wanda the Ugly Woman. For example, during the Season 5 premiere when she's about to give birth, she says "Look, doctor, this pain is too much. I think you're gonna have to do one of them Caesar salad sectionsnote  on me."
    • Deronda and Pookie are another example.
  • Meadow Run: In the second Magenta Thompson sketch, she displays a video of her running towards a man like this, only for him to push her down, yell "Outta my way, bitch!", and embrace another woman behind her.
  • Meaningful Name: Fire Marshall Bill Burns.
  • Mirror-Cracking Ugly: Ugly Wanda used this to her advantage in a skit where Dracula was trying to escape her clutches — noticing there's a mirror in her bedroom, he claims he hates them, so she goes up to it and says "Mirror, mirror, on the wall..." and it breaks.
    • A music video parody of Shabba Ranks' "Mr. Lover Man", titled "Mr. Ugly Man", had Shabba looking into a mirror, which of course, had cracked.
  • Misplaced Retribution: Mr. McAfee will often blame someone for violating the rules who is completely innocent, while those who actually were breaking the rules will be ignored.
  • The Mockbuster: Funky Finger Productions looks for backers for productions of this ilk. Stank Ho was their answer to Pretty Woman, and they had test footage for a fourth Penitentiary movie on hand in another skit. Many have an X Meets Y twist: The Wiz meets Flatliners, for instance.
  • My Biological Clock Is Ticking: One skit has a woman holding up a sperm bank at gunpoint in order to find a man and get pregnant. She soon finds a man and eventually blasts away a random cup, claiming that she stopped a future generation of The New Kids on the Block.
  • My Card: Clavell and Howard Tibbs III of Funky Finger Productions use this to get attention — the former is always "fresh out" of cards for their confused potential investor, and then the latter whips out one with a "BAM!"
  • Nepotism: Most of the producers/actors were related to one another as the show was, essentially, a family business. It's very telling that most of the show's breakout stars were the ones who had no blood connection to the Wayans in any way, shape, or form (Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, and Tommy Davidson).
  • No Indoor Voice: Sinbad (David Alan Grier), by nature. It gets lampshaded on You Bet Your Career when Bill Cosby (Jamie Foxx) tells him that it's the funny faces that he makes that make a comedian funny instead of his shouting.
  • Noodle Incident: In the "Dating Game" sketch with Wanda, she gets excited about one of her potential partners wanting to make out with her for so long, that her forehead will "cave the hell in", citing how the last time that happened to her was at an LL Cool J comcert.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted in two different sketches:
    • One commercial had a woman rushing to get to the restroom to use a tampon as her male coworkers make fun of her. She then sports a dress with a tampons fringe, which is more of a fashion statement than a mockery and also came in maxipad headband and wristbands for workouts.
    • Another commercial had a woman use a very absorbent tampon which was so powerful that it drained all the water out of a swimming pool.
  • No Sympathy: In a skit for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jay holds up two newspaper headlines featuring many people killed (which is in contrast to the more light-hearted and goofy headlines of the real show). The first one, which happened at a post office, has him quip that the gunman must've been desperate for the popular and difficult-to-find (at the time) Elvis stamp. The second one, where four security guards were killed in a robbery, he jokes that it was well worth the 3.85 they were earning an hour.
  • Off with His Head!: One Cold Open has Keenan, in a Shout-Out to The Untouchables, use a baseball bat to knock off the head of an executive.
  • Pet the Dog: While most of the other music video parodies are of the Take That! variety, the parody of "Save the Best for Last" by Vanessa Williams is more this, telling off her detractors since she was able to have a successful career after the Miss America scandal. The spoof of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back", "Baby Got Snacks", sees the singer celebrating overweight women and is mostly played for goofy laughs, but also has the lyrics "So just give her a hug/'Cause there's more to love/Ain't nothing wrong with being big!"
  • Phrase Catcher: Magenta Thompson's film roles are all bit parts where characters tell her, "Get out of my way, bitch!".
  • Pitbull Dates Puppy:
    • The second edition of Love Connection had Andrea Dice Clay (played by Kelly Coffield) go on a date with Patrick Swayze (portrayed by Jim Carrey) and the latter being a sensitive guy who was increasingly uneasy by the former's crass language and behavior.
    • Anyone who ended up with Kim Wayans' Grace Jonesnote  (especially Harvey) ended up as the puppy to her pitbull.
  • Pretentious Pronunciation: In the "Spike's Joint" sketch, Spike Lee (Tommy Davidson) tells his sister Joie (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah) that now that they're back in Brooklyn, her name is pronounced "Joy", not "Jwah".
    "It's not Jac-KAY (Jackée), all right? It's JACKIE. It's not Shah-DAY (Sade), all right? It's SADIE! What you gonna call me next, Spi-kay?"
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: "Impostor", Jim Carrey's parody of "Informer" by Snow. Also Jim Carrey's Vanilla Ice parody, "White, White Baby".
  • Prisoner Performance: A recurring sketch, the "Prison Cable Network" (or PCN), would feature prison inmates putting on various shows and programs spoofing different media formats. Content includes a prison talent show, a late night talk show, a theatrical show inspired by A Chorus Line, a Win, Lose or Draw-like gameshow, a stand-up comic on Death Row, and more.
  • Produce Pelting: In the first Les and Wes sketch about conjoined twins and during their initial stand-up act, wheras the latter wows the crowd, the former is far less impressive, even earning a few tomatoes chucked at him in response.
  • Product Placement: In the first "Three Champs and a Baby" skit, thinking the baby has roaches (rashes) Muhammad Ali brings out a can of d-CON spray to endorse onscreen.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Marc Wilmore, a writer for the show who appeared in a number of sketches, became a cast member in the fifth and final season.
  • Race Lift: Most of the sketches that posed the question, "What if [X celebrity] was black?" Also, there was "All Up in the Family" and "East Hollywood Squares" from the final season.
  • Rearrange the Song/Replaced the Theme Tune: The show's original theme was replaced in Season 3, but returned in a remixed version in Season 5.
  • Re-Release Soundtrack: The DVD releases have a lot of sketches either edited to remove song references or entire music video parodies, which often serve as the show's cold opening, removed.
  • "Risky Business" Dance: A Black Comedy version, where the Menendez brothers do the dance while wielding rifles.
  • Sanity Slippage: The Boys II Wimps video for "End of the Road" had the soloist gradually become more unstable during the song due to a cheating ex-girlfriend. He was already on medication and placed in either a halfway house or a mental institution before he finally lashes out at his back-up singers for cheating with the woman and ends up arrested again by the end.
  • Scatterbrained Senior: Don Cornelius is portrayed as one in the "Old Train" skit, even at one point calling himself Don Corleone.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Snow screams like one at the end of the "Imposter" video after he's confronted by the Rastafarians he stole the technique of his rap-reggae from.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Jamie Foxx's take on Bill Cosby has him threatening to buy the Fox network after his game show You Bet Your Career was abruptly canceled midway through the episode.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Averted and parodied with Oswald Bates. See Delusions of Eloquence above.
  • Shout-Out: One of Vera de Milo's enemies in a movie of hers is named "Kee-Man of the Hanna Barberians".
  • Silly Walk: Or run, rather: at the end of the "Lock You In The Closet" music video, when Joe Jackson starts to "chase" LaToya, her "running" is more akin to prancing and he just comically shuffles his feet at a slow pace.
  • Sketch Comedy
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Magenta Thompson. She's quite proud of her "career" in spite of it being bit parts decades ago where various characters would tell her "Outta my way, bitch!" Most noticeably, her "largest role to date", where she played an unconscious patient in Mother, Jugs & Speed, ended up being deleted from the final product.
  • Soapbox Sadie: A male example with Jim Carrey's Environmental Activist who is an over-the-top spoof of Political Overcorrectness finding PC "violations" in virtually anything, ruining casual events like art galas and kids' birthdays.
  • Sock It to Them: Homey is probably one of the most popular examples, using his trademark sock club at least once an episode (which is a tennis ball inside of a black sock).
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: In the America's Funniest Security Camera Videos segment, the clerk's Pre-Asskicking One-Liner to the armed robber gets bleeped out due to being broadcast on a nationally televised "family" show:
    Clerk: Meddy Christmas, mother—*beep-beep*!
  • Spin-Off: "All Up in the Family" (a take-off on All in the Family, where the Bunkers are black) was spun off from an installment of the "What if [X celebrity] was black?" series of sketches.
  • Spiteful Spit: Vera gives rival Kee-Man a brutal one after he captures her and ties her up. He simply wipes it off of his face and laughs.
  • Stalker with a Crush: A commercial for "Tester's Choice" coffee features Alex Forrest as a woman who was angry with her neighbor ignoring her and her coffee after he borrowed some for a party. She eventually grows obsessed with him and he drowns her in his bathtub.
  • Stage Mom: Li'l Magic's mother played by David Alan Grier.
  • Suddenly Shouting: "LEMME SHOW YA SOMETHIN'".
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Invoked in the "Reality Check" public service announcements from season four. The most memorable of the bunch was one where Jim Carrey plays a man who is poorly singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect" as he's then told "Reality check: you can't sing!"
  • Take That!:
    • The show made fun of everything under the sun, but it was particularly cutting in a skit that mocked NBC's Saturday Night Live for underusing its own African-American cast members (such as Tim Meadowsnote  and Chris Rocknote ).
    • Any reference to Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli or Arsenio Hall was going to be a negative one. Even in one Fire Marshall Bill skit when an alien species is in his stomach, he's not worried, saying that he's "had more parasites living off of him than Eddie Murphy!"
    • The Ed Cash and Carl Pathos sketches were aimed directly at televangelism, depicting televangelists as walking examples of the Seven Deadly Sins. Pathos in particular is heavily based on Jimmy Swaggart and his sex scandals.
    Pathos: I am spiritual scum!
    • In the "Spike's Joint" skit, customers repeatedly reject a free copy of Lee's 1988 film School Daze.
    • The "Driving Miss Shott" skit was this towards the then-Cincinati Reds owner Marge Schott, who made the news for her racist, antisemitic and xenophobic views. It ends with her Black driver jumping out the vehicle after too many of her nasty barbs and leaving her to fall down an embankment.
  • Tap on the Head: Happens to Blaine in the first half of the famous "Men on Television" two-parter when a mysterious sand bag fell on him that apparently turned him straight. One sucker punch from Antoine in the second half turned him back.
  • Theme Tune Rap: By Heavy D (who also did the theme to MADtv).
  • The Twelve Spoofs of Christmas: For the Christmas edition of The Dysfunctional Home Show, Grandpa Jack and his mother gather around to sing to the grandchildren/great-grandchildren his own special version of the song: "Eight restraining orders, seven pills a-poppin', six packs of beer, five dry heaves (and then does one himself!), four counts of battery, three black eyes, two-timin' wives and a can of pork and beans...PORK AND BEANS!"
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
    • The Magenta Thompson sketches: "Outta my way, bitch!"
    • An Equity Express credit card commercial where a black man is forced to jump through hoops to use his card: "Kiss my butt, bitch! Approve my credit!"
    • One of Anton's sketches, when he accidentally became part of a performance of Romeo & Juliet and the actress kept hitting him in the head with plates and finally departs: "Yeah, you better part, bitch!"
  • Those Two Guys: A ton: Clavell & Howard Tibbs III of Funky Finger Productions, The Brothers Brothers, Reverends Ed Cash & Dr. Carl Pathos and Whiz & Ice from the Homeboyz Shopping Network.
  • Token Minority: Steve Park in Season 3 was the show's only Asian cast member.
  • Token White: Jim Carrey (the most popular of the five), Kelly Coffield, Alexandra Wentworth, Carol Rosenthal, and Jay Leggett. Also, a couple of the Fly Girls.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: The later sketches of the Funky Finger Productions has Clavelle and Howard Tibbs III as being less jovial and more confrontational.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: During her role in one of the Friday the 13th films, Magenta Thompson was apparently so uninteresting that not even Jason wished to kill her, saying "Outta my way, bitch!" while he went and savagely murdered another woman.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: The Dysfunctional Home Show has PORK AND BEANS! for host Grandpa Jack McGee. As he notes in the debut segment, "In a dysfunctional home, you gotta have 'em!"
  • Trust Me, I'm an X: Fire Marshall Bill, played by Jim Carrey, is insane, masochistic, and Nightmare Faced. It's no surprise that when he says some variation of "Don't worry, I'm a fire marshal", it's of no reassurance...and it doesn't help that he has a tendency to say that right before blowing up the building that he's currently in.
  • Two Decades Behind:
    • Quite a few sketches reference '70s trends and pop culture, especially in Season Five. Sweet Tooth Jones is a fight choreographer (as opposed to karate master) with a Blaxploitation motif and theme music. Some of the Race Lift sketches spoof '70s TV shows like All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. "East Hollywood Squares" sketches feature a number of '70s celebrities (both guest stars and ones portrayed by the cast members) as panelists. Even parodies of recent pop culture could get a '70s twist — the 1992 Mel Gibson film Forever Young was parodied as "Forever Silky", about a cryogenically-frozen pimp from 1971.
    • Justified in the Magenta Thompson sketches: in addition to her "biggest hits" (which were little more than bit parts) being roles from the 1970s, her first skit has her in a studio set befitting the decade, complete with a title card colored in orange, yellow, green, and purple backsplash.
  • Typecasting: invoked One character named Magenta Thompson was an actress who always had roles where she is always pushed aside and told by the pusher to "get out of my way, bitch!" This happens even when she is a playing a coma patient, or a potential victim in the latest Friday the 13th film.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery:
    • Black Like Me with Tom and Tom which pits the two titular black Smothers Brothers parodies usually against an Angry Black Man.
    • "Richard Pryor Is Scared for No Reason" is a Real Trailer, Fake Movie mocking this trope as it applied to Pryor's movie career and the many "wacky panicking" scenes he played in them. "Richard Pryor is back, and he's more scared than ever!"
  • Variety Show
  • Verbal Tic: In Amy Fisher's "Band For Your Bucks" seminar, the phrase "Over here!" (in a thick Long Island accent) is said by every featured character, including the prison guard.
  • Walking Disaster Area: The protagonist in The Exxxon Family is portrayed as this; he can't even get a simple cup of coffee without causing a huge mess in his own home. The ending of the segment then shows why: his "lunch" is a bottle of wine.
  • Where da White Women At?: The tribal men in the "New Republic of Naganawanaland" skit are eager to have their way with appointed ambassador Margaret Linsford Hall. Thanks to her interpreter Mr. Mobutu teaching her a phrase to close her speech with.
    "I am really turned on by black men who wear beads. You may all come to my quarters for a coconut oil party."
  • Where No Parody Has Gone Before: Jim Carrey plays Captain Kirk in two Star Trek parody sketches. "The Wrath of [Louis] Farrakhan" has them come up against the leader of the Nation of Islam, and the other skit has a now-geriatric Kirk and company trying to recapture old glories before the attendants from their nursing home catch up with them.
  • Who's Your Daddy?: In "Three Champs and a Baby", the baby belonged to a woman named Judy, whom they met at a New Year's party (and each slept with her at different times). So they decided to take turns raising the baby.
    Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray: Ohhhhh, Juuuuudy.
    Sugar Ray:Well, I suppose we should take turns with the baby, too.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!:
    • Tommy Davidson plays one named Shawn in Snow's "Imposter" (and is quite angry over how he got famous for stealing from Rastafarians and says he's only there because "you need a black man to increase your credibility").
    • Jamie Foxx portrays one in the spoof of Bobby Brown's "Humpin' Around" featuring Bill Clinton.
  • World of Ham: This is very much the spirit of the series and its performers, justified considering the environment they're in. Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier and Tommy Davidson were most likely to engage in this to the point of becoming Ham-to-Ham Combat.
  • Worst Wedding Ever: One Dysfunctional Home Show episode has Grandpa Jack's daughter getting married. In addition to him being drunk, he hates her black husband-to-be and tries to attack him, her own grandmother makes fun of her wearing a white dress, she's heavily pregnant and she gives birth to a white baby at the altar, prompting several men, including the reverend, to run out of the wedding after her husband angrily asks why the baby is white.
  • You Are Fat: While appearing on You Bet Your Career, Sinbad proceeds to make fun of Delta Burke for this, even making a joke of "What's the difference between Delta Burke and Delta Airlines, man? 20 pounds!"
  • Your Head Asplode: At the end of the "When A Man Needs A Big Hit" music video, when Michael Bolton (played by Jim Carrey) hits an incredibly high note, his head explodes into several pieces. Even better is how some fans fight over a piece of his skullcap that landed in the audience.
  • Yo Mama: The recurring game show sketch The Dirty Dozens, where contestants use "Yo Mama" jokes against each other for cash and prizes.


 
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Men on...

Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather, the critics from a public accessshow called "Men on..." who only focus on the masculine aspects of film, books, television, art, vacation, cooking, etc. Anything and everything that has to do with women (even tangentially) earns a unison response of "Hated it!"

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