House of Payne

Don't know why this show is still on? It's not funny at all.

If you're confused by my title, let me explain. If the unnecessarily drawn-out conversations immediately got to the point, the 25 minute shows would last about 10 minutes. Hence, a 10 minute story told in 25 minutes.

There are a lot more reasons for my 3 stars, but I don't feel like writing a book. Let's just say that there is no comedy in this comedy.

For the title of this sitcom,at least its apt. Indeed,if ever there was a show that could cause physical pain,the new family series called "House of Payne" might be the one. And for one,its not even the least bit funny. This glaringly,shamefully,insultingly inept of a new cable company series from playwright and filmmaker Tyler Perry isn't the worst sitcom of the year,its one of the worst shows of the modern era. A degrading sitcom that puts African-American families again in a negative light,and it shows in some of the episodes. Watch it sometime and you see what I mean.

And what's more worse,you have to imagine the people who are behind the scenes of this show especially with some of the writing of some of the material for the show and character development within the actors. However,you'll find out quick enough that this show is indeed terrible and the producers knew this upfront and are proceeding nonetheless. The other option that I have with this show is that the writers and producers of this sitcom really think that this was a sitcom that was going to be the forefront of other successful black oriented family influence shows like "My Wife and Kids","Bernie Mac","The Cosby Show",or "Family Matters" to name a few. But "House of Payne" is definitely not one of them nor it wants to be,but it fails on all levels. The other option-that they really think(the producers of this show)this horrendous mish-mash of old jokes and ugly stereotypes fills some TV void-is too hideous to contemplate. Let's face it,this is a show that is so full of stereotypical features and blanted insults toward others its no wonder that its sucky to the point of letting the audience decide if they what to see what happens or just change the channel. But lets don't blame Tyler Perry for putting it out there since he is trying to bring back the common decency of the family sitcom,but here he is trying to hard,way too hard.

Granted,through such films as "Diary Of A Mad Black Woman","Medea's Family Reunion",and most recently "Daddy's Little Girls"(which all were produced as stage plays before there transition to the big screen),Perry does seem to have tapped into a desire among some parts of the African-American audience to see old-fashioned,church-basement morality plays that were brought to life on the silver screen. Still whatever charms may exist in his movies or in Perry's drag act as Madea,none survives the transition from the movies to television. In fact in the very first episode of "House Of Payne",Madea does make a guest appearance with Perry doing the directorial chores. As far as the characters are concerns,the show seems to be named for Allan Payne,(of "New Jack City",and "Jason's Lyric" fame)the actor who plays CJ Payne;the main character is Uncle Curtis-played by LaVan Davis who gives the character bluster but none of the humor of Archie Bunker nor the intensity of George Jefferson. It goes with the rest of the bunch including some that are so annoying and terribly rude it makes you wonder what in the hell is going on here and way they characters act so damn ghetto is beyond me.

The writing here goes beyond awful to staggering,from the reliance on stale jokes and insults on to just plain ignorance,the feeble that attempts to address some serious issues,to the ugly homophobia that threads its way throughout the show. In "Payne's" world,bigotry counts as a universal family value. Given the quality of the script the actors can almost be forgiven for turning out performances that could lead you to believe the tomfoolery that you are watching was basically performed on a temporary set by the real stars' stand-ins. Speaking of the characters,the ONLY one that was recognizable is Allan Payne while the rest of them(most of them are former stars of Tyler Perry's stage plays and films). It's a pity that if any of these actors is capable of putting a line across the way that seems even remotely real or funny or even incredibly stupid,or that they keeping real talent well hidden from the audience. In getting the show to be marketed,however it was planned for first run syndication until cable giant TBS out of Atlanta,Georgia pick it up for most of its 100 episodes. TBS will find out soon enough how really bad this show is,but they will give it a fighting chance since Tyler Perry's charms are wasted here and it works better for the stage and in the movies,but not on TV.

Tyler Perry's House of Payne is a fantastic show! I love how the actors are horrible and have no sense of comedic timing! I love how the writers write awful plots with awful jokes to fill in the 20 minutes the show is on the air! I love how the characters are paper thin, stereotypical, and just flat out annoying! I love how this show is crap! My first paragraph was a thick dose of sarcasm.

I feel sick when I watch this show. For those of you who picked it up, I have stopped with the sarcasm (I'm guessing its the people who don't find House of Payne funny, because any person with a spec of intelligence couldn't find it funny). How in the world Arrested Development got canceled and this didn't is beyond me (although that may be a blessing in disguise).

Everything I said in my first paragraph is what is wrong with the show. It's just a pure, awful program. How it can be "the number one sitcom", as billed by TBS, is beyond me. Is it because more people nowadays watch television? Is it because people fall asleep instantaneously when this show comes on and they can't change their channel? Someone, please, fill me in, because this show is garbage.

Another complaint, and this isn't necessarily about the show, but more about Tyler Perry. Why does everything have to be "Tyler Perry's this" or "Tyler Perry's that". Its very annoying, I don't really care who does it. The only difference is when it's a group or something, like Monty Python or National Lampoon. When a single person does it, its just really arrogant and unimpressive. He's riding the wave of his past successes.

I've never seen Tyler Perry's movies or his plays. I have seen his other show, Meet the Browns, and it is, somehow, worse than this show. But I caught a few minutes of one of his movies (don't remember which one) and I thought it was marginally better than the show. I, personally, think he is ruining television, but that's just my opinion.

It doesn't matter what race I am, I can "get" things, but just in case someone wants to slander me or use this against me, I'm white. Big deal, if something is funny, I'll laugh. I can appreciate "black" comedy. I love Bill Cosby, The Cosby Show, Richard Pryor, Cleavon Little, Gregory Hines, Eddie Murphy, Phil Lamarr, Tim Meadows, Kat Williams, and Dave Chappelle. Tyler Perry could learn a thing or two from those guys.

TBS needs to stick with reruns and stop trying to create and original show. They're all horrible.

I've watched this show a couple times, and each time I thought the punchline was the show itself, not actually any of the jokes in the show. The show plays like a "MAD-TV" sketch that is a parody of bad sitcoms, but as you watch this further, you realize that what your watching is an actual sitcom meant to be funny on its own merits. Normally, humor of this level is on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel and for children, but I think this show is actually meant for adults and sober ones at that. This show reminds me of "Kenan & Kel" or another show meant for kids with cheesy jokes and lame humor that only children would laugh at. The only way you can tell something is supposed to be funny is when the laugh track plays, otherwise I wouldn't even know this was meant to be a comedy.

I haven't seen any of Tyler Perry's movies, but they've done well at the box office and have gotten pretty good reviews. Has he seen this show? Does he realize they're using his name to promote it? If you enjoy this show, have you ever watched a sitcom before? Those of you who say this is a well-written show, have you ever read anything beyond the "Dick & Jane" books? This show must be seen to be believed. I hesitate to even call it awful, because I haven't gotten to the point where I even comprehend what I've seen yet. If this show is for real, Tyler Perry needs to sit down in quiet room somewhere and contemplate his career and what he hopes to accomplish, because if this is the kind of work he is proud of, he needs to consider a career change.