don’t let the smoove taste & normal outward appearance fool ya!
every so often, a man, or woman, or a man and a woman, or any combination therein comes along and completely revolutionizes what was previously a fixed landmark on the horizon of our blackness. and sometimes, that revolutionary goes completely unnoticed, unheralded, or even scolded because people just dont understand his/her genius. right now i want to give propers to a very deserving revolution that took place in 2005 that the majority of the world didnt even feel: the reality show “Being Bobby Brown.”
first i’d like to thank Young Hache for reminding me of the sheer genius and immense importance of this show, both in my life and, i’d argue, in history in general.
for those who dont know, ‘Being Bobby Brown’ was a reality show that chronicled the daily goings on of Bobby ‘pelvic thrust’ Brown and his then-wife, Whitney ‘crack is wack’ Huston. now this show was great and impactful because it totally flipped the script and turned everything we knew as irrefutable truth completely on its ass. when i, like many others im sure, first heard of the show, i expected to hate bobby brown, or be continuously annoyed with him at the very least. cause i mean, when cameras *werent* on bobby 24 hrs a day, there was enough about him in the press and on tv to make me feel that way. plus i was already a little biased anyway; whitney houston had been my favorite singer since i was a little itty bitty girl (she was my second favorite singer ever; the first was cyndi lauper. lol), and i just didnt understand why such a nice, sweet, respectable woman like her would ever ever EVER align herself with someone with a penchant for humping floors and getting arrested for indecency.
come to find out, though, WHITNEY HOUSTON IS CRAZY AS BATSHIT. crazy as a shit. house. rat. just crazy. i dont even know how to accurately describe it. bobby, on the other hand, while at least slightly touched, was loveable! he was sweet, caring, loved his family, and was funny! my fondest bobby brown memory on the show was of bobby, drunk, and trying to take off his shoe. he eventually got it off his foot, but it was still stuck to him somehow and he walked around the house going ‘stop following me, shoe. stop following me. stop following me!’ ah, me. such a loveable drunk.
whitney, on the other hand…
the soup did wonderful things with that clip, by the way.
quoth Langston Hughes: “we know that we are beautiful–and we are ugly too.” how fuckin true that is. this trainwreck of a show really drove that point home, and that’s why its important! we’re not perfect! we’re human! we make racial slurs while getting massages! we break into liquor cabinets in hotel rooms! we scream KISS MY ASS for no apparent reason whatsoever! we sometimes have ugly daughters that look like kenan thompson in drag! we break out in song and dance at completely inappropriate moments! and you know what? who doesnt?! *its okay!* one of the beauties about being able to enjoy the full comforts of American freedom is the right to simply be human, to be flawed, and to be forgiven for (or aleast TREMENDOUSLY AMUSED by) those flaws. i get so tired of watchin black folk break their necks to be perfect in frunna white folks. bobby and whitney came out and just said “you know what? fuck effort. KISS MY ASS.” god love em.
so, bobby and whitney, i salute you and your emotional and mental issues. you make me feel normal at least, and vastly more sane than you and your progeny at best. and perhaps the best achievement of this show: you gave maya rudolph and opportunity to showcase the best, most worstest and hilarious impersonation on SNL.
i salute you.
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