I am one of those people who has never been able to sit through a Tyler Perry movie. I can’t even stand more than two minutes of his aptly-named “House of Payne,” a terribly unfunny show on TBS. But taste is relative, and Perry’s movies have proved that more than once at the box office. In fact, Perry’s latest film, “Madea Goes to Jail,” is Perry’s highest-grossing film so far, raking in $75 million. But critics say Perry’s movies are full of negative African-American stereotypes that do nothing to help change attitudes towards race relations. One detractor went so far as to call his success the “demonization of educated, successful African-Americans.” Of course, Perry is laughing at these critics- all the way to the bank.

“Tyler keeps saying that Madea is based on black women he’s known, and maybe so,” says Donald Bogle, acclaimed author of Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. ”But Madea does have connections to the old mammy type. She’s mammy-like. If a white director put out this product, the black audience would be appalled.”

“These stories have come out of my own pain and everything I’ve been through,” [Perry] says, referring to his six years of struggle, including three months living in his car in Atlanta before his plays became such huge hits in Southern black theaters that even Hollywood couldn’t ignore him. “These characters are simply tools to make people laugh. And I know for a fact they have helped, inspired, and encouraged millions of people.”

…Right now there are so few consistent, high-profile representations of African-Americans in film – Will Smith and Denzel Washington are pretty much it – that Perry has a near monopoly on the depiction of American black life on the screen. That gives him power beyond the images he puts in his movies; it makes him the top employer of black actors in Hollywood (not to mention Atlanta, where he owns a 200,000 square-foot production house, which produces his TV sitcom, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne). In other words, if you’re an African-American actor, Perry is the biggest boss in town, which explains the reluctance of so many black actors, even those who’ve appeared in his films, to talk about Perry on the record.

…Perry himself is keenly aware of the responsibilities resting on his shoulders. And while his critics aren’t likely to hurt business…the filmmaker also doesn’t want to be hemmed in by race. “After Obama became president, I realized that black people could not have put him in the White House- it had to be a collective effort of everyone in the country,” Perry says. “My fan base crosses all ages, all cultures, all classes. I won’t be forced to do just Madea. There’s no way I’m going to do that.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Good god, I hope not. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of actors willing to put on a fat suit and a wig to get cheap laughs. Let’s see what else Perry has to offer. I’m so conflicted. On the one hand, I hate his movies. They’re so stupid! But I also love his story – a Hollywood outsider goes from living in his car to opening at number one at the box office. I do concede his point that there are not nearly enough opportunities for minorities in Hollywood- but is making bad, racially charged movies really the answer? I guess for millions of movie-going Americans, it is – so why would he make any changes?

Photos are stills from Madea Goes to Jail thanks to AllMoviePhoto