Comedian Marlon Wayans has finally chimed in on the discourse about the upcoming “Scary Movie” reboot. He maintains that his family, a dynasty of comedians, has figured out a formula that can’t be replicated despite today’s climate where Hollywood is not as funny as it once used to be.
While it might not be replicated, the comic said that it can be exploited.
The “Wayans Brothers” star was interviewed by New York Times writer David Marchese for the newspaper’s podcast “The Interview.”
During the conversation, Wayans broke away from the topic of bereavement and the loss of his parents to talk about working with Harvey Weinstein, a producer for his hit comedy franchise “Scary Movie.”
The youngest Wayans brother wrote and created the franchise and in 2000 had it financed by Miramax, a company co-founded by Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein in 1979.
“Scary Movie” has had five installations before the new reboot. Only the first two of the films were connected to the Wayans family.
After discussing how cheaply his movies were made and the audience’s lack of interest in the films after his and his brothers Shawn and Keenen’s involvement, Marlon made a joke comparing the contractual exploitation they faced to the allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein by multiple women.
“You know those Weinsteins,” he said in a stutter, “They raped everybody.”
Marchese quickly jumped in, “Not the same.”
“Business wise,” Marlon added, “Literally and business wise. We all got a little bit of … a little taste … They was some terrible, terrible people.”
Marchese used the statement to provide a “good example of an offensive joke.”
After ten minutes, Marchese returned to the joke about the Weinstein brothers and asked about Marlon’s trepidation about going full in.
“You had this pause, where I think you were thinking about whether to say the joke,” the host said, before asking, “I want to know if you can tell me, like in your head, in that moment when you have the potentially offensive joke lined up, what is actually going through your head in that pause?
“Who’s my audience?” Marlon explained, adding that he heard the host “cringe” on an early bit and wondered if this would evoke the same reaction.
Feeling more comfortable with the host, he offered, “I was going to say, ‘You know, he didn’t just [rape] women he raped n—gas too, trust me we did business with him.’”
The host seemed to cringe again.
Marlon explained that that kind of response, when he and his brothers were in the writer’s room, would be called “getting on the whitey bike.” In his opinion, that would have been a joke that Black people would have liked, even as white people would get offended.
“Brothers would crack up at that, but white people, they start pedaling backwards,” he said.
The podcaster was not the only person who was offended by the joke.
One X user wrote, “The parody of Wienstein’s rape v. Marlon’s choice to say, ‘NO’ & walk away intact from a bad moxie has NO HUMOR in the world of RAPE His humorous spin on the word is HURTFUL as hell!”
This is not the first time that the television star has used rape as the punchline of his jokes. In 2022, Marlon claimed he used the word when he first met his “white Irish cousin,” a radio personality named Sean Valentine, on the “Big Boy” show.
The native New Yorker said that he took his DNA test through 23 and Me and it determined he was 27 percent Irish. Valentine is 100 percent Irish. The test shows that they are distantly related.
“I have Irish, I am 27 percent Irish. I didn’t know this. I was making fun of white people. I feel bad because now I realize I was making fun of us,” Marlon said.
“So your great-grandpa raped my great-grandma,” he rationalized.
Then he continued by joking, “How you feel about that? How you feel about that, cousin? Cousin on the rape side.”
“I just wanted to say hello,” said Valentine.
“That’s what your great-great-grandpa said to my great-great-grandma, ‘Hello,’ before he raped her,” said Marlon.
Marlon is known for his crass and crude style of comedy and has stated that he has no intention of stopping just because it makes people uncomfortable. However, he added that he makes an effort to read the room to ensure that his jokes land, even if they border on offensive.
