If you've never seen Spike Lee's classic skewering of the TV industry in his most underrated (and arguably most uncomfortable film) Bamboozled, you need to Netflix it.
It stars Damon Wayans as TV writer Pierre Delacroix, whose ideas for a positive African-American family sitcom are shot down. In frustration, he pens "Mantan: The Modern Minstrlsy Hour", a revival of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" style blackface minstrelsy shows of the 30's and 40's, only with actual black actors in blackface (underrated Savion Glover plays Mantan beautifully) as a deadly satire of the plight of African-Americans in modern America.
The problem of course is that "Mantan" quickly becomes a smash hit. Delacroix wrote the show strictly for the shock value and to "wake black America up". Instead, they're the ones laughing the hardest at the show. In the end, Delacroix has to decide whether to feed the monster he created, or strangle his own show. Part The Producers, part Death To Smoochy, and part Hollywood Shuffle, it's worth watching with other people you know just to see their reactions.
The point is, I always think of Pierre Delacroix whenever RNC Michael Steele opens his mouth and decides to write another episode of Mantan for the Republicans.
The guy has to know better, right?
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