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FLAV: GUILTY PLEASURE OR BUFFOONERY?: New York Times writer poses the question.
*New York Times journalist Lola Ogunnaike has written an article on none other than “Flavor of Love,” the VH1 reality show starring former Public Enemy jester Flavor Flav in a ghetto version of ABC’s “The Bachelor.”
Ogunnaike writes: “Fans of the show call it a harmless guilty pleasure, and its star a lovable and unlikely Romeo. Critics have accused the show of trafficking in racial stereotypes and have called Flav everything from a sellout to a modern-day Stepin Fetchit.”
Ogunnaike mentions the season premiere, which featured two of the contestants in a weave-pulling, body-slamming fight over a bed. The episode also featured contestant “Somethin’” accidentally taking a dump on the floor.
Here are some excerpts from Ogunnaike's article:
• To Michael Hirschorn, the executive vice president for original programming at VH1, the reasons millions of viewers tune in every Sunday night are clear. "The accidental appeal of the show was the play between 'Are these women for real or not? Are these women there for him or are they there because any fame is completely intoxicating?' " he said. "Instead of covering that part of the show up, we decided to make it integral."
• Asked whether the show was exploiting racial stereotypes, Mr. Hirschorn, who is white, said he didn't think so. "I would also say I'm not in the position to make that judgment." But, he pointed out, "the show is disproportionately popular among black viewers, and the comedy is very inclusive."
• Not all are amused, however. Nicole Young, a fashion designer in Manhattan who is black, said the defecation scene in this season's premiere turned her off the show for good. Late last week, during a heated dinner argument with friends about the series, she pronounced it "absolutely hideous," and proceeded to denounce Flav and his paramours. "In a day and age when it's still really hard for people of color to find reasonable representations on television," she said, "that show is a huge smack in the face and a step backwards."
• In an interview on a sports blog, thebiglead.com, Jason Whitlock, a sports columnist for The Kansas City Star, said, "It's about time we as black people quit letting Flavor Flav and the rest of these clowns bojangle for dollars."
• In an editorial last month, DeWayne Wickham of USA Today wrote: "On one level, his buffoonery is laughable. But more often than not, it makes my skin crawl to know that as Lincoln Perry (who played Stepin Fetchit) and Johnny Lee (who was TV's Algonquin J. Calhoun) did, Drayton has to assume such a shallow black role to find stardom in Hollywood."
• Nelson George, the cultural critic and author of "Hip Hop America," said one reason the show has struck such a nerve has less to do with stereotypes and more to do with the fact that Flavor Flav is not exactly a sex symbol. "If he didn't have gold fronts and didn't wear a clock and if looked like Jamie Foxx , there wouldn't be as much controversy," he contended. He added that black viewers can be overly sensitive about how blacks are portrayed on television: "Black people tend to think that every image that is projected in the media is somehow a judgment on their reality. And that's just not the case."
• Flav, 47, did not seem ruffled by criticism. "Right now anybody that has negative things to say to Flavor Flav, it's O.K.," he said, "because that's not going to stop me from being Flav. I get power from the negative."
Check out these recently posted "Flavor of Love" clips at YouTube featuring New York:
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