Everybody Hates Chris is the best black sitcom of the last decade. It fuses family humor, race, and several cut scenes of over the top scenarios that one would be more likely to see in an animated television show like the Simpsons or Family Guy. The show also features narration by Chris Rock, who looks back on his life and offers some hilarious commentary. Furthermore, the show doesn't use the annoying laugh track of traditional sitcoms and avoids the raceless mythical world of the Cosby Show for a real African-American family living in 1980s Bedford-Stuyvesant. Another great reason to watch the show is that it's available in its entirety on youtube. It's like reliving the 1990s when I watched nothing but sitcoms such as The Wayan Bros, the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Parent 'Hood, Marvin, Living Single, Sister, Sister, Moesha, the Bernie Mac Show, One on One and the Steve Harvey Show. These black sitcoms provided one of the main avenues to understanding black Americans when I was a child, besides my mother and her small family.
Like other black sitcoms, Everybody Hates Chris brings race to the forefront of the American experience, but avoids racial stereotyping of the main characters and the buffoonery that one expected from UPN's black sitcoms in the latet 1990s and early 2000s. A show that exemplified negative and poorly written sitcoms is The Parkers, a terrible show about two overweight black women (mother and daughter) who are going to college. It sounds good and interesting, but often revolved around inane plots and stereotypes. Everybody Hates Chris on the other hand exemplifies the best of black sitcoms by focusing on race, class, and traditional sitcom family fare. For example, many episodes highlight crime and poverty in Bed-Stuy, while others focus on racism and white ignorance through racist and well-meaning teachers and students at Chris's all-white middle school in a poor, Italian neighborhood known as Brooklyn Beach. Some of the show's best moments center around Ms. Morello, a well-meaning racist white woman with jungle fever who ends up perpetuating stereotypes of blacks while assuming Chris is a crack baby raised by a single mother addicted to drugs and an absent father.
Chris's family are also hilarious. His father, Julius, reminds me of myself in many ways because of his frugal ways. He refuses to spend money on anything but the necessities, and is one of the few fathers in the neighborhood who actually raises his kids. Chris's mother, Rochelle (played by Tichina Arnold, from Martin), is my favorite character. She juggles the bills, is loud and offensive when she needs to, is in and out of jobs, and ain't afraid to slap her children or tell some niggas or crackers off. Rochelle is basically my mother: a ghetto snob who looks down on other blacks, quits jobs on a whim, tells people off, and ain't afraid to lay the smack down on her children. She also believed that because Chris was going to a white school, it was better than the local middle school in Bed Stuy, even though Brooklyn Park was a working-class area and quite hostile to blacks. Like my mother, she often assumes the white institution is always better, although in many cases that's clearly not the case. As for Chris's siblings, they're okay and often bring moments of hilarity (especially Chris's sister, Tonya), but they're not as funny.
Everybody Hates Chris is also similar to my own life experiences just growing up poor. I too had a mother who juggled bills and was quite similar to Rochelle personality-wise. And though I didn't have a father like Chris's, my oldest brother often played the same role as Chris and his father do in the show: helping take care of the younger children. I also can relate to Chris's experience of attending nearly all-white schools due to my mother's crazy insistence. Unlike my life, the show is set in a 'colorful' neighborhood that acts as an additional character. The hoodlums, future prisoners, Mr. Omar the funeral director, Ricky who sells stolen goods (played by a Haitian actor), Kill Moves the homeless man, the cute girl next door Tasha, and the gossipy neighborhood suggest that there is a community present, despite the crack epidemic and widespread poverty. Indeed, I wouldn't mind living in such a neighborhood if I could have a father and mother like Chris did.
Everybody Hates Chris ends after 4 seasons with Chris dropping out of high school and planning to get his G.E.D. According to Rock, this was the time for the show to end, and the final season was weaker than the first 3 so I can't disagree with him. However, the general lack of black sitcoms on network television and cable have left a huge hole in my heart. I crave newer black sitcoms and television shows that are actually funny and interesting. The Chappelle Show filled that hole for me somewhat, but it's premature end has yet to be filled. The Boondocks was promising, but the TV format is weaker than the comic strip since it lost it's politically-charged criticism of American society. What other black sitcoms are available? Tyler Perry's House of Payne is one of the worst sitcoms ever created, and I can't really get into The Game. When it aired on UPN, I always found the show to be more of a drama than sitcom, and although I love me Tia or Tamera (whichever one stars in The Game), I just can't get into it. Fortunately I have Issa Rae's web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, but each episode is under 15 minutes.
Perhaps I will just endeavor to fill the hole in my left caused by the absence of black sitcoms by watching reruns of old black sitcoms online and on the telly. Or perhaps I shall endeavor to watch more older black sitcoms to get a historical perspective. You know, the Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times. I've only seen a few episodes of each of those. Or I could watch more of Queen Latifah's sitcom, Living Single, a sitcom about urban, professional African-Americans in 1990s New York. Or perhaps I'll take the initiative and write my own black sitcom based on my experiences. I know one thing for certain: I'ma keep watching me some Everybody Hates Chris and pray for more Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.
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