Who the Hell is Tyler Perry? And is His World So Different?

Just as it often does when I see it on a poster at the movie theaters, I paused and wanted to know more about the name Tyler Perry?  Who is this guy?  I was reading an article about him in the La Times, about how his movies consistently make a profit (generally costing around $20 million).  The article said that 75% of his audiences were women and that 80% of them were black.  Now, it’s easy for me to accept that there are all sorts of genres of interest about which I am unaware, names of celebrities unknown to me, things that a great many people are really into but which, somehow, have not impregnated my little sense of the world (djs are a great example of this.  I am still shocked any time someone says “dj so-and-so” is playing tonight, as though anyone ought to really appreciate that), but given all of the advertising I’ve seen with his name on it, and given how many movies I see, I’m still surprised nobody has brought him up, as in, “Hey, did you see that latest Tyler Perry movie?  It was a riot!”

I think what’s affronting to me about it is that I always feel like I’m on the outside of some great big Tyler Perry world and, really, I should have known what was going on.  It seems to me like over any three month period of movie watching, either going to the theaters or renting at home, I come across one of his titles, all headlined with his name, the way some literary types insist on putting “William Shakespeare” above Romeo an Juliette, as though anyone really thought there was another author:  Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad,” Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion,” and so on.  Putting his name at the headline like that, it makes me think I should know about this guy, especially given his prolific producership.

So why aren’t any of my friends bringing him up in dinner conversation?  Is his demographic world of mostly female and mostly black so far removed from mine that I shouldn’t expect kids down at the Marina to be quoting his latest string of amusing antics?  And for that matter, it’s fascinating to me that there is a type of film (in this case, a Tyler Perry film) which is seen by mostly women, who are mostly black.  It illustrates that, at least in viewership, there may really be a cultural divide.  You’d expect, for example, that the latest Bollywood film was seen by a mostly Indian Population.  You’d figure that the latest release in Mexican Ranchero music was mostly purchased by Mexicans.  But those examples are self-evident in their language barriers to the type of audience demographic that, I suppose, I fall into.

Then again, there’s recent movies like Gamer, a recent release about some future apocolypse or distopyia or something involving, I believe, reality television and games.  It’s easy for me to imagine that this film is seen by mostly male, mostly young, mostly white folks.  Along the same lines, its star, Scottish actor Gerard Butler, is probably best known from the movie 300 or maybe Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla, and I’d imagine that these, too, are mostly being seen by, at least, a younger, male demographic.

And when it come down to it, as much as I appreciate how different we all are, it’s unfortunate to me that I can’t imagine really getting into a Tyler Perry movie.  I’m afraid that whatever divide has kept his movies off my screen would be, upon watching, apparent in the content, leaving it less than impressive.  In some naive way, I want to see and to love a Tyler Perry movie, the way I might see some beautiful movie out of Iran, having one of those fantastical learning experiences where everyone gets to feel how human we all are and how few differences between us really exist.

I propose that next fall, all of us non female, non black folks get together, and have a Tyler Perry night.  We start off with a few rentals at my place, just to warm things up, and then we attend the priemere of his, then, latest picture, the absurdly titled, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.”  I’m sure there are all kinds of interesting, different ideas in this film from what I am normally exposed to and, maybe, a few to which we can all relate.

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