For comics and cultural critics of virtually every color and persuasion, Tyler Perry is the textbook definition of an easy target: A mogul whose media empire rests atop a foundation of alleged minstrelsy, union-busting, cross-dressing, bad hit television and mass-produced screen melodrama. Add his recently disclosed $130 million annual earnings to the picture, and it's like the target was moved within inches of its respective shooters -- one of whom, perhaps obviously, was Saturday Night Live.
Still: Not bad! Kenan Thompson played the writer-director-producer-actor-studio baron in Saturday's "Weekend Update" segment, during which Seth Meyers reminded him that he beat out the likes of Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer for the honors of highest-paid entertainer in showbiz. "I did, I did," Perry replies. "But keep in mind that those men are Jewish and are at a traditional disadvantage in Hollywood." And the kicker, again responding to Meyers: "My movies are about the modern black experience. They're all disaster movies." And how about that title for his next film? I mean, it's probably not far from the real title. I'll be there with bells on.
Anyway, how long before Perry hosts SNL? It has to happen eventually, right?