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JAY Z - "Moonlight" video (Friends spoof)
- Thread starter lightskintwin
- Start date
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
BarringGaffner
Member
so good 👌
LilWayneSuckz
Member
I loved all of it.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Psychoward
Banned
I honestly didn't get it really but I'm white so I doubt I'm the intended audience. Liked Hannibal and already disliked Friends (partially for being so fake and white) but still not sure what the message of the video was, especially with the La La Land mishap at the end.
Killa Sasa
Member
...did the credits have Aziz Ansari as Aniz? Was only looking for it because of Alan Yang aka the master of none connect. Edit: quickly found out it's his brother. Pretty dope.
More on topic. Dug the video. Friends drag was thoughtful enough.
More on topic. Dug the video. Friends drag was thoughtful enough.
"We stuck in La La Land
Even when we win, we gon' lose"
Even though the La La Land crew handed them the Oscar after realizing the mistake, the crew behind Moonlight--which was the first all black and LGBT film to win a Best Picture Oscar--had to give a rushed and flustered speech, before being taken off the stage to end the show. They were robbed of their 'moment' on national television, and the incident itself has overshadowed the movie.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a8986489/moonlight-was-robbed-of-its-moment/
The song, and the music video, is about racial identity becoming lost in the transition into the broader spectrum of pop culture. Friends was a notoriously White show, only bringing a black character to the forefront till the back end of the series.
That's basically a short version, I'm sure someone else can do a larger analysis of it.
disappeared
Banned
This was my immediate thought on seeing that whole thing transpire. It was a trainwreck. I really felt bad for the cast and crew.
Dreams-Visions
Member
That was fascinating. I wasn't ready.
To this day I don't understand what made it funny. I resigned myself to just calling it, "white people humor". But even then it was different because I enjoyed shit like Cheers, Home Improvement, Full House, Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, so on and so forth. But Friends? I just couldn't.
To this day I don't understand what made it funny. I resigned myself to just calling it, "white people humor". But even then it was different because I enjoyed shit like Cheers, Home Improvement, Full House, Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, so on and so forth. But Friends? I just couldn't.
Diprosalic
Banned
Friends was good
pokeystaples
Banned
Naw, but I'm glad you and so many others enjoyed it.
Dreams-Visions
Member
The idea was a modern remake so modern day with modern everything makes sense, no?
I guess, but they didn't modernise the set (it's a meticulous 1:1 recreation) or the dialogue (answer machine message?!), so it did stand out to me.
Angelus Errare
Banned
I mean it was a Living Single knockoff, so it's not like it had originality going for it.
Dreams-Visions
Member
aiite, so what was you guys interpretation of this video? I see lots of praise but little dissection. 
That was an interesting piece.
I do think the biggest shame about the "Moonlight" incident is how it completely overshadowed the film itself. Everyone was either angry over it happening, creating conspiracy theories for why it happened, or talking about the graciousness/bad luck of the actors. The movie itself kind of fell into the background.
I enjoyed that it highlighted the problems that come with making a "Black version" of something, in this case Friends. Namely, if that is your only artistic goal, it's going to be trash and unfulfilling for the people involved. Ignoring even the Living Single inspiration, Friends was about as plain an affair as it gets. I feel like even calling it a "White Show" is does nothing to highlight how milquetoast it was because other "White shows" of the time like Seinfeld, Married...With Children, and Boy Meets World had more going on under the hood and more interesting hooks than just an admittedly charming cast (I may not like Friends, but I will absolutely give it that much). So the question then becomes "Why would you even want a 'Black' version of that? Because it was popular?"
As for the music itself....eh. I find myself almost completely uninterested in Jay-Z these days. This and Story of OJ are both cases where I enjoy the video, but could take or leave the song.
This. I used to really want to say it was just for white folk, but some of my favorite sitcoms have been white as hell like the ones you mentioned.
At this point, I'm gonna say it was just bad. At least in the humor department. People always seemed to be really into the more dramatic aspects, so maybe that was the show's real bread and butter?
I do think the biggest shame about the "Moonlight" incident is how it completely overshadowed the film itself. Everyone was either angry over it happening, creating conspiracy theories for why it happened, or talking about the graciousness/bad luck of the actors. The movie itself kind of fell into the background.
I enjoyed that it highlighted the problems that come with making a "Black version" of something, in this case Friends. Namely, if that is your only artistic goal, it's going to be trash and unfulfilling for the people involved. Ignoring even the Living Single inspiration, Friends was about as plain an affair as it gets. I feel like even calling it a "White Show" is does nothing to highlight how milquetoast it was because other "White shows" of the time like Seinfeld, Married...With Children, and Boy Meets World had more going on under the hood and more interesting hooks than just an admittedly charming cast (I may not like Friends, but I will absolutely give it that much). So the question then becomes "Why would you even want a 'Black' version of that? Because it was popular?"
As for the music itself....eh. I find myself almost completely uninterested in Jay-Z these days. This and Story of OJ are both cases where I enjoy the video, but could take or leave the song.
This. I used to really want to say it was just for white folk, but some of my favorite sitcoms have been white as hell like the ones you mentioned.
At this point, I'm gonna say it was just bad. At least in the humor department. People always seemed to be really into the more dramatic aspects, so maybe that was the show's real bread and butter?
I don't know much about JAY-Z, but that video's really good. I really like it when artists get this creative with their messages. Not sure how I'd feel about the song as a whole track, but in the context of this video everything works.
FRIENDS always felt like "Whitenss: The Show" to me. It was this little bubble world where the only real drama was were they on a break or not.
FRIENDS always felt like "Whitenss: The Show" to me. It was this little bubble world where the only real drama was were they on a break or not.
Psychoward
Banned
Ok thanks, that's basically what I was thinking, the La La Land/Moonlight stuff is clear and Friends being white is clear but I'm not sure about the rest, about the main character going off the set and all.
Even when they had a subplot where they were "poor" it was just about "hey guys if we go to fancy dinners a lot it'd be nice if you could cover our share sometimes"
aiite, so what was you guys interpretation of this video? I see lots of praise but little dissection.
I think them just shooting it straight was the right way to do it, I mean Friends is so vapid the best way to spoof it is to let it be what it is.
Bounceounce
Member
In depth article on the making of the video, from Jay's intitial conception of the sitcom premise to contacting Yang and beyond.
http://pigeonsandplanes.com/in-depth/2017/08/jay-z-black-friends-moonlight-alan-yang-interview
http://pigeonsandplanes.com/in-depth/2017/08/jay-z-black-friends-moonlight-alan-yang-interview
Dreams-Visions
Member
Oh no doubt. I'm just trying to get as much of the message behind the video as I can. I sometimes struggle with such things. (I admit this is one of those times.)
Dreams-Visions
Member
choice bits:
My brief take-away (please tell me where I'm wrong): The opportunities for people of color have come a long way as reflected in the video where an all-black cast is given the opportunity to remake an American classic show. Yet despite the improvements to our opportunities, the opportunity itself is a catch-22: It's shallow and empty because it's not original but are you going to pass on the opportunity? When looked at from a more macro perspective (offered by Hannibal Buress), the exciting opportunity looks less and less like an opportunity and more like attaching yourself to what is actually a doubling down on the refusal to provide support for true, diverse original content that better reflects the life and times of people of color today. Your opportunity really wasn't what it appeared to be at first glance (a theme and mistake repeated in the song itself).
In such a context, even winning (remaking a beloved show with an all-black cast) is in the end, losing (wasting the talent of the actors involved, creating soulless content, and potentially hurting the chances of more interesting and original ideas well suited for people of color ever being funded and made by studios). A realization that seems to dawn Jerrod Carmichael's character around 4:44, video time as he begins to exit "la la land" and re-enter a hard reality.
From a historical perspective, there is also the dynamic of a black cast remaking a white show (Friends) that was itself a stolen idea of a black show (Living Single) that was given more funding and better promotion and ended up being far more successful.
Give or take? Help, please.
Can you explain these "levels" a bit more? I've not watched Atlanta so that context is lost on me.
I feel like everyone is getting it better than me. Help. What made it brilliant to you? Give us paupers some of that wisdom.
Not to put words in Romez's mouth. But all shows with all black casts that are comedies, but doing their own things especially when exploring blackness in their own ways.
The shows are better written then friends
Dreams-Visions
Member
oic.
Casting a group of actors known for making content that explores blackness and squeezing them into limited, predefined, shallow and vapid characters is excellent and certainly adds to my thoughts that part of the point here was to demonstrate the cast wasting their talent to try to get a "win" by being part of the remake of Friends. Where only Jerrod's character was able to step out of "lala land" and see it for what it was. Provided I'm not way off at the moment, anyway. Levels indeed.
My interpretation was that black comedians/actors have surpassed shows like Friends (that are maybe still thought of as the benchmark even though they're dated as fuck) but they don't get the recognition ("even when we win, we lose"). that parallels the Moonlight / LaLa Land bit.
The final shot walking out of the Friends world and literally looking up to Moonlight seems pretty obvious imo but I could be off though. I'm not good at this stuff.
The final shot walking out of the Friends world and literally looking up to Moonlight seems pretty obvious imo but I could be off though. I'm not good at this stuff.
Dreams-Visions
Member
They certainly succeeded at making some really talented actors and greatly limiting their talent to squeeze them into their shallow and predefined roles as Friends cast members. All done to "play the game", so to speak. And even when reducing themselves to play that game, they still lost because the creation itself was soulless and empty.
Perhaps that's a big part of it too.
Their roles in this transcends anything the real friends cast got to do in that show imo.
I feel like La La Land is also analogous to Friends beyond the Oscar debacle symbolism, despite its direct influences perhaps not being as easily identifiable as Living Single was to Friends.
I liked this video but just like with OJ I feel like as a whole the music is the least noteworthy part.
I liked this video but just like with OJ I feel like as a whole the music is the least noteworthy part.
I saw it as the Black community saying "look, now we can finally do this" because society has progressed enough for us to do so. But the progress in itself renders a too little too late concept. Which ends up having a lukewarm satisfaction to being able to replicate something so humorless and banal.
Keeping ti 100, got to do since
I enjoyed this even if I wasn't sure exactly what it was tying to say.
And it also speaks volumes that only someone with the stature of Jay-Z could get Warner Bros to let him use a multi billion dollar property like Friends for something like this. Maybe that's ultimately the big take away here. Maybe it isn't.
EDIT - Directed by Master Of None's Alan Yang. Interesting.
And it also speaks volumes that only someone with the stature of Jay-Z could get Warner Bros to let him use a multi billion dollar property like Friends for something like this. Maybe that's ultimately the big take away here. Maybe it isn't.
EDIT - Directed by Master Of None's Alan Yang. Interesting.
That fuck up probably did more to raise Moonlight's public profile than any Oscar win.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
I thought the video was 'ok' even though I got the point but I now want an original sitcom featuring every single person featured in this video.