Special Coverage 2008 Fall Movie PreviewThe Must List2008 Fall TV PreviewSound Bites
Page 2 of 3

Lee's visual flourishes are not the only difference between Kings and comedy movies of yore. In an era of pie-humping gross-outs and mother-hating rap, the Kings have thrived because they are cleaner--if not necessarily funnier--than their predecessors. Sure, they deliver their share of cuss-filled jokes, but they don't veer from the staples: sex, work, children, church, and big momma. Their acts are nowhere near as homophobic as Murphy's, who offended so many gays with Delirious that he made a joke out of it in his follow-up, Raw. And they're less crude than the NC-17-rated Lawrence (Latham's initial choice of emcee, who was already making nearly $10 million a film and "had no incentive to come and do this").

"We all talk about our lives," says emcee and scene-stealer Harvey. "We don't fabricate comedy." The son of a West Virginia coal miner, Harvey is a reformed cardsharp whose WB series, The Steve Harvey Show, recently got picked up for a fifth season. His multi-talented costar on TV and stage, Cedric "The Entertainer," is developing a Fat Albert-style animated show about his ghetto childhood in St. Louis. The confrontational Mac, who hails from the south side of Chicago, has an act probably too scathing for any network except HBO (where he had a series in 1995), but his film roles in Life, Booty Call, and the upcoming What's the Worst That Could Happen? more than compensate. Hyperactive Hughley, who was added as the fourth member of the show last year, rolled with L.A.'s notorious Bloods gang before straightening up and landing the formerly ABC, now UPN series The Hughleys, which is based on his real-life move from the hood to the lily-white suburbs.

The crowd revels in the Kings' race-based humor--Hughley calls it "the 800-pound gorilla in the room that everyone pretends does not exist"--which is edgy enough to make a white person squirm but never hateful or incendiary. Harvey's gag about the white band playing on as the Titanic sank, while Kool and the Gang would have packed their gear and jumped ship, exemplifies the attitude, and MTV is probably betting this will help the Kings cross over to much larger audiences. "White suburban kids, the same way they buy 60 percent of all rap, they're all going to start coming to this," says Michael Rotenberg, who manages both Hughley and Chris Rock.

But MTV's not exactly taking a huge risk on the film: The total budget for this all-digital production is a meager $3 million, and it's being split by Latham Entertainment and MTV Films. "The upside is huge," says Lee. "I think everyone went for the back-end deal."

That includes the performers, who Latham treats as equal business partners. And despite the show's success, they've managed to avoid the petty tics that come with burgeoning egos. So far, their only rivalries revolve around fashion. Ask which one of them is the style trendsetter, and each will name himself. "I started it," boasts Mac, whose silk shirt has a custom-cut collar. "Did anyone else say it was me?" asks Harvey, in a broad-striped double-breasted suit by Reggie J. Custom Clothing. The first thing Hughley did after joining the tour "was to call my tailor and have him design a spring through winter wardrobe." Cedric sports an "old-school gangster"-style chocolate brown fedora. No wonder the show draws more women than men; too bad for them the Kings are all married.


Page 2 of 3