Damon Wayans has left many of us with cramps from laughing throughout his career. His In Living Color characters were brilliant and are still funny to this day. I believe you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’ve never seen Wayans HBO stand-up in the 90’s. Blankman is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. To this day I stop surfing channels if I see The Last Boy Scout, Bulletproof, or Mo Money on television. My Wife and Kids never received the support it deserved, yet it provided me with many a night of laughter. In spite of his success, Wayans newest role in a sitcom will leave you asking “But Why” as if you were a five year old.
Wayans has signed on to play the role of ESPN’s most colorful character Colin Cowherd for a CBS sitcom based on Cowherd’s life. For those who aren’t cognizant of Cowherd, think Gilbert Gottfried with a drop of sports acumen. Yes he works for the world wide leader, but this is the same guy who spent the entire 2010 NFL season saying the Super Bowl MVP wasn’t a top tier quarterback and a beneficiary of fantasy football’s popularity.
If hearing that someone green lit a Cowherd based sitcom doesn’t have you reaching for a q-tip, then it’ll certainly bring you back to being a five year old again and asking “But Why”. Once you fully embrace who the sitcom is about, finding a valid reason for casting Wayans as the centerpiece becomes your next mission. Outside of the uncanny resemblance, I see no obvious rhyme or reason present.
No disrespect to Damon Wayans, but I believe that him being cast for this role is nothing more than an attempt to attract an African American audience. It’s my belief that maybe CBS realizes how reluctant those African Americans who know of Cowherd may be to even give a show based on him a chance. I am in no way implying that Cowherd doesn’t already have a black audience. I am stating that it wouldn’t be far fetched to assume that some like myself may have turned their back on Cowherd for some of his most recent rants. For example, here’s a portion of his tantrum about Washington Wizards rookie John Wall:
“J Wow’s 37-second Yo dawg look at me I’m the man [dance], and his wild, out-of-control style, everybody else is buying his stock, and it told me all I need to know. He’s gonna end up on the Iverson, Francis, Starbury [side]: great stats, nine All-Star teams, never play with good smart players and an elite head coach. He’s gonna drive people nuts.
Being a former listener of Cowherd, I am aware that he is only trying to generate listeners. Unfortunately, rants like the one above and shots fired at athletes who are products of single parent homes when African Americans athletes are generally those products come much to often. In today’s ever sensitive world, it’s a surprise some of his rants haven’t generated a flood of calls to Al Sharpton.
Couple that with his overall lack of knowledge regarding sports and you’re back to asking “But Why?“. I mean this is the same guy who once compared Kevin Durant to Antonio McDyess and Mike Dunleavy Jr. Of course, we wouldn’t expect him to know that Antonio McDyess was an absolute stud prior to tearing up his leg, we reserve that for those who actually know what they are talking about.