Marlon Wayans Says No One Loves ‘White Chicks’ More Than White Chicks
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When it came to making White Chicks, the strangely omnipresent 2004 comedy that continues to pop in memes and social media reactions, “everything we did, we always tried to make sure the audience has a good movie-going experience,” Marlon Wayans told AL.com. “That was the most important thing for us.”
While that might have been the goal, critics definitely did not have a great movie-going experience. The movie has a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with opinions ranging from “There is not one funny moment, the plot sucks,” to “I had a hard time getting through this one,” to “This is a planetary pile of dog shit.”
Hey, “sometimes the critics didn’t understand it,” Wayans admitted. “We understood that comedy was subjective, and we never tried to tell a joke that just landed for the moment, that was just pop culture.”
White Chicks was a family affair, with three Wayans brothers getting a screenwriting credit and Marlon’s brother Keenen Ivory Wayans in the director’s chair. And despite those nasty reviews, the family might not be done yet — there’s been plenty of noise about a White Chicks 2 over the past few years. In fact, Terry Crews accidentally announced the project on Watch What Happens Live back in 2019. Marlon mock-scolded Crews for spilling the beans while letting the world know that he was trying to finalize a deal.
That’s because in an era where comedians fear cancel culture, Wayans has argued America needs White Chicks more than ever. “I don't know what planet we're on, where you think people don't need laughter, and that people need to be censored and canceled,” he told Buzzfeed in 2022. “If a joke is gonna get me canceled, thank you for doing me that favor.”
The thing about White Chicks? The Wayans designed the movie’s laughs to be timeless so its comedy should work in any era. “We wanted to make classics,” he told AL.com. “Something that 30 years later and two generations later you’re still laughing at it. And I don’t care if that’s White Chicks or Scary Movie or Don’t Be a Menace, when we all got together, we tried to tell the best jokes that had the most impact. And that came from a good place.”
What, you’re offended by the movie’s awkward racial humor? Get over it. “Even though sometimes we made fun of people, our thing is mockery is the greatest form of flattery. And it’s important that when you tell a joke the people you’re making fun of laugh the loudest,” he says. “And who loves “White Chicks” the most? White chicks. So we did something right.”
