“METHOD & RED”
Tonight at 9:30 on Fox/Ch. 5
* (one stars)
Redman gets rapped up in his new neighborhood in “Method & Red.”
IF it weren’t for all the “ho’s” and “bitches” and racial stereotypes, “Method & Red” might have squeaked by with a recommendation.
As it is, though, I can’t excuse a sitcom that opens with rap lyrics such as, “Oh, how I love these pretty-ass ho’s!”
Not that I have anything in particular against rap. But I feel obligated to resist this attempt at mainstreaming ghetto slang for the simple reason that it just isn’t fair to spring sexually encoded language on vast numbers of viewers who will have no idea what’s being sprung on them.
For example, “coochie” sounds like a funny word, especially when uttered in an exasperated tone by Anna Maria Horsford, who plays Method Man’s mother, Dorothea, in this new Fox sitcom, which also stars Method’s fellow rapper, Redman.
But as defined by the Rap Dictionary (www.rapdict.org), coochie means “vagina,” which might not sound so funny to some once their children start using the word around the house.
It’s too bad that the makers of “Method & Red” couldn’t find a way to tone down the gutter talk because underneath it all, the show’s premise is surprisingly sound.
In “Method & Red,” the two rappers are multimillionaire recording artists who have taken up residence in a ritzy, gated, New Jersey suburb, jarring their neighbors with their raucous hip- hop life style.
Unfortu nately, instead of capitalizing fully on the genuinely comedic misunder standings that can occur under these cir cums tances, the show’s re sort to stereo types – including the idea that all Asian women crave black men and all white men are pussies – will likely doom “Method & Red” to a short summer run.