Coming to America: Deep Thoughts About Royalty, Riches, Romance, and Why Eddie Murphy Needed Akeem
Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. So you see, my son, there is a very fine line between love and nausea.On today’s episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily returns to the Eddie Murphy comedy–and third-highest grossing film in 1988–Coming to America. Emily was delighted to discover that the romance between Murphy’s Akeem and Shari Headley’s Lisa respects her agency, despite Akeem initially lying about who he is. In addition, many 80s and 90s films were pigeonholed as “niche” if the cast wasn’t all white, but Coming to America’s cast was almost entirely made up of Black actors (as well as Murphy and Arsenio Hall in multiple roles under heavy makeup). The romcom’s overwhelming mainstream success helped normalize an all-Black ensemble. The portrayal of Zamunda, the wealthy sovereign nation where Akeem is the crown prince, also helped push back against cultural commentary Tracie and Emily grew up with that insisted Africa was synonymous with impoverished.But not everything is rose petals in Murphy’s comedy and storytelling. While Akeem’s romance with Lisa offers a lovely counterpoint to the myriad romcoms from our Gen X childhood that bulldozed over women’s clearly stated boundaries, the film still exhibits some unfortunate misogyny and misogynoir. The character of Imani, Akeem’s intended bride, always worried Emily, since the poor woman was brainwashed into perfect obedience before being rejected. Learning that Eddie Murphy wrote this as wish fulfillment for his own dreams of romance after becoming rich and famous in his early 20s helped her recognize Murphy's loneliness and contextualize Imani.We know you would have helped out if you hadn’t had a cup of coffee in your hand. But you can still listen, even with your hands full! Mentioned in this episode:‘Coming to America’ Was the Immigrant Story My Family Needed by Irina GonzalezAfrica on Film: Coming to AmericaA Fine-Tuning of Male Dominance: Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America”How Coming to America Flipped the Script on Eddie Murphy’s Career‘Black Panther’: Fans Around the Country Dress for Opening NightTags: Deep thoughts about stupid shit, romance, romcom, pop culture, storytelling, comedy, cultural commentary, film analysis, classic movies, film, women, feminism, 80s and 90s movies, movies, movie reviews, analyzing film tropes, Gen X childhood, misogyny, misogynoir, psychology, mental health, classic movies, Gen X nostalgia, classic movies, Coming to America, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, John Landis, John Amos, James Earl Jones, Madge SinclairThis episode was edited by Joan Peconcillo at Voice Work Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirlsDon't miss out on updates and event invitations from Tracie & Emily! Join the Guy Girls VIP List at guygirlsmedia.com/keepintouchWe are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find. We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!
