Alfonso Ribeiro Doesn't Need Or Want Anything From Tyler Perry

Last week, Andrew wrote an article about Alfonso Ribeiro, and his recent interview with Closer Weekly, in which he admitted that his acting career hasn’t been the same ever since he played Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Ribeiro joined the cast of the sitcom In the House for its last three seasons, but despite that, he said that his career mostly ended because his role as Carlton resulted in him being typecast by casting agents and audiences who couldn’t envision him as anyone else. (Though it sure would be nice if Bill Lawrence, showrunner for Ted Lasso and Shrinking, would cast Ribeiro in one of his shows, as Ted himself spoke very highly of him in a Season 1 episode.)

Ribeiro has remained booked and busy by hosting game shows like Your Big Break and Catch 21; directing episodes for shows like All of Us, One on One, and Are We There Yet?; hosting America’s Funniest Videos, and co-hosting Dancing with the Stars after winning the competition in its 19th season. But it hasn’t stopped many of his fans from wanting to see him return to doing memorable roles in film and on television, especially since he’s not exactly lacking in talent. One of those fans recently made a suggestion on Twitter as to how Ribeiro could finally make his comeback as an actor.

Ribeiro’s response to that tweet?

It didn’t take long for Black Twitter to immediately notice what Ribeiro had tweeted about the thought of working with Tyler Perry. And most of their reactions to what Ribeiro said looked like this:

There were other responses to Ribeiro’s tweet that were a little more detailed. Some people spoke up in defense of Tyler Perry, and said that Ribeiro should watch his mouth and humble himself before talking sh-t about a successful Black artist like that, considering that his own acting career hasn’t been that impressive, and because he has his own history of talking sh-t about Black people to stroke his own ego. Others practically gave Ribeiro a standing ovation for what he said about Perry, while laughing about him being like “Oh, I ain’t that desperate for a check!” They also wanted Ribeiro to spill every last drop of tea as to why he has no interest in working with Perry, and what he knows about him to make him feel this way.

A couple of people on Twitter also pointed out that Ribeiro has already worked with Perry, and directed 12 episodes of Perry’s TBS sitcom Meet the Browns. Which made people even more curious as to what Ribeiro has seen or experienced when working with Perry. Was he mistreated by Perry on or off set? Did he witness cast or crew members being mistreated on or off set? Is he just fed up with Perry and his approach to making movies and television shows where he writes nearly everything himself, and then boasts about how great his work ethic is, hence why he’s allegedly not very fond of unions? Did The Boondocks and Atlanta tell nothing but the truth when they did entire episodes about Tyler Perry through their Lawyer-Friendly characters named Winston Jerome and Mr. Chocolate? Is Tyler Perry a freaky-ass nigga who needs to stay his ass inside, as Kendrick Lamar would so memorably put it?

So far, Alfonso Ribeiro has had nothing else to say on the subject via his Twitter page, and who knows if Tyler Perry will respond in kind. But we can all agree with Black Twitter on one thing: This is all because of Katt Williams starting off 2024 by letting the choppa spray, and inspiring a whole bunch of other artists to do the same, for better and for worse.