NUMBING TO AMERICA

COMING TO AMERICA (1988)
dir: John Landis

NUMBING TO AMERICA
#284, January 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Sam Viviano

Is that Steve Guttenberg doing the introduction?

This mentions “not treating black people in a favorable light”. Murphy produced this film and purposely made an effort to make only one the main characters white. Did we see the same movie?

Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is the prince of Zamunda. On his twenty-first birthday, he is about to be married. He doesn't like being forced into an arranged marriage with an obedient wife and wants to marry someone who will fall in love with him for who he is. He tells his father (James Earl Jones) who just assumes it's a phase and allows him to leave on a Rumspringa (look that word up).

He and his servant Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embark on a trip to the United States so Akeem can find the perfect bride. They settle upon a regular neighborhood in Queens so they can fit in with regular people. When they arrive, the first people they meet are folks at a barbershop, an excuse for Murphy and Hall to play multiple roles (a third old man is played by Clint Smith. It's weird they all reprise these roles in the sequel because it takes place 32 years later and there's no way they'd still be alive). Again with the allegations of stereotyping which, though I admit to being as white as they come, I didn't see.

Akeem tries the dating scene but it's not for him. His friends suggest he try and meet someone at a local church function they'll be attending (another way to fit in more Murphy and Hall sketches).

It's sponsored by McDowell's, a local restaurant. He sees Lisa (Shari Headley), daughter of the owner (John Amos), and falls in love. He and Semmi take jobs there as janitors so he can get to know her. The father's keen on her current boyfriend Darryl (Eriq LaSalle).

Akeem has bought Lisa expensive earrings anonymously but it got him nowhere. He gets her attention eventually by defeating a robber (Samuel Jackson, not yet well-known enough to be caricatured) through martial arts while Darryl hides.

Akeem and Semmi are hired to be valets at a party Mr. McDowell is hosting. He hasn't told Lisa that he's arranged for her to marry Darryl and springs it on everyone at the party. She gets angry and walks off. (This part isn't in the parody. Neither is the part where Semmi gets in Lisa's sister's pants by lying and saying he's the prince and Akeem is the servant.)

Lisa and Akeem start dating. She likes that he's just a regular person and doesn't know yet who he really is. On the date, he gives money to some homeless people. As an in-joke, they're Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche, bankers ruined by another Eddie Murphy character in the previous Landis/Murphy effort Trading Places.

(There's sort of a Landis universe I guess since in the sequel Colin Jost plays a banker who's their grandson). Akeem's family comes to get him and reveals to Mr. McDowell that they're really royalty. He suddenly warms up to Akeem, who doesn't know what's up yet. The family arrives and tries to pay the McDowells off. They tell Lisa that Akeem was only there to sow his royal oats and they're taking him back now. She runs away again thinking she was never loved, and he runs after her. After realizing she's what he really wants, the king arranges for them to be married and they live happily ever after.

It's sort of true when people say the multiple roles were the funniest parts of the movie.


SLUMMING IN AMERICA
Cracked #242, January 1989
w: Tony Frank (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan

Unlike the other one this parody shows Akeem with his life as a prince in Africa and the ceremony where he meets his bride. Randolph and Mortimer from Trading Places are not in this part.

Also Semmi's reluctance to go undercover.

And Akeem defeating the robber using the mop like the stick he uses at home to practice martial arts.

And him going with the family to a basketball game and almost having his cover blown by being recognized.

Lisa leaves the engagement party after being humiliated that the engagement is announced as a surprise. Akeem's family comes to America, blows his cover, and exposes his true identity.