Mo’Nique calls out Oprah, Tyler Perry, and Kevin Hart on Club Shay Shay
Shannon Sharpe is slowly but surely becoming this generation’s Marc Maron
Aux News Kevin Hart
Following in the grand tradition of Katt Williams, Oscar-winning standup comic Mo’Nique brought her truth to Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. Mo’Nique is no stranger to unfiltered accusations against some of Hollywood’s most influential people. Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Lee Daniels, and more find their way into her sights over a bottle of cognac with Sharpe, and as it was with Williams, it was pretty glorious.
Mo’Nique has been a divisive figure not just among some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in Hollywood but also studios Netflix, which she sued for discrimination, and Lionsgate. Following her Oscar win, Mo’Nique couldn’t get arrested in town. The typical rumors followed: Mo’Nique is “difficult to work with.” Her husband won’t look Oprah in the eye. She wants pay parity from Netflix for her specials. All the things that would get a celebrity canceled out of existence despite doing nothing to offend her audience, just some very rich people. Mo’Nique wouldn’t go away, continuing her massively successful stand-up career but never getting the Precious follow-up she deserved.
Mo’Nique has been clear about the reasons for her promising movie career stalling out and brings them to Club Shay Shay, which is slowly but surely replacing WTF With Marc Maron as the place where comedians unmask the people who screwed them over. Across her three-hour interview, Mo’Nique names Oprah, Perry, and more responsible for sabotaging her career and flagrantly disrespecting her.
On Oprah:
Ironically, Mo’Nique starts the interview by praising Oprah as an early influence. To her eyes, Oprah was not only a woman who looked like Mo’Nique and who reached an unprecedented amount of success for a Black woman, but also not a person to hide hard truths about influential people. As she says repeatedly in the interview, she will not conceal the misdeeds of anyone and will encourage her friends to make things right.
Mo’Nique has many problems with Oprah, going back to Mo’Nique’s refusal to do international press for Precious. Mo’Nique says she fulfilled her contractual obligations and opted to spend time with her family instead of doing press at Cannes. She still won the Oscar, and the movie was a success, but Mo’Nique claims that Oprah, Tyler Perry, and Lee Daniels spread rumors that she was difficult for years. Moreover, a year after the film was released, Oprah invited members of Mo’Nique’s estranged family onto her talk show, against Mo’Nique’s wishes.
Mo’Nique claims that Oprah called her to say that “just [her] brother” was invited on the show, but when her mother also appeared, it impacted Mo’Nique’s personal life. Elderly women would come up to her in the store and tell her, “Your mama ain’t shit.”
“Now, they wasn’t lying,” Mo’Nique quipped, breaking some of the tension. “But still it’s my mother […] Had Oprah Winfrey said, “‘I’m going to have your mama,’ I would’ve shut that shit down.”
Understandably hurt—Mo’Nique calls the situation a “betrayal”—the comedian also accuses Oprah of snaking roles from her in Lee Daniels’ follow-up pictures, including The Butler.
On Tyler Perry:
As for Tyler Perry, whom Mo’Nique says she once saw clear a room of assistants by clapping his hands, she apparently secretly recorded him admitting to spreading rumors about her being difficult on set. (But don’t worry, she says it was legal in the state she recorded it.) For what it’s worth, she says Lee Daniels is the only one who apologized for the whole mess and even cast her in his upcoming horror film The Deliverance.
Nevertheless, the rumors had a significant impact on her career. As she said, “If I were a white woman, my name would be Melissa McCarthy,” who seemingly stars in a new comedy vehicle every week. Sharpe sat back, speechless. “Same track record, five-season sitcom and syndication. Same track record, but the opportunities are not the same.”
Speaking of which, Mo’Nique says she did 110 episodes of The Parkers, and the show made $800 million between 2004 and 2009. She never saw any money. It must be the same creative accounting that keeps Men In Black in the red.
“We get a call, ‘We got to do an audit and everything.’ That was in 2009 when it made $800 million. Now we’re in 2024, and they’re trying to convince Countess Vaughn that that show made no money.”
On Kevin Hart:
After the fiasco of the Precious press tour, Mo’Nique said her family “was up against the wall” and Kevin Hart came to her rescue. On Hart’s podcast, he told Mo’Nique, “You’re like my mother, you’re like my aunt, you’re like my sister. We speak about the Tyler Perry situation, Oprah Winfrey. He said, I don’t really know Oprah, but I’m going to reach out to Tyler.” Hart called Tyler Perry and returned to Mo’Nique, saying Perry wants to put it all in the past.
“‘Mo, I talked to Tyler. He said he didn’t want to revisit it, but I’ll tell you what: let’s move past that, Mo. Let’s just do great things together. Don’t even worry about it. Whatever you want to do, I will partner with you. I’ll executive produce with you. You just let me know.’”
Mo’Nique says that Hart loaned her a substantial amount when her family was “against the wall,” and she returned it with interest. Hart told her that he was going to partner with her to get her talk show back. Mo’Nique lets her producers, who are excited about such a big star producing the show, know. They reach out to Hart, whose manager, Dave Becky, known for representing Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Bill Burr, and formerly Louis C.K., says, “Kevin doesn’t want anything to do with Mo’Nique.” After Mo’Nique asked Hart what the deal was, Hart called it “miscommunication.” Mo’Nique says she hasn’t heard from Kevin Hart in two years.
On Tiffany Haddish and more:
Mo’Nique also swiped at other comedians who took shots at her in the press, particularly Tiffany Haddish. “[Haddish] said, ‘I don’t do business like Mo’Nique do business, and I’m glad I don’t have that husband of hers.’”
Mo’Nique, who throughout the interview laps nothing but praise upon her husband, who also serves as her manager, was not having that. “And when I saw that, it’s like Tiffany, if you had a husband like mine, you may not have two DUIs,” Mo’Nique said. “If you had a husband like mine, you may not have been caught up in what looks like you may have been grooming a child.”
But the most explosive revelation was that her trailer exploded on the set of Almost Christmas, and producer Will Packer didn’t even ask if she was okay.
Episodes of Club Shay Shay should come with cognac for the listener. As with the Katt Williams episode, there is so much here that anyone even remotely interested in comedy should hear. From the treatment of The Original Queens Of Comedy to D.L. Hugely, Mo’Nique has not been treated well by the industry and will not let them forget it.
81 Comments
To the last paragraph in the article: he may be a huge comedian, but his name is Hughley.
Sure, but what does she think of Katt Williams? 😀
She announced they are going on tour together today lol
You mean on tttour?
Shannon Sharpe is slowly but surely becoming this generation’s Marc MaronWhat the fuck does this even mean? Are you saying currently-popular Maron is old and therefore doesn’t resonate with “this” generation, which I guess is … Alpha? Zs? If that’s the case, SURE. Fifty-five year old Shannon Sharpe is Gen Z’s Marc Maron.
I think it was just to say that the WTF podcast used to make similar headlines for comedians coming on and taking names but lately it’s Shay Shay. You’re overthinking things a tad!
Does Shannon Sharpe even ask his guests who their guys were?
He’s this generation’s Marc Maron because his catchphrase is “Hey Siri: Lock the Gates”
He’s no spring chicken
It means that this website is f**king terrible now and the writers are awful, disingenuous, incompetent hacks (see: “DL Hugely,” and the embarrassingly stupid and aggressively disingenuous article about Dakota Johnson/Madame Webb).
It always annoys me when someone says “this generation’s [x]” without specifying which one they’re talking about. There are multiple generations alive at the moment, each with varying influences on society. Who are you addressing? At least if the writer said “our generation’s” I could try and look up their age and figure out what they’re talking about if I wanted to.
I don’t know much the situation, but it reminds me of the Raylan Givens quote from Justified:‘If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole.
If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.’But the most explosive revelation was that her trailer exploded on the set of Almost Christmas
Like, her trailer literally exploded?
I thought about that quote when I finished reading the article.
That quote gives way too much cover for all the assholes around.
I think you’re telling on yourself.
No, I’m not.
Every person she called out is a proven asshole.
I don’t know about Christmas, sounds more like Festivus with all the airing of grievances.
I got a LOT of problems with you people!
Yeah, it’s one thing when you say so-and-so harmed my career, be they a director or producer or fellow actor. But when seemingly EVERYONE has harmed your career, that sounds more like grievance collecting and paranoia, and resentment over the fact that Mo’Nique felt her Oscar win meant she was entitled to more roles at a higher salary, and that’s not necessarily how the Oscar works. Certainly not when you’re playing a supporting character, and a completely odious one at that. It was not the kind of performance that gets you lead roles and seven figure salaries. If anything, it’s the kind of role that gets you typecast.
I recall after Precious she took over hosting duties on Charm School, a spin off of the “reality” series’ Flavor of Love/Rock of Love. It was a pretty smooth transition from odious, violent, and menacing to stern, a bit more refined, but still menacing. The other thing the two roles had in common – not even one ounce of funny. That’s appropriate for the movie, but for a dating show spin-off, it’s more than a little disappointing.
You. You just made the list, pal.
She can get in line behind the Germans.
You harmed my career, CineCraft. And I’m telling Oprah on you,
Yes her trailer literally exploded. She posted a video of the aftermath and fire department on the scene after the interview. Also re: all the assholes. Regarding her part about Oprah .. the article leaves out why shes estranged from her family. Her brother molested her and her family knew it. After she won the Oscar, Oprah (her friend at the time) called her about her brother and she said that she wanted nothing to do with it, but if he actually changed and is sorry allow him to talk his piece and help other families. She didn’t know that Oprah was going to have her mother and father on making excuses for the brother. She also goes into detail about how Barbara Walters called her and explained they called her first about an interview and she turned them down because it was in poor taste.Now we can argue about specific details about what Monique knew before the interview, but the interview exists and you can watch it.. And I think we can agree that it isnt a good look that after your friend wins an Oscar, and while yall having a disagreement about press tours, you invite her estranged family on your talk show and allow them to make excuses for her molester
Oh and I just remembered DL Hughley is a man who said he was relieved when the
child he made from an affair passed away. Hes also a guy who didnt
believe his daughter after she told him she was molested by his friend..
So I’d say hes more of an asshole then Monique regardless
Hey Silly, my parents wouldn’t have believed me if I had been molested by a priest.
She’s as much of an asshole as anyone she’s talking about.
But she’s black and a Woman…so…
I’d ask what your point is but as usual you don’t have one
I’d ask why you’re so hung up on me; but what’s the point of trying to engage with a wacked-out dipstick?
That interview doesn’t exactly scream Mo’Nique is easy to work with.
Yeah, this line confirms it too: “As she says repeatedly in the interview, she will not conceal the misdeeds of anyone and will encourage her friends to make things right.”This is just a euphemism for being an asshole.
That’s what you guys are always shrieking about wanting to happen when an asshole celebrity’s friends rally around them.
Yeah when you go dragging your friends into a personal beef, the verdict is pretty much in.
“If I were a white woman, my name would be Melissa McCarthy….”Based on this interview, I’m thinking more like Katherine Heigl.
Without the fastball.
Referring to her “continuing her massively successful stand-up career” is a bit of bullshit. She’s damn near 60 and has had grand total of 3 stand-up specials, with the most recent one clearly only coming about as part of a lawsuit settlement with Netflix. It didn’t appear to have been very successful either. Additionally, her touring has been anemic for many years. The success of her comedy career is yet another instance where Mo’Nique has attempted to oversell us on something over the years. She doesn’t hesitate to tell us all how great she is, despite the evidence of it being a lone successful film role years ago and a distant and limited stand-up career.
Yeah that’s the thing, in her mind she is one of the GOAT’s of comedy, and she’s just…not. She had a decently successful standup career in the 90’s and yes she won an Oscar, but she is NOT on the level of a Kevin Hart of Kat Williams, or even Chapelle, problematic as he is, which is who she was expecting pay parity with from Netflix.
I’m damn near 50 and that’s 3 more than I’ve got.
But, to be fair, you’re difficult to work with.
OK, so you BOTH don’t have a massively successful stand-up career.
You’re not the first one to say that.
Yeah but you haven’t dedicated your life to it, so maybe if you applied yourself a little.
How do you know?
Because your comment history is funnier than anything I’ve heard her say.
Right, but you are not a touring stand-up comedian with 30+ years of experience. If you were, you would not be considered a resounding success story.
How do you know?
A cursory scan of my comment history will show that I am consistently nuanced and hilarious!
“…Melissa McCarthy’ who seemingly stars in a new comedy vehicle every week.”
She does? Maybe I don’t see enough movie trailers but I can’t remember the last time I saw a Melissa McCarthy comedy vehicle advertised.
“Melissa McCarthy comedy vehicle” makes mw think she drives around in a clown car or something. Maybe with a cartoon duck.
Get out your brushes and your paint tubesYou’re gonna dice them into little cubes!Can’t find a gif of him with the cartoon duck 🙁
“I must say, Murry, I thought you handled that very well!”(I have every syllable of that committed to memory)
One of the best shorts ever imho.
I remember the early 2000s as kind of a golden age for Comedy Central (ok, I might have some rosy hindsight here) I just tracked down Kid Notorious on DVD and it’s as good as I remembered it. (Ok, yeah, a LOT of those jokes wouldn’t fly today)
Yeah late ‘90s/early ‘00s you had amazing shows like Strangers With Candy, UCB, League of Gentlemen, etc…, plus constant reruns of KitH.
She had one! Well sort of, as Sean Spicer on SNL. Who is so ridiculous that a cartoon duck is just unnecessary.
Not exactly what I was picturing, but kinda funny.
She definitely had a run in the 2010s where she did seem to be in a lot of comedies, but she’s really slowed down since Can You Ever Forgive Me?
She’s managed to get a lot of money out of streaming companies. I think she’s got an exclusive movie on nearly every one of them.
She’s currently doing some adverts for an airline with her husband which is good for society as it stops them making terrible films together.
Ugh…I always dug Mo’Nique, but it’s hard to watch someone take a baseball bat to their career and say anything other than “Well, good cut, I guess.”
“If I were a white woman, my name would be Melissa McCarthy,”who’d want that?!
More likely than being named Mo’Nique in that scenario.
Less’Nique than Mo’Likely.
“Speaking of which, Mo’Nique says she did 110 episodes of The Parkers, and the show made $800 million between 2004 and 2009. She never saw any money.”Wait, WHAT? She worked on a show for 5 years, and didn’t get paid for it? How is that even remotely possible? Or, was she exaggerating when she said the show made $800 mil, and she didn’t see any of THAT? Because if you’re working for 5 years and don’t get paid, that’s sort of your fault for not investigating. God knows if my check for my work is even one day late there’s hell to pay.“But the most explosive revelation was that her trailer exploded on the set of Almost Christmas, and producer Will Packer didn’t even ask if she was okay.”Umm I feel like that should be dug deeper into rather than glossed over, that’s rather insane if true.
I’m sure this means that she didn’t see any money from the “profits”. Hence the Men in Black line that the author followed up with.Of course she was paid for her work, as in her salary or whatever.
If your name is not Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and if you’re not part of the cast of Friends, I don’t think you’re ever going to see the level of money she thinks she should get base on how successful that show may or may not have been. Tyler Perry probably does as he created it, produced and probably still owns the rights to it.
yeah it looks like it made 800 million dollars within 5 years after it was canceled. considering the show ran from 99-04 (on UPN, which ceased to exist in 2006) i imagine her contract just wasn’t very good/didn’t account for residuals/whatever i don’t know contract law.i also don’t really understand how it ‘made’ 800 million dollars. i get that it was licensed and ran in reruns, but that really sounds like way too much.
I’ve never seen an episode of it and am only vaguely aware of its existence, which doesn’t mean much… but I can’t imagine any way that show that show even approached $800 million in profit, or half of that. Almost a billion dollars? How could that be possible? Netflix bought the streaming rights for Seinfeld in 2019 for $500 million. They paid $120 million for Friends in 2014. You think The Parkers would get a tenth of that?
To give more context from the same time period, 800 million is more than all but one of the Twilight movies made at the box office. So She’s telling me The Parkers is on par, or above money-making wise with those? or Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban? The Hunger Games? This is a crazy person.
Something that makes 800 million is a cultural touchstone. Just about everyone involved becomes a household name (at least in pop culture circles) but The Parkers? I just looked up the cast (Shannon Tweed? Huh.) and recognize maybe 4 names.
I know Mo’Nique from Flavor of Love: Charm School ‘cause I’m classy as heck. It averaged similar viewership to The Parkers, albeit over only 1 season. Most people seem to know her from Precious, which made about $60 million at the box office. If you asked 100 people if they had seen The Parkers, 90 would likely say no, based on viewership numbers.
There’s just no way a show that averaged 3 million viewers on first run, won zero major awards, and aired on UPN made anywhere near that.
Sounds more like Hollywood accounting, where something will be touted as a resounding profit by every studio exec involved right up until its time to pay out residuals. Then those same execs start claiming poverty.
Am I old or isn’t “this generations” Marc Maron just Marc Maron
The pan-generational Marc Maron.
Is Kevin Hart the free space on the Beef Bingo Board?
He’s Kevin Bacon in the Six Degrees of Beef game.
“Massively successful comedy career?” When did that happen? I must have missed it. Did she ever tour with “DL Hugely,” and is he related to DL Hughly?Also, there already is a “this generation’ Marc Maron.” His name is… Marc Maron. Are you somehow under the impression that Sharpe is significantly younger than Maron?This site has become an embarrassment…
The unfortunate difference between this and Katt is that Katt hasnt had YEARS of starting fights and getting shown to never have evidence to back up their accusations.
She falls into the Joe Budden category…. where she HAS legitimately been aggrieved at various points….. but too many outside parties have worse stories of THEIR behaviors when compared to pretty much anything that has happened TO them.
This wasn’t a “platform for her to tell the TRUTH”, it was a just the biggest place she could possibly go with the same tired stories she has been selling. If she was white she would say it’s “woke cancel culture” holding her back, but she is black and vocal about it so she isn’t gonna find much sympathy with that crowd.
And lets be honest here, Katt Williams is a bit of a loose cannon. He got into a fist fight with a teenager and lost. Among other things. Is some of the stuff he said true, definitely. Is all of it, most likely not. Who knows the ratio. But it did definitely start a trend. I don’t listen to the Shannon Sharpe podcast if he wants to go in this direction, that’s fine as it is his show. But at one point The Jerry Springer Show was a legit talk show as well.
What’s cool about speaking up about abuse is that you’re “brave” and “heroic” when the story has a nice bow on it, but the shit in the middle of all that work that people almost never see? When they see it, you’re an asshole because you grew bitter while getting the shit kicked out of you.
Develop some empathy, people. She needs to let that shit go for herself, not for your comfort.
Imagine your Twitter addiction unironically leading you to stanning people like Mo’Nique.
Following her Oscar win, Mo’Nique couldn’t get arrested [sic] in town.
That’s… good?
This is an interesting trend.
I just hope we’re all saving energy for the really necessary reckoning; November.