Scenes We Love: Pootie Tang

Pootie Tang, the hallucinatory story of a "musician/actor/folk hero of the ghetto" who literally speaks his own language, is like a secret handshake among a certain subset of film nerd. Yes, possibly the stoner kind, but not necessarily – it's just one of those movies where maybe you're out for a drink with someone you don't know that well and you drop a Pootie-ism ("I'm gonna sine your pitty on da runny kine!" or even a simple "Sadatay!") and the other person is like, "You like Pootie Tang? I love Pootie Tang!" And suddenly you've bonded as deeply as if you just found out you were born at the same hospital.

Pootie Tang, which was written and directed by Louis C.K. (whose writing for "The Chris Rock Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" earned him several Emmy nominations and who is also in The Invention of Lying), stars Lance Crouther as a sort of Ubermensch. He's a lady-killer whose magnetism makes women literally claw his clothes off. He fights evil with his awesome belt. He can sing, he can act, he hangs out with Missy Elliott, and he goes up against The Man who's trying to bring us all down, specifically by using Pootie's image to endorse products that would harm today's youth.

The movie is full of very funny people like Jennifer Coolidge, Andy Richter, David Cross, and naturally Chris Rock, but my favorite is Wanda Sykes, who plays Biggie Shorty. Biggie Shorty likes to wear outrageous outfits and matching wigs while jamming out to her headphones on the street, and she is madly in love with Pootie.

In the clip below, she talks to Pootie (insofar as anyone really talks to him) and then tells some fellows (including Todd Barry) who mistake her for a lady for hire what is up. And smacks them in the face a few times with her purse.

As an added bonus, I've also included a clip that introduces Biggie Shorty and her love for Pootie because I can't get enough Wanda Sykes. In fact, it was hard to choose which clips from Pootie Tang to include, because there are just so damn many that make me laugh no matter what kind of mood I'm in.

Have you seen Pootie Tang? Is it one of your guilty pleasures, or do you flaunt your Pootie-tude with pride? Me, I somehow ended up with two copies. You can have the extra if you want.

(Note to other Wanda Sykes fans – she has a new show premiering on November 7th, 2009 on Fox, which I find especially delicious since she is an outspoken married lesbian and mother of two who was number 35 on Out magazine's Annual Power 50 List and totally rocked the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last year. And she's f----cking funny.)