‘She Was In Her ELEMENT with Damon’: Fans Spark a Debate After Suggesting Tisha Campbell and Damon Wayans Made a Better Duo Than Her with Martin Lawrence
Fans of popular sitcoms “Martin” and “My Wife & Kids” are in a frenzy after a Twitter post has folks on social media debating on which Black television couple did it best, Tisha Campbell and Martin Lawrence as Martin and Gina Payne or the actress and Damon Wayans as Michael and Jay Kyle.
The conversation all started after writer Shanelle Genai took to her platform and shared, “I’ve been binging My Wife & Kids for the last few weeks while I work and I gotta keep it 100 w/you chief: Tisha Campbell and Damon Wayans >>>>>>>>> Tisha Campbell and Martin Lawrence.YALL NEED TO BE REAL WITH YOURSELVES.”
(L) Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell of the ABC network show “My Wife and Kids” attends the ABC Primetime Preview Weekend on August 25, 2002 at Disney’s California Park in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) (R) Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell of the tv show “Martin” pose for a portrait in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images)
The floodgates of opinions opened almost immediately as the post made its way across the platform, garnering over 4,800 retweets and over 28,000 likes from fans seemingly agreeing with the writer.
The comments section was overwhelmed with critics chiming in, including one user who felt quite the opposite, writing, “My Wife and Kids is so corny to me. Even Damon said it was very watered down because of the network.”
“Totally disagree,” declared another fan of the popular ’90s series. “Martin/Gina were fabulous. Wayans always had to be the ‘funny’ one, and didn’t let Tisha shine. On Martin, the comedy and physical comedy by Tisha was on full display, and Martin didn’t mind her being as upfront as him.”
Still, “MWK” fans pushed back, including one viewer who wrote, “When are we going to admit that Martin Lawrence isn’t that funny.”
“He’s not and so many people says he was horrible to work with,” inserted another.
“… HONESTLY. she was also so pretty & vibrant on there! she was in her ELEMENT with Damon.”
One Twitter user highlighted that Campbell was at a different stage in her career in both shows, having starred in “Martin” from 1992 to 1997 and then on the Wayans-created show from 2001 to 2005. Further, the shows’ concepts were far from the same. “You gotta crawl before you walk though,” they wrote before adding, “Both are great and the dynamics of the shows are completely different.”
However, Shanelle would not budge, responding to the post, “The dynamics are different which is why I feel so passionately about the former pair in my tweet being better than the latter..lol.”