Expletives were flying, body parts were being poked, Mafia culture was being mocked, and Damon Wayans was in whiteface.
Wayans was playing an inappropriately affectionate mob hit-man in a skit entitled "Touchy Feely Guy" for his comedy series, "The Underground," which debuts Thursday on Showtime.
"It's 'In Living Color' on steroids," said Wayans, referring to the 1990s Fox series created by brother Keenen Ivory Wayans. "We get a chance to complete the joke. And if you want to see something that's shockingly funny, tune in. . . . It's the next generation of comedy."
Wayans, 46, first became known for his portrayal of outrageous characters on "In Living Color," including the hilariously scary Homey D. Clown. Then he starred for five seasons on "My Wife and Kids." He felt stifled on that ABC prime-time sitcom, which was canceled last year.
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"Creatively, I felt I was walking through those five years. This is very freeing," he said at a modest Burbank soundstage where "The Underground" was shooting.
Clips from the cable series shown to a gathering of television critics in July clearly offended some in the audience.
Wayans defended the skits as "honest." But he says he will not be surprised if the raw humor offends everyone at least some of the time.
"Television here, I think, is 30 years behind," says Wayans, highly critical of the primness and prejudice of a medium much more uptight about sex than about violence and death. He finds it absurd that expletives are bleeped and body parts scrambled. "I think that's cheating. It's like you are lying to people."
"I just have to shock people and get them watching. I've got to get people talking, so some of it is just designed for that," he admits.
The "new generation" of comedians he hired for the show are drawn from the comedy club and improv circuit and include his son Damon Wayans, Jr., a staff writer on "My Wife and Kids," and Aries Spears, a regular on Fox's "MAD TV."
Showtime, a unit of CBS Corp., has ordered 10 half-hour episodes, each featuring about five to six skits, but Wayans filmed almost double that amount and returned for some retakes.
If the show is picked up he "wouldn't mind doing it live," because that's the spontaneity he aims for.
"It's about improv and having fun," he said. "And as soon as it feels like we are trying to memorize lines, we're dead and there's nothing special. My goal is to do what we did on 'In Living Color,' what they did on Carol Burnett's show — make each other in the scene laugh. That's infectious."
● "The Underground" airs at 10 p.m. Thursdays on Showtime.
