Parody version of soul food?

now that you mention it, i totally see it!

You're right, there are definitely similarities!!

However, I was most surprised to find out that this movie is based on a play by the name of "Dearly Departed" ... same subject matter except it's basically about a bunch of white-trash hicks (named the Turpins) somewhere in a non-specified part of the South. The movie captures more of the 'sentimental' side of what's going on than the play does, and there are (obviously) plenty of other changes to reflect the different demographic, but I was surprised at how many of the gags were almost exactly the same!

I just had the pleasure of playing Royce in a local (central Virginia) production of this play; it was a lot of fun. It wasn't until we were discussing it backstage one day that I made the connection that this film was related to it, and suddenly it all 'clicked' why some parts of the play seemed so very familiar to me! Pretty funny :)

C ya!

*Sometimes his wife comes down and collects it. Whose wife. Yeah.*