The Wayans Family were inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame at the 56th Image Awards on Saturday night.
The Wayanses — siblings Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans Sr., Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kim Wayans and the second generation of talent, Damon Wayans Jr., Damien Dante Wayans, Craig Wayans and Chaunté Wayans — joined previous inductees including New Edition, Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Spike Lee and Earth Wind and Fire.
The NAACP Hall of Fame Award is presented to “individuals or groups who have been pioneers in their respective fields and whose influence continues to shape their industry for generations.” And as one of the most influential families in comedy and entertainment — collectively behind such culture-defining hits as “In Living Color” (which also launched the careers of Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez), “My Wife and Kids,” “Hollywood Shuffle,” the “Scary Movie” franchise, “White Chicks” and the hit CBS sitcom “Poppa’s House” — they certainly fit the bill.
“It’s almost beyond words,” Chaunté Wayans told Variety about being honored alongside her family. “Keenen has always been the godfather of the family. His vision of picking people and putting a team together of different artists — even outside our family. The moment I really knew what [our legacy] was, was when you see successful stars, like Jim Carrey and Jamie Foxx, talk about that start and those doors opening. He broke barriers, and he taught us not to be afraid to take risks.”
On stage, Damon and Marlon Wayans also gave their eldest brother his due, delivering a touching and hilarious speech about how Keenen prospected for the family’s future by moving to Hollywood, then taught each one of his siblings how to succeed in the entertainment business.
“On May 5, 1965, my brother Keenen Ivory and I watched young Richard Pryor make his television debut on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ Richard was animated and hilarious with a very clean comedy routine,” Damon Wayans began. “While I was seeing a funny comedian, Keenan was seeing his future. From that day on, Keenen was dead set on being just like Richard Pryor.”
Keenen, who was six months away from getting an engineering degree, pivoted to pursue comedy, eventually packing up a U-Haul and moving cross-country with his best friend Richard Townsend to make it big in Hollywood.
“And that didn’t go well with my mama,” Marlon Wayans said, as the crowd chuckled. “Keenen told Ma he’s leaving college to be a comedian. My mother said, ‘A comedian? Boy, I’ve known you your whole life. You ain’t never said nothing funny. You a comedian — that’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said.’ She said, ‘At least have a backup plan.” Then, slipping into an imitation of his brother’s voice, Marlon continued: “He was like, ‘There is no backup plan in success. It’s comedy or nothing.’”
When Keenen landed his first stand-up appearance on “The Johnny Carson Show,” the family gathered around a black and white TV in their kitchen with a broken antenna. “From that day on, me as a child, I sat there and I was like ‘Wow, you mean, not only can you dream, but you can make your dreams come true.’”
Despite some ups and downs — Keenen made good on his promise: it was comedy or nothing.
The speech was a touching tribute to Keenen, who was not present at the awards, and underlined the vastness of what he and his siblings have achieved in the decades since. (Watch their full remarks in the video above.) Case in point, in addition to the Hall of Fame honor, the Wayanses also notched individual accolades this year: Damon and Damon Wayans Jr. won best actor (his first win in six nominations) and best supporting actor, respectively, for “Poppa’s House,” while Marlon Wayans won outstanding guest performance for his dramatic turn on Peacock’s “Bel-Air.”
“It’s so rare. I can’t think of another family of any race that has run this deep for this long — and none of them sing. Not one of them,” joked David Alan Grier, who also broke big from “In Living Color” and presented the Wayans with their award during the ceremony. “One thing you’re not gonna hear from the Wayans is a gospel album, and if they do, it’s gonna be buck wild. But, seriously, that’s probably the only thing they don’t do. Everything else, they’ve got it locked down.”
Every funny person in Hollywood had praise for the Wayanses, with words like “legendary” and “iconic” used to describe them.
“The one thing that they should be honored for — they should be honored for everything that they did — but most importantly, they didn’t wait on nobody,’ said Deon Cole, who hosted this year’s Image Awards.
He explained: “They wrote their own movies. They wrote their own TV shows. They made their own way. And that was the thing about them that made them so important, and it sparked the minds of everybody. You wouldn’t have ‘Insecure,’ ‘Black-ish’ ‘Atlanta,’ if you didn’t have them creating their own things that sparked the minds of other Black writers to write their own.”
“Abbott Elementary” star Janelle James counts Kim Wayans among her idols. “First, she’s hilarious,” James said. “Second, she was a dark-skinned Black woman at a time when there weren’t a lot of dark-skinned Black women on TV. Able to be goofy, which is the opposite of what a lot of Black women are portrayed as on television. I just love her. She’s a phenomenal talent. Underrated.”
“Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim, who just celebrated the 50th anniversary of that iconic sketch show, said she grew up watching the Wayans family. “They’re legendary, so I’m so happy to be in the building when they get their flowers, because they absolutely deserve them. And it’s high time they do it.”
Kerry Washington described her stint in the Wayans world — co-starring in the 2006 comedy “Little Man” with Marlon and Shawn and directed by Keenen — as “one of the highlights of my career. I loved every second of working with them.”
Perhaps best equipped to speak on the legacy of the Wayans family is Essence Atkins, who has done six projects with the family over the last 30 years, beginning with 1995’s “The Wayans Bros.” series, where she played “Kim’s best friend, Marlon’s pain the butt and Shawn’s girlfriend,” and continuing to today, where she co-stars on “Poppa’s House.”
“The legacy is undeniable, but what I love is the kind of unapologetic nepotism,” Atkins said, meaning that not only did make way for their blood relatives, but once you inducted into their comedy troupe, you were in for life. Their way of doing business is an inclusive one.
“We are going to hold the door open. We’re going to prop it open. We’re going to put bricks in it. No one is shutting this door,” she said. “And everyone who walks through it is going to be amazing, is going to be qualified, is going to know their stuff, is going to be innovative, and is going to continue to be able to excel beyond the opportunity that they’ve been given. That is just an incredible thing.” Atkins added: “Growing with the family, I definitely feel like an honorary Wayans — they certainly treat me like that.”
