Freaky Phyllis
Written, directed and produced by: Arnetta Randall
Older women struggle to get juicy roles in Hollywood, but older Black women struggle a bit harder. Most of the roles are nice grandma roles, where they are the perfect matriarch. The fun roles have been dominated by men like Martin Lawrence and Tyler Perry who dress up like Black grandmothers.
Arnetta Randall seeks to change that with Freaky Phyllis. In the comedy, which was expanded from a proposed sketch, Phyllis is a newfound widow who does not miss her ex-husband.
“Are you going to be going OK,” her granddaughter asks?
“Hell yeah! Do you know how I’ve been waiting for your grandfather to die?...He been getting on my nerves since the sixties..,You cannot be in love with a man with a limp dick…I ain’t be laid right since…the Nixon administration,” Phyllis retorts.
“Oh she’s having an end-of life crisis?!” the granddaughter’s parents says.
Indeed, Phyllis is spend her last years of last tackling an extensive sexual bucket list that includes:
Sex in the shower
Get tied up
Handcuffs
Sex with a younger man
Threesomes
In one episode, her granddaughter performs a wellness check on her because she hasn’t been heard from.
As she walks in she sees cheetah print lingerie, used shot glasses, and a “naughty fun” CD mixtape all strewn about the house.
She hears a scream in Phyllis’ bedroom and opens the door to find her in a full latex bodysuit sitting on top of a gagged man named Henry!
Freaky Phyllis does some subtle healing work to Black representation through a wildly preposterous concept. Allowing elder women to have sexual freedom expands our understanding of how life is supposed to go, encouraging all of us to embrace what we love while we’re alive. Doing so can break intergenerational cycles of heartbreak and harm from hypocrisy and repressed desire.
And it’s a lot of fun too.