Atypical Black History Month fare

Comic Paul Mooney hosts BET’s “Top 25 Events that (Mis)Shaped Black America,” which takes the glib style and shape of VH1’s “I Love the [Insert Recent Decade Here]” and “Best Week Ever” to forge an oddly cheekily grim production by Black History Month standards. Honest, this one doesn't even mention George Washington Carver.

The events “changed the course of our race for the worst,” Mooney explains, and while the list offers some wry commentary from “critics, comics and celebrities” – Jheri Curls and soul food are on the list, alongside Hurricane Katrina, drugs, AIDS and slavery – the intent is as serious as a stroke. Only the hyperkinetic editing, an overall even-handed tone and the occasional crisp one-liner (Elvis was “the original Puff Daddy,” critic/author Toure explains, because “he took what was hot in the culture and remixed it” – of course, the joke is that Chuck Berry and Little Richard were the original Elvis) prevent the show from becoming mired in anger or despair.

Sometimes, the editing is too hyperventilating, reducing a few soundbites to pabulum and making it look like the interviewees’ words are being taken out of context (though they’re likely just removing pauses – darn those slow, thoughtful speakers). But the brisk pace also forces the producers to just dip their toes into some subjects that deserve a little more nuance.

Other items on the list: The N-word, bling, Hollywood, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., segregation, the Ku Klux Klan and “black people who are proud to be dumb.”

- "Top 25 Events that (Mis)Shaped Black America:" 10 tonight, BET.