When Craig Jones awoke Friday morning, he was hoping for a quiet (as possible) day in his South Central Los Angeles, CA neighborhood.
Having been fired from his job the previous day, which happened to be his day off, Craig found himself in several unfavorable circumstances: his father threatened to kick him out if he didn’t find another job (“I ain’t trying to be no dog catcher!”), his girlfriend accusing him of attending a movie with another woman (“I didn’t go to the show last night!”), dealing with the neighborhood bully (“Stall him out, Debo!”), and surviving a life-threating financial situation thanks to his stoner friend, Smokey (Chris Tucker).
Directed by F. Gary Gray and co-written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, 1995’s Friday was Cube’s 5th starring role, his first comedy.
No stranger to generating laughs, Cube made audiences chuckle a time or two as Doughboy in Boyz n the Hood and as Fudge in Higher Learning, both John Singleton dramas.
As Craig he caused movie and home theater viewers to laugh out loud on several occasions. More than 2 decades later people are still cracking up, whether watching the movie or quoting it in their everyday lives.
Remember this intoxicated exchange:
Craig: Hold up… I hear my heart beating.
Smokey: Man, that’s what it’s supposed to do!
Craig: My [junk] beating too fast.
We’ve all had days we regret getting out of bed, watching our lives unravel in ways we’d never fathomed the day before. This is why people relate to and root for Craig, and also bust their guts laughing at him.
Friday spawned two sequels, 2000’s Next Friday and 2002’s Friday After Next; both hilarious on their own, they each pale in comparison to the simplistically amazing original, the one that solidified Craig’s place in history. |THIS.
[By Mr. Joe Walker]
We conduct a “Character Study” every Friday at 8AM!
