Why is "Mama" Vicki Lawrence Angry at Ted Williams?

Leave it to Mama to get riled up! Vicki Lawrence, the talented comedian who created acerbic Mama on classic "The Carol Burnett Show", then in her own sitcom, "Mama's Family", is employing the iconic character to vent for real. Mama's daughter Eunice (Carol Burnett), and her fictional family put the fun in dysfunctional long before it was chic for us to claim our wacky family was root cause for all our relationship problems. Now, Lawrence steps into the character again, to express her disdain for the media's current flavor of the moment, the homeless hero, and golden voiced Ted Williams.

Lawrence, dressed in full Mama Harper drag, made a video bemoaning how easy it is to become famous - by doing nothing. In regards to Ted Williams, Mama pretends to be homeless herself - complete with cardboard sign displaying her homeless status.

Vicki Lawrence pulls no punches in her critique of the 'fame game' - here's a bit of her raucous rant.

"Howdy do, homeless Mama here. That's right, it's me. I'm hanging out here in the bushes. I've decided to be homeless, because obviously that is the best way for a person to become famous in this country nowadays. So, here's what I'm gonna do... I'm going to wait for some bozo to drive by and hand me a dollar. Then I'm gonna thank him, and say, God bless you, God bless you, in the sweetest, deepest voice that I can possibly pull out of my ass. And you know what, the next thing you know, I'm gonna be famous. I'm gonna be all over the TV."

Advocates for the homeless aren't too happy with Mama's video skit. Aaron Reddin, who's run homeless shelters in Little Rock, Ark, thinks Lawrence is just keeping stereotypes alive, "Not everyone on the streets is a stereotypical homeless hobo," Reddin griped to AOL News. "I've got guys living on the streets who are friends of mine -- and they aren't freebasing."

In the parody, Lawrence never truly belittles Williams, but there's real sarcasm. She says how badly Ted Williams must smell, and how he's lost most of his teeth. Clearly, much of that comic riff is fair game for a homeless guy, though one wonders if it's too easy to lob insults at a guy who fully knows he didn't smell like roses while living on the streets. Above all, I wonder what Eunice will say. You can just imagine Carol Burnett dressed as Eunice going, "Mama, you went and done it again!"

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/14/homeless-advocates-not-laughing-at-vicki-lawrences-ted-williams/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFlqPuFARRI

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/vicki-lawrence-of-mamas-family-is-pissed-off-at-ted-williams-for-some-reason/