What: Bel-Air, a fake trailer for the 2019 update of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Who: NOT Will Smith, but rather writer/director Morgan Cooper and star Jerry Madison Jr.
Why we care: Last year, SNL served up an extremely dark and gritty reinterpretation of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The digital short mixed ’90s nostalgia with some disturbing elements for a truly surreal throwback. But director and lifelong Fresh Prince superfan Morgan Cooper has something more ambitious in mind with his just-debuted tribute to the show.
Bel-Air is a fake trailer that heavily dramatizes the events of The Fresh Prince so convincingly, you could swear it was a real movie. This well-produced short cheekily uses all the tropes of a tear-jerking Oscar-contender, while breezing through a checklist of Fresh Prince lore. We see more of that “one little fight” that so scared Will’s mom on the series that she exiled him from West Philadelphia to Bel-Air. We witness the historic initial meeting between Will and his sidekick Jazz, portrayed as though it’s John Lennon meeting Paul McCartney for the first time in a Beatles biopic. We hear Carlton being a little prick. The only thing this otherwise perfect fake-trailer is missing is a joke about recasting Aunt Viv midway through.
Have a look:
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