Kanye West has a history of being hilariously obnoxious (see here, here, and here, to pick just a few examples from his gigantic body of work), but he’s not so good at being deliberately funny. Presumably that’s why HBO decided to shitcan Kanye’s proposed comedy series before it even made it as far as a pilot. Kanye was billing himself as the black Larry David (at least that’s my reading of his quote, “I’m the black Larry David”) but the execs at HBO found it easy to curb their enthusiasm for the project. Predictably, the people in Kanye’s corner are calling this yet another example of racism:

I think it was too hard-core for HBO. Also, HBO’s management shifted. HBO doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to black shows, and I felt like that may have had something to do with it also. I don’t see a lot of shows about that experience at all.

The guy’s got a point, although HBO also doesn’t have too many comedies featuring intensely unlikeable, self-absorbed jerks who are also jerks in real life. Except for Entourage. Come to think of it, a series where Kanye West and Jeremy Piven got in each other’s face and escalated from verbal abuse to pounding the crap out of each other for an hour a week would probably bring in viewers by the truckload.