My Brother and Me

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For the Ying Yang Twins album, see My Brother & Me.

My Brother and Me was a sitcom on Nickelodeon that premiered in October 1994 and ran for a total of 13 episodes. The show was about an African American family living in Charlotte, North Carolina who experience the highs and lows of everyday life. Jennifer and Roger Parker had two sons, Alfie and Dee Dee. Alfie was the cool elder brother and Dee Dee was the younger brother, who always followed Alfie around. The family also had a smarter, older daughter named Melanie. Another main character of the show was Alfie's best friend Milton 'Goo' Berry. A common (though unofficial) catchphrase used in the show by multiple characters was "Don't hold your breath!" This was a typical response to an outlandish suggestion by another character (for example, Goo asking Melanie for a kiss). Another common catch-phrase would occur when Dee Dee would interrupt Goo in whatever story he was telling, and promptly after Goo telling Dee Dee off, he would say, "Now, before I was SO RUDELY interrupted...." and would continue onward with his story.

The show was plagued by an overuse of interior monologue. Almost every episode featured the character's "thoughts," usually overacted responses to something another character said. This was especially prevalent in scenes revolving around the boys' father (Jim Coleman), who frequently told painfully boring stories about the kids' uncle Lawrence and forced the kids to endure his favorite dish, mumbo-jumbo gumbo.

In 1996 and 1997, My Brother and Me was nominated for the NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special). There were only 13 episodes of My Brother and Me before it was cancelled, though reruns continued to air for a few years afterwards.

In a fantasy sequence during one episode the character Goo (Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr.) performed the famous Goo Punch rap. The following are the lyrics:

One plus one is always two,
I'm the Goo!
With a treat for you.
My Goo Punch goes with any snack.
So get back Shaq,
'cause it's the Goo attack!

[edit] Mumbo-jumbo gumbo

Mumbo-jumbo gumbo is a kind of soup that was Roger's favorite food. He frequently forced his children to stomach it, much to their chagrin. Roger was so obsessed with his gumbo, that he put it on a pizza in one episode.

The exact ingredients of mumbo-jumbo gumbo were never disclosed in the series, and it is not believed to appear in any cookbooks or recipe websites. It is widely believed that mumbo-jumbo gumbo is merely Roger's rhyming colloquial name for ordinary gumbo soup.