SHORT TAKES : Wayans Finds ‘In Living Color’ Appeals to Rainbow of Viewers

Keenen Ivory Wayans, the creative force behind the hit TV comedy “In Living Color,” says he never worried that white people wouldn’t get the jokes, but he was surprised that so many like the show.

“I knew there wouldn’t be a problem with white people getting it, especially urban, hipper folks,” said Wayans, who created the show and is one of its actors and writers. “I was really concerned about the folks in the outskirts.”

But the fact that “so many people get it . . . gives validity to my theory that people aren’t color conscious in their viewing habits. They’re content conscious,” he said in the Oct. 26 issue of USA Weekend.

The show, which won an Emmy during its first season, includes such skits as “Homeboy Shopping Network,” in which two chain-bedecked black men sell off luxury cars in a stadium parking lot while the vehicle owners watch a baseball game.

It also features wicked impersonations of such black celebrities as Mike Tyson, Arsenio Hall and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Wayans acknowledges that white people couldn’t get away with such jokes.

“It’s the old rule--you do have the right to have fun with your own, but not talk about the other guy,” he said.