SHORT TAKES : Ajaye Hits, Quits ‘Living Color’

Comedian-writer Franklyn Ajaye says “In Living Color” glorifies ghetto life and that’s one of the reasons he’s leaving the hit television show.

“I have no desire to be hip to the latest black slang and do the stereotypical hip thing,” Ajaye says in TV Guide. He says he left Fox Television’s show by mutual agreement.

“This whole street, urban rap needs to be pulled back some. The ghetto is being glorified, and there’s nothing good about a ghetto except getting the hell out of one.”

The comedy show features skits about two “homeboy” thieves who speak in street slang.

“Being black and speaking properly are not mutually exclusive. . . . Nelson Mandela speaks beautifully. Should Mandela put his hat on backward and say, ‘Yo homey, this is Nelson. Yo, Winnie, yo, this is def’?”