What is "madea"

Mabel "Madea" Simmons is a fictional character created and portrayed by Tyler Perry. The character is a towering, massive, and tough elderly Black woman.

Vindictive in nature, Madea gets even in a bad way; in fact, when asked why she felt the need to get somebody all the time, Madea answered: "Well when you gettin' got and somebody done got you and you go get them, when you get 'em, everybody's gon' get got." Adding to this, Madea is highly overreactive, willing to threaten the use of deadly weapons; destroy property; use physical violence; take on the law; and use any and all means necessary to show up an offending party. Incorrigible in her overreactive ways, Madea has repeatedly landed herself in court (usually before Judge Mablean), anger management classes, house arrest, and even prison.

Despite the way the character goes about it, she stands for what's right and has a nurturing side. As examples, Madea is often seen officiously involving herself in circumstances in which others have been wronged, offering self-defense tips, instruction, or avenging them on her own; by her very nature, Madea is more than willing to "thug out" on some of the sassiest and brattiest of children and teens, but also shows to care about their well-being in the end. The character combines an unusual pronunciation style with her locutions, such as "Heller, how ya dern?" or "Halleluyer praise da lort!"

Madea is based on Perry's mother, his aunt, and watching Eddie Murphy perform in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. In Perry's own words Madea is ". . .exactly the PG version of my mother and my aunt, and I loved having an opportunity to pay homage to them. She would beat the hell out of you but make sure the ambulance got there in time to make sure they could set your arm back. . ."