Photo by Kit Karzen
In his debut book Pure Innocent Fun, Ira Madison III finally shares his stories on his own terms. The famed cultural critic and television writer has navigated various avenues for storytelling — his Substack newsletter Frank, where he dishes about the Bravoverse and the latest movies; his podcast Keep It, which he co-hosts with Louis Virtel; and through his thoughtful journalism in publications like GQ and L’Officiel. But with Pure Innocent Fun, Madison invites readers to get to know the man behind the words, through a collection of thoughtful essays tying back pop-cultural moments to the formative stages of his life.
Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Madison was fascinated by pop culture growing up, whether it was through soap operas, films with a strong woman lead, pop bangers from the likes of *NSYNC, and raunchy rap bangers from audacious acts like Lil Kim. And of course, books.
Pure Innocent Fun is four years in the making, but Madison had begun laying the groundwork for the book since the beginning of his career.
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“I was obsessed with books,” says Madison. “I was obsessed with reading, and honestly, a lot of the other things I had going on were really just ways for me to find an ability to write and have a career at doing it. I couldn’t just jump into television writing. For instance, when I’d first moved to Los Angeles, I was working at Buzzfeed, and then, when those outlets started dying, I started the podcast [Keep It], and from there, I was also doing television writing. Around COVID is when the idea to finally write something that was for myself was born.”
Books and periodicals were an essential part of Madison’s upbringing. Growing up, he worked at stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, which served as early cruising spots (as he details in a chapter of the book), as well as places where he could learn things he couldn’t in school.
“Bookstores, moreso than libraries, just felt an adult world that you could peruse,” Madison says. “Whether you were grabbing magazines like Advocate or Out, or even Details, —a very gay straight magazine — you were learning things that weren’t at home. You could get a nice coffee there, you could get a snack, or you could just hang out. They were social places or they were just places where you could just sort of lose time all day by yourself.”
Madison currently lives in New York City, where he’s become a mainstay in the cultural scene. Often sought after for speaking engagements and commentary, Madison continues to push the envelope with his critical analysis, even as his name is recognized as that of a tastemaker and connoisseur.
“[Madison] does not rely on his laurels, but uses each podcast and each Substack post to push pop culture to be better,” says journalist and author Taylor Crumpton. “In a moment of oversaturation of pop culture commentary, Ira Madison III shines because his critique is rooted in love, not likes.”
Early on in Pure Innocent Fun, Madison recalls bonding with his classmates at an all-boys high school over programs like The OC, and even reveals that he stole a DVD box set from a fellow student.
He also recalls finding an escape through Buffy the Vampire Slayer — his all-time favorite show — and feeling fascinated by the complexities of the multidimensional women characters of daytime soaps.
Madison has written for several television programs, including Uncoupled, Q-Force, and Daybreak, all of which were unfortunately given the ax very early in their runs. While the streaming era has produced some brilliant and diverse works, Madison believes that one of the issues of the modern television landscape is that people aren’t discovering new programs organically.
“I think what really happened is we’ve gone to this algorithmic place of trying to figure out what viewers like, and trying to produce something for them, and then when something doesn’t immediately hit the way you want to, it’s canceled,” Madison says. “And that doesn’t mean that things weren’t canceled before, but the idea of television back then was not something that you would just pull up an app and look for exactly what you want to watch. Maybe you had to sit through commercials to watch your favorite TV show, you would put on a show after a show. Like Friends, you know, maybe people would start watching that show because they just never changed the channel. I think culturally, we’ve just lost this ability to discover new things. And I think when you’re expecting a viewer to just go and find something themselves, they’re going to go with comforts. And that’s why nostalgia is so strong, but it’s hard to build anything new in the streaming landscape.”
Madison himself prefers to stay ahead of the game. His most frequented streamer? Peacock, where the self-proclaimed “Bravo girly,” keeps up to date with all of the Real Housewives iterations, as well as The Traitors. Just hours after each airing, subscribers to his Frank newsletter can expect a recap and a detailed analysis of what we just saw play out on-screen.
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“There’s been this movement lately for celebrities to be relatable. And I feel like we love to discuss and sort of admire the people who aren’t.”
“There are so many voices in the world today,” says comedian and pop culture critic Ashley Ray. “You cannot listen to everyone’s opinion. Ira Madison III has always been someone you should listen to. He writes from a wealth of cultural knowledge and the most entertaining lived experiences. At a time when most keep their opinions to themselves or curate image over authenticity, Ira is a true cultural figure. He’s proof that the best opinions come from people who actually know what they’re talking about because they dive into life and the archives.”
In addition to reality television, Madison believes network dramas and procedurals are also “popping” at the moment — notably with Elsbeth, High Potential, and the Kathy Bates-led Matlock reboot.
But in the realm of modern television and film comes conversations about representation, which Madison says can be executed well when done right, but feel hollow when done simply for representation’s sake. In a Pure Innocent Fun chapter called “Being Steve Urkel,” he looks back on programs like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Cosby Show, and Family Matters, breaking down the types of representation that these programs offered.
He argues that The Cosby Show, while often revered as feel-good TV, doesn’t have a single episode that could be on “any list of iconic TV episodes.”
“At a time when most keep their opinions to themselves or curate image over authenticity, Ira is a true cultural figure. He’s proof that the best opinions come from people who actually know what they’re talking about because they dive into life and the archives.”
Ashley Ray
“At its worst, The Cosby Show gave white people the impression that racism was over, and that if Black people wanted better lives, well, then, they should just be like the Huxtables,” Madison writes in the book. “I don’t particularly care what white people think about The Cosby Show, because the only ones with strong opinions about the series four decades later are probably Republicans, rich comedy writers, or dead. What Black people think of The Cosby Show, however, is something that I care about a lot.”
Today, Madison finds that a lot of onscreen representation misses the mark because a lot of writers don’t develop diverse characters fully.
“I think a lot of representation is just not resonating with viewers because one, people aren’t telling three-dimensional stories from queer people or non-white people,” Madison says. “You can watch a movie or TV show where it’s populated by diverse characters, or like, a gay person will pop in, but they could really just be any character. It’s sort of just ticking boxes and putting people on the screen instead of actually telling their stories. I think there’s this fear of telling those stories wrong or not painting people in the best light.”
He does, however, love Abbott Elementary, which he says, works because it’s “funny and it feels honest.”
While Pure Innocent Fun is a long dream finally realized, Madison isn’t slowing down anytime soon. As long as there is art to be analyzed, Madison is bound to take to his several platforms and offer nuanced, well-thought-out critiques. After all, in an era when programs like VH1’s Best Week Ever and I Love the Decades are no longer on the air, careful analysis of pop culture is vital.
Madison’s followers often say he should be one of the commentators on the aforementioned programs — which he believes would work, and are very much necessary in this day and age.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ll open the TikTok app, and like, here’s someone just like describing something that happened in 2000s pop culture that I was there for,” Madison says. “And it’s like, either the facts are wrong or they’re reinterpreting things differently than how people actually felt at the time. For better or worse, a lot of my education came from those VH1 programs. They were real journalism, in a way. They were edited, they had researchers, and it felt like you were actually learning something about the decades, There was meticulous thought put into it. It wasn’t just someone spouting off about something in their car that they’ve barely researched and don’t really know anything about. As Kamala Harris puts it, ‘there’s some education that needs to be done.” ♦
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