Tyler Perry on bringing back Madea: 'We need to laugh'

Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Tyler Perry discussed why he decided to bring Madea back, after retiring the character three years ago, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Perry returns as comedic family matriarch Madea in Netflix's A Madea Homecoming, which comes to the streaming service on Friday. Perry last portrayed Madea in 2019's Madea's Family Funeral.

"You know what it was, I'm looking at the state of the world. I'm looking at everything that's going on like civil unrest, social unrest, politics, division, where we were, all the hatred, all the anger, everybody divided. So I wanted to do something to make people laugh," Perry told Kimmel on Wednesday.

"Everybody's afraid to do real comedy now because you get canceled for doing jokes. So I just went for it in this movie," the filmmaker continued.

Perry agreed with Kimmel that it felt right to do Madea again.

"We need to laugh," Perry said.

Perry also mentioned how Stevie Wonder once pulled a prank on him by calling him on the phone using FaceTime.

"He's a big prankster," Perry said about Wonder.