I Binged 'Hoochie Daddies' And Here's Why You Should, Too

It’s best that you turn the volume way up when watching “Hoochie Daddies,” a reality competition show streaming on Tubi.

Created, produced and hosted by Crystal Hutchinson aka Wootie, the series is set in Jacksonville, Florida, and is described as “eight masculine-identifying women all living in the same house” who must “complete a series of challenges to become the ultimate Hoochie Daddy.”

The challenges range from the cast members competing to see “who can collect the most numbers from girls on a beach the old-fashioned way, using paper and pen” to designing T-shirts that say “Hoochie Daddy” to a contest to find out who can do planks the longest.

Each contestant scores points that are calculated on the “Hoochie Daddy Scoreboard.” The person with the most points at the end of the entire season wins. The prize, in addition to the title of Hoochie Daddy, is a chain and a trip to Jamaica.

Say what you will about Tubi, but as someone who intimately knows how difficult it can be to get a show centered on Black LGBTQ folks, the network has provided space where others continue to lag behind. I am not surprised that it has taken this long for a show like this to exist, but I am relieved that it does.

“Hoochie Daddies” is incredibly entertaining by virtue of the eight contestants — DykeGod, Fantise, King, Myia B Music, Taz, Moyo, Jay Kash, StudKvngg — simply being themselves.

It seems like the production company is working with a modest budget — with a scarcity of quality mics available on set. The modesty is also reflected in the house the contestants all live in while competing. It is a spacious home, but as one contestant notes, “It’s country as f**k in this b***h.”

But none of that is too distracting or ultimately detrimental to the show’s entertainment value.

I see why some have compared “Hoochie Daddies” to early VH1 reality shows like “The Surreal Life.” It shares parts of that show’s silliness. Take the show’s theme song, which I promise will have you singing “Hoochie Daddies, all the way live! Hoochie Daddies, come outside!” long after you stop bingeing the show.

It also reminds of the YouTube series “Chasing Atlanta,” which follows the lives of Black queer and trans people in pursuit of success. That series also didn’t have the budget of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” or “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” but it entertained me just as much.

I thought of that on the first episode of “Hoochie Daddies” when the contestants started to see where they would be sleeping and some found themselves stuck on an air mattress.

Understandably, they were not happy, and I empathized. It’s a long story, but in my last year in college, I slept on a large inflatable air mattress for the entire school year. Slight shame aside, it proved to be more comfortable than it should have been, and I gradually settled on being grateful and made do. That is the attitude the contestants sleeping on the air mattresses took on, too.

The other moments that air are best described as something you must see for yourself.

In between games, contestants smoke a lot of weed. Like any other reality show, they argue over the most inconsequential things like TikTok, but there are some serious moments.

For example, one contestant, Moyo, feels offended by the term “dyke,” a slang slur often used to refer to lesbians who present masculine. That’s pretty much as far as it goes in terms of serious conversation, though.

As important as representation is, and considering the interesting dynamics at play on the show, sometimes the best opportunity you can give a marginalized group is the chance to be as silly as everyone else.

They deserve a greater budget, but they do wonders with what they have to work with and kept audiences laughing all the while.