AFRICAN-AMERICAN HUMOR

1. AFRICAN-AMERICAN HUMOR by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. The World-Wide Influence of African American Humor • Humor scholars have always acknowledged the contributions and effects of Jewish humor on the subjects and the roles of American humor. • It is appropriate to also acknowledge the contributions of African Americans to the overall humor of the United States—and to the world—especially if we consider the elements of playfulness and humor in hip-hop. • Within living memory, the “place” of AA humor has undergone more change than any other genre. Today, the mainstream laughs with Blacks, while a couple of generations ago, the custom was to laugh at blacks.

3. Until well after WW II . . . • Traveling minstrel shows were one of the few theater events available in rural areas. • In small town America, amateur actors loved to put on black-face and costumes and perform their own minstrel shows. • Popular children’s books included the 1889 Story of Little Black Sambo by British author Helen Bannerman and the 1907 Epaminondas and His Auntie by Sara Cone Bryant. • It was the exaggerated drawings, as much as the stories, that offended African Americans and made black children feel embarrassed or ashamed when teachers read the books to mixed school groups.

4. Features of AA Humor That Can be Traced to West Africa • Extensive Word Play • An Abundance of Street Language • Punning • Signifying • Verbal Put-Downs • Mocking of Enemy’s Relatives • Chanting of Ridicule Verses • Using the Whole Body (including bent-knees) for dancing and communicating feelings • Admiring Trickster Figures • Verbal Quickness and Wit

5. Amos ’n Andy • During the 1930s the Amos and Andy radio show starred white actors doing blackface comedy. It was the most popular of all radio shows. • When the show moved to TV in 1951, African Americans were hired as performers.

6. In the 1950s as everyone became more aware of racism, leading up to the desegregation of schools, Amos and Andy became so controversial that the producers put together a politically correct version. It lost its zing, and was cancelled. • By today’s standards, the show was both racist and stereotyped. • However, Joe Franklin said that the Blacks on the show may have “prepared the ground for the acceptance of real blacks in the American cultural mainstream.”

7. Two Comedy Pioneers Pigmeat Markham 1904-81 • Markham was a blackface performer and when audiences and critics demanded that burnt-cork performances end, they were astonished to find that he was actually darker than the makeup he had used. • In his most famous skit, he played the world’s funkiest judge. The audience would say, “Here come da Judge,” a line later used by both Flip Wilson and Sammy Davis Jr. Moms Mabley1897-1975 • Mabley would come on stage in oversized clodhoppers, a raggedy dress, and an oddball hat. She played the role of a ribald grandmother. • She was nearly 70 when she first played for a white audience at the Playboy Club in Chicago. • She later made guest appearances with Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, and the Smothers Brothers.

8. Some Contemporary Comedians: Dave Chappelle Sample Quote: • They got a character on Sesame Street named Oscar. They treat this guy like shit the entire show. They judge him right in his face. “Oscar you are so mean! Isn’t he kids?” • “Yeah Oscar!” “You’re a grouch!” It’s like “Bitch I live in a fu**ing TRASH CAN!”

9. Dave Chapelle’s “Black Money” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnffskKI_IA

10. Redd Foxx: Another Pioneer • In a precursor to the creative spelling in Hip Hop, Foxx chose to spell his name with two d’s and two x’s because he didn’t want to be either a color or an animal. • A recent quote: “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.”

11. Whoopi Goldberg: The First Black Female Superstar • In the 1990s, Whoopi Goldberg’s talent for ad lib and for making a stage sparkle with power was show- cased in her role as host of the Academy Awards. • She was born Caryn Johnson and raised in a public housing project in Manhattan by a single mother. • She made her performing debut at age eight with the Helena Rubinstein Children’s Theatre at the Hudson Guild.

12. Dick Gregory: A Sample Quote “America is the only country in the world where a man can grow up in a ghetto, go to really bad schools, be forced to ride in the back of the bus, and then get paid $5,000 a week to tell people about it.”

13. Chris Rock: A Sample Quote “Barack, man. He doesn’t let his blackness sneak up on you. Like if his name was Bob Jones or something like that, it might take you two or three weeks to figure out he’s black. But when you hear ‘Barack Obama,’ you picture a brother with a spear, just standing over a dead lion. You picture the base player from the Commodores.”

14. More Sample Quotes Jimmy Walker: • When was the last time you seen a Black embezzler—or a Black man getting busted for juggling the bankbooks? I mean, what’s the use of having a Black brother on the Supreme Court if none of us can commit a crime classy enough to get it tried there? Wanda Sykes: • Comedy Central, they told me I had to watch my language because, the woman said, they had ‘standards and practices.’ I was like, wait a minute—you’re Comedy Central. Aren’t you the network where your number one show is a cartoon with a talking piece of sh*t?

15. Other Comedians Frequently Cited as Influential Black Comedians Wayne Brady Cedric the Entertainer Donald Glover David Alan Grier Arsenio Hall Kevin Hart Steve Harvey D. L. Hughley Martin Lawrence Bernie Mac Mo’Nique Paul Mooney Tracy Morgan Eddie Murphy Tyler Perry Richard Pryor Nipsy Russell Damon Wayans Katt Williams Flip Wilson Who else do you want to add to this list? Tell us something about the person and his or her work.

16. Hip Hop As a Kind of Humor • Hip Hop grew out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. • It rejects the status quo and emphasizes the individual. • Besides music and rap, it includes break dancing, tagging, graph writing, and entrepreneurship. • It is not restricted to African Americans, and is in fact, now global. • A major feature is the language play, especially in spelling and naming.

17. CREATIVE SPELLINGS New Spellings of Disk Jockey • Deejay DjingDjinDJ’n Names of Groups or Individuals • DJ KoolHerc DJ AJ • Blue Jays DJ Clark Kent • DJ Craze DJ Evil Dee • DJ Kay Gee DJ Jazzy Jay • DJ Timmy Juicy J Tim New Spellings of Master of Ceremonies • MC Emcee • McingMC’n • Emceein • Femcee (for a woman) Run DMC was named to honor the speed with which he ran between turntables.

18. Other Popular “Differences”Can You Give Examples? • Names that build on the idea of Cool. • Names that include Rock or Roc. • Names spelled “phonetically.” • Names spelled in all caps. • Numbers included in names. • Names that are clipped. • The doubling of letters.

19. In Conclusion • Can you see connections between hip hop spelling and the more recent text messaging? • How about the creative names that parents are now giving their infants? • In what ways can unusual spelling be a statement of independence and/or ethnic pride? • Is there a generational difference in the appreciation of ethnic-related humor? Why might this be? • Do you always expect African American comics to make jokes about racial differences as opposed to other subjects? Can you give some examples?

20. AFRICAN AMERICAN WEB SITES DAVE CHAPPELLE: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/chappelles_show/index.jhtml CHRIS ROCK: “EDDIE MURPHY” http://www.chrisrock.com/ KEY & PEELE: “President Obama’s Hidden Message” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qv7k2_lc0M