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Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven. – Mark Twain, Following the Equator

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.- Mark Twain, a Biography

My friend Greg (who is African-American, so I figure I can use it for an opening of this column) talked me into doing Twitter (tjsode), because there is nothing like jumping on a bandwagon that has runs its course, taking that dead horse, and kicking it in the backside, and since I have no followers why not use it here? So from time to time my twitter posts will appear throughout this essay.

Me: "Maybe you should not be drinking rubbing alcohol? I don't think that is a good idea... Forgot, you are not paying rent... Never mind."

A few months ago, Fox News decided that because its liberal bias was so popular among the youth that they would do a conservative version of it called “The ½ Hour News Hour.” Producer Joel Surnow who has enjoyed amazing success with “24”was in charge and conservative icons Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coutler, and Dennis Miller climbed on board to do re-occurring segments. What resulted was one of the biggest abortions in the history of television. Hammered by critics, and with the normal 70-year-old Fox News audience unable to stay up past 9 p.m., it was mercifully taken behind the barn like Old Yeller and put out of its misery. Why did it fail? The answer lies in the documentary Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy.

Me, to a 6-year-old "Honey, your last name is for very special people like your daddy, alcoholics and deadbeats who for some unknown reason get their mail sent to my house. Too much?"

We as Americans have short memories, and if it is not taught in our history courses or brought up in popular culture, we forget it. Just like the cigarettes airbrushed out of President Franklin Roosevelt’s hand, and Speedy Gonzalez cartoons, there are numerous things our culture whitewashes over, purposely covers up, because as attitudes change, we become embarrassed by them. I have one of the largest movie collections around and it is amazing how many of our films from the 1930s and 40s have ten or twenty minutes trimmed out of them here and there, little scenes no one would miss, when they are reissued or shown for public consumption. Why? Because they show our nations attitudes towards women, immigrants, family values usually involving abuse, class, and especially race. Liberal Hollywood is always more conservative than we like to admit in hindsight. Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry was one of the highest paid comedians in the 1930s, eventually becoming a millionaire, as he delighted movie audiences across the nation for Fox Films. He lived in one the biggest homes in California, had twelve cars and sixteen servants to wait on him hand and foot. He was bigger than the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, or Charlie Chaplin. Never heard of Mr. Perry? He is better known today as the character he created “Step’in Fetchit,” the slow witted, shuffling, lazy buffoon who appeared usually as a sidekick to the biggest stars in Hollywood and inspired a whole host of actors who developed similar characters such as Fred “Snowflake” Toones, Mantan Moreland, and Willie Best. Even though “Step’in Fetchit” was just another incarnation of the archetypical “trickster” character who used his “slow wits” and “laziness” to get others to do his work and always come out on top, a couple of decades later he was seen as an embarrassment. What are we to make of our “Step’in Fetchit”?

Beautiful Woman: "I prayed to God that he show me what real love is, and you walked into my life."

Me: "I guess you should have been a little more specific with the Big Guy, huh."

Have you ever wondered why African-Americans dominate our comedy landscape? A lot of the funniest men and women in America today are not going to be found in a tanning bed near you. Bill Cosby… Redd Foxx… Eddie Murphy… Dave Chappelle… Bernie Mac… Whoopi Goldberg… Dick Gregory… Eiddie Griffin… D.L. Hughley… Paul Mooney… Chris Rock… Russell Simmons… Wanda Sykes… The Wayans Brothers… George Wallace… Katt Williams… The list could go on and on. The African-American contribution to American comedy far outweighs their percentage of the population. Have you ever wondered why?

6- year- old: "What are you listening to? I really like it." Me: "Butthole Sur... urrrr.... I mean The I Love Jesus Surfer. (after child leaves the room) Why do I think I am going to burn in hell for that name change?"

Based on Darryl Littleton’s book “Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African Americans Taught Us to Laugh,” director and former standup comedian Robert Townsend examines the history of black comedy. With actress Angela Bassett providing narration, he uses archival footage and backstage interviews with many of the hottest stand-ups going today to give a humorous history lesson and more importantly some insight into the American character.

Email I just got from a Wall Street financial institution: We received your request regarding your contact information. Your email address is [my email address]. If incorrect please contact us.

Townsend traces the evolution of African-American humor from its African roots, to the minstrel show day, through the revolutionary political humor of Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory, through the all-American humor of Bill Cosby, to today’s bright lights of standup. Along the way he presents us with forgotten comedians like Bert Williams, who the legendary W.C. Fields described as “the funniest man I ever saw – and the saddest man I ever knew.” A great amount of time is spent on the black-face “cooning”, or dumbing down for the white audiences era, best represented by Amos ‘n’ Andy (black-faced whites, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll) to how black comedians actually pushed cultural boundaries like Moms Mabley did for women and Richard Pyror/Eddie Murphy pushing the boundaries of censorship and blue laws with their language. Townsend also details the comedy clubs that hosted, nurtured, and developed talent.

Valuable lesson learned today while walking my dog. When, on a river walk, a giant raccoon leaps in front of you, do not yell in mixed company, “Oh, my God, that is the largest coon I ever saw.”

Mark Twain was right, real humor is born out of pain, out of knowing that things are some how not right. It looks at the world and points out that the emperor has no clothes. Rather that get angry or depressed, these feelings are transformed into a humorous triad. It is why every girl who believes her handsome boyfriend is hilarious is wrong, unless he is secretly gay. It is why, as much as she is pushed on us, Jenny McCarthy will never be funny. It is why Fox News’ “The ½ Hour News Hour” failed. And it is why African-Americans have been over represented in American humor. Everything taken away from you, your people sold into slavery for generations, treated like a second class citizen, told to sit in the back of bus, so much poverty around you, communities in the grip of drugs and violence, sometimes all you can do is laugh to help you get through the day.

Burn in hell moment: Once saw a midget in a Superman costume in Walmart jumping up and down trying to grab something off the top shelf. Laugh or not to laugh? Eternity in heaven, or hell?

Verdict: A Hilarious Documentary