African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today
This collection of anecdotes, tales, jokes, toasts, rhymes, satire, riffs, poems, stand-up sketches, and snaps documents the evolution of African American humor over the past two centuries. It includes routines and writings from such luminaries as Bert Williams, Butterbeans & Susie, Stepin Fetchit, Moms Mabley, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Redd Foxx, Ishmael Reed, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock. This anthology includes classic stage routines, literary...
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Watkins (an author, he was an editor at the New York Times Book Review) has compiled an anthology of Black humor that, perhaps inadvertently, reveals much about changes in American as well as Black society. The lengthy excerpts are printed with little prefatory material, though a historical introduction is provided for each chapter. An appendix contains a list of authors with short biographies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, ORAmerican LegacyFull of raucous mirth.
\ Glenn TownesThere have not been many books that provide such a detailed history of the value of comedy in our lives. \ — Upscale\ \ \ \ \ Fulton Sun GazetteWatkins has assembled a timeless cast of African-Americans.\ \ \ Ishmael ReedMel Watkins has done for comedy what Alex Haley did for the family.\ \ \ \ \ American LegacyFull of raucous mirth.\ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly"If I really want to scare the hell out of my white friends, I drive out to the suburb they live in and walk down their street slowly, carrying the real estate section of the New York Times." This bon mot from 1960s comedian Godfrey Cambridge (1933-1978) is among the many jokes, snaps, comedy sketches, satires and folk anecdotes gathered in African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today. Selected by editor and writer Mel Watkins (On the Real Side), the witticisms come from such luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston, Satchel Paige, Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor, Damon Wayans and many others. () Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsWatkins (an author, he was an editor at the ) has compiled an anthology of Black humor that, perhaps inadvertently, reveals much about changes in American as well as Black society. The lengthy excerpts are printed with little prefatory material, though a historical introduction is provided for each chapter. An appendix contains a list of authors with short biographies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
