Daniel B. Wood and Gloria Goodale, Christian Science Monitor, November 28, 2008
When Richard Pryor appeared as a black president in a skit on “Saturday Night Live” in 1977, it was his angry black street patter that got the laughs. Now that the one-time fantasy has become reality, African-American keepers of the national funny bone are having to reassess much of their material.
Can they rail against the establishment now that a black man’s in charge?
African-American comedian Joe Holt had the audience howling at the Los Angeles Improv Nov. 2, with his portrayal of a fictitious presidential debate moderated by his own father, playing the stereotypical, angry street black: “Obama, where do you get off?”
“Uh, well, I, uh, will tell you exactly where I get off. I am going to help Joe the Plumber, end the recession, and restore sight to the blind.”
{snip}
If the 2008 election signals a sea change in American racial and class attitudes, the first signs are likely to come from African-American comedians. At comedy venues all over Los Angeles, they’re trying out new material about Obama—his nearly angelic politeness, his youth, vigor, good looks, and model family.
{snip}
“We can’t just rely on the woe-is-me clichés anymore,” he [D.J. Lemon, a New York-based comedian] says in an interview. Dealing with being hopeful is much trickier than relying on the social barriers against blacks, he adds. “The audacity of hope was his mission and he was successful with that, and we are going to have to go as far as we can with that.”
Ditto for John Henton, a two-decade veteran of the “The Tonight Show” as well as the “The Arsenio Hall Show.” Mr. Henton says he is already working up a bit based on the fact that wife Michelle is taller and huskier than Barack.
“Barack is kind of skinny, and so I’m figuring they don’t have arguments, they have fights,” says Henton. “One day Barack will appear at a press conference with a Band-Aid, get asked about it, and reply, ‘I fell, I’m clumsy. Next question.’”
{snip}
Obama’s election is a “momentous occasion, a game-changer for many blacks as they readjust their perspective on what’s possible,” says Joseph Boskin, professor emeritus of history at Boston University and author of “Humor and Social Change in Twentieth Century America.” “Many black comedians who have based their humor in victim mentality are going to have to reassess.”
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on December 1, 2008)
Comments
If only the black cry-babies (a majority of their population) would also reassess their own victim mentalities, some of them might have a chance of becoming constructive human beings. Whining is addictive, however, and it could take years for any noticable change.
I still believe that when Jesse Jackson was pictured (at Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago) with tears in his eyes, he was misting-up over the prospective loss of his own lucrative race-baiting gigs…nothing else.
No, No….This will be just like the L.A. riots. they will just go to the hightest White guy in the chain of command and blame him for everything wrong. In the L.A. riots they went after D. Gates, the Chief of Police (White), not the Black Mayor Bradley.. In other cities when they have this type of “Unrest” they want the White Mayor fired and over look the affirmative action Black Chief of Police. Get used to it.
The real question is:
“Victim status” is still very much en vogue.
My wife an I were at a dinner hosted by friends this past weekend. A college football game was on his big screen TV. During the halftime show, the White announcer was clamoring and making a speech about how it is unacceptable for college football to have only two Black head coaches. His Black partner interjected that it is unfair that college football is comprised of 70 percent Black players, but only two head coaches in 120 school.
The White announcer nearly fell out of his chair while rushing to agree with him.
Neither one understood the hypocrisy and ignorance of their comments.
I encourage all Whites, who believe that Blacks are held down by racism, to fully surrender their jobs, homes, and all assets to any Black of their choice. Perhaps these imbeciles can live by example for once in their lives.
Meanwhile, I am watching with amusement the demise of the U.S. stock markets and corporations.
The USA will ultimately become another Portugal and South Africa.
“Racism isn’t dead, but ‘this notion that things are so rough for blacks is a dead horse that doesn’t play well anymore,’ says Mr. Holt. His new idea: ‘There’s something that I want to work up into a set, which is that there’s a whole world of black men who are angry because they don’t have an excuse now.’” (From the full article.)
And that is funny.
Why?
because it is true (and has been for over 50 years now) and it even encompasses the “savior,” president-elect Comrade Obama! Those funny little things called “civil rights” and “affirmative action,” have finally gone and come full circle; there is now going to be a mulatto President of the USA. With an audacity of hope (and a lot of help from comrades in the Marxstream media) this fecklessly wretched political neophyte, will become the “leader” of the most powerful country on the planet.
And all in the name of a fading “transformational” process, called multiculturalism.
Well, that is a joke. Much like the debased and often simplistically stupid humor of blacks; it all boils down to case studies of assumed “equalities,” never attaining parallel functions in reality.
It is a parallax view of humor and power, that once seen clearly is funny, but only in the most cynical and ominous of interpretations by the “outsiders” of its “enrichments.”
And are not the “outsiders” still the best satirist to be found?
With that in mind, God help us all!
they’re trying out new material about Obama—his nearly angelic politeness
Is that true? He did remain unruffled in that Illuminati Films piece in which John Edwards literally savaged him about his absentee voting record in the Senate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUdjhKbImwE
Of course, Richard G. Hatcher, former mayor of Gary, Indiana is not said to have ever lost his temper, either, but that didn’t help the city of Gary any.
A Black American without a racist chip on his or her shoulder is like a ship without a rudder. Watch the unemployment lines swell with Black ‘comedians’. Take away their race card and gratuitous profanity, and all you have left is more people applying for welfare.
“We can’t just rely on the woe-is-me cliches anymore.”
Maybe black comedians can’t, but tell that to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jerkson, Julian Bond, Louis Farrakhan, the NAACP, etc.
“The USA will ultimately become another Portugal and South Africa.”
Detroit already is. According to Gingrich in a recent NPR interview Detroit had the highest per capita income in the US in 1960. By 1985 is was literally in ruins. This is our future if we do nothing.
Black moderns comedians are not funny. This black comedy thing has only been around for a short period anyway although they did have rauchies Richard Pryor and Red Foxx in the past. Bill Cosby was the only clean comedian they had and he looks like a moron with his mugging shots today that are outdated.
Nothing is going to change.
There may be a short grace period when blacks drop the “victim” attitude but it is too ingrained in their system and it “explains” all their shortcomings.
As for white comics poking fun at Obama just take a look at Saturday Night Live. Look how they avoid making Obama the butt of their jokes. And this is a TV show that is suppose to be so provocative.
Listening to black talk radio will confirm this.
“Victim status is out?”
What a laugh. Electing a black pres won’t affect the complaints coming from the black sector one iota.
Blacks are incompetent. They still won’t be able to get ahead on their own, and I doubt even the messiah can magically produce enough bills to lift them up on pretenses alone.
So, they will continue to fail, and because of their arrogance and reluntace to admit to their failings, they will need a scape goat on which to transfer their inabilities, and white racism will continue to be their favorite subject.
“Detroit had the highest per capita income in the US in 1960. By 1985 is was literally in ruins. This is our future if we do nothing”.
I wouldn’t say we’re doing nothing. Left and right people seem to be trying to speed the process along.
It will be interesting to watch people poke fun at Obama. He might just end up being the “whipping boy” or laughing stock for blacks in general. A lot of people will be aiming their criticism at blacks by using Obama as a surrogate. This is made even worse by the fact that Bush was openly ridaculed in part because he was male, white, and Christian. It will be very hard for the traditional left which has delighted in picking at peoples sensitivities to now say that he is off limits. Oh contraire. I suspect that Obama and most people-of-color will be hypersensitive to criticisms aimed at him so this ought to be fun.
You people worry too much. blacks will always be able to find something to whine about, no matter what. It seems to be in their nature and genes? But who can blame them when they get so many non blacks feeling sorry for their poor mistreated black selves, and so many freebies and extra’s not available to anyone else..
But all the comedians are smiling now.
“Bush was openly ridaculed in part because he was male, white, and Christian.”
No, he was ridiculed because he was a legacy, incompetent fool.
I don’t care what subjects Black comedians use in their material, I have yet to find one that is funny. I watched a programme in the U.K. called (I think) Live At The Hackney Empire, which was a Black variety show for a Black audience, filmed in a theatre, and the audience were - literally - rolling in the aisles holding their stomachs and weeping tears of laughter, at jokes that were just not funny. Thats when I decided they were strange people, best avoided if possible.
I watched a few minutes of black comedians going on about Obama. Some of the jokes were pretty good. “Michelle is a black woman. Any Monica Lewinskies come around she snatch that b**ch bald headed.” “400 years the white man keep us down. Obama no different. Now a half white man will keep us down.”
Another trend in black comedy is OJ is so guilty jokes and the OJ jury was so dumb they believe anything jokes referring to the 1994 killing of Nicole and Ron Goldman.
