Rolling
Blackness and Mediated Comedy

Alfred L. Martin Jr. (Edited by), Anshare Antoine (Contributions by), Gerald R. Butters Jr. (Contributions by), Ellen Cleghorne (Contributions by), Kelly Cole (Contributions by), Phillip Lamarr Cunningham (Contributions by), Ken Feil (Contributions by), Lisa Guerrero (Contributions by), Timothy Havens (Contributions by), Felicia D. Henderson (Contributions by), Jacqueline Johnson (Contributions by), Alfred L. Martin Jr. (Contributions by), Scott Poulson-Bryant (Contributions by)

9780253068873

Hardback, published 2 April 2024

218 pages, 25 b&w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.494 kg

"Rolling offers a rigorous and absorbing exploration of the spaces where blackness, comedy, and media converge. Meticulously researched and wide ranging in scope, the essays assembled by Dr. Alfred Martin present an in-depth look at the myriad ways that Black humor has operated as a site of catharsis, social commentary, and resistance within popular media. Rolling is more than a study of Black humor and media: it is a celebration of one of the most enduring forms of Black culture."—Racquel Gates, author of Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture
"Alfred L. Martin, Jr. has constructed the most comprehensive collection of Blackness and humor to date. Black humor evokes deep feeling, bodily movement, and a cackling laughter from the Black interiority. Through its series of cultural, industrial, and political examinations, Rolling requires its readers to confront these emotions and to revisit and reframe theories of comedy that have historically privileged whiteness and heteropatriarchy. Readers of this text are prompted to ask themselves, what does it mean to laugh Black?"—Adrien Sebro, author of Scratchin' and Survivin': Hustle Economics and the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions

Since slavery, African and African American humor has baffled, intrigued, angered, and entertained the masses.
Rolling centers Blackness in comedy, especially on television, and observing that it is often relegated to biopics, slave narratives, and the comedic. But like W. E. B. DuBois's ideas about double consciousness and Racquel Gates's extension of his theories, we know that Blackness resonates for Black viewers in ways often entirely different than for white viewers. Contributors to this volume cover a range of cases representing African American humor across film, television, digital media, and stand-up as Black comic personas try to work within, outside, and around culture, tilling for content. Essays engage with the complex industrial interplay of Blackness, white audiences, and comedy; satire and humor on media platforms; and the production of Blackness within comedy through personal stories and interviews of Black production crew and writers for television comedy.
Rolling illuminates the inner workings of Blackness and comedy in media discourse.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Finding the Funny: Recentering the Comedy in Black Comedy, by Alfred L. Martin, Jr.
Part One: Black Comedy Crossing Over
1. Black Stand-up Comics in Chicago: Navigating a Changing City (1955-1970), by Gerald R. Butters, Jr.
2. Blue is the New Green: Martin Lawrence and the Mainstream Appeal of Vulgarity, by Joshua Truelove
3. "There's a New Sheriff in Town": Eddie Murphy and the Comedy of Double Conscious Law and Order, by Lisa Guerrero
Part Two: Black Comedy/Black Performances
4. "What Can We Do That No One Else Can Do?": On Key & Peele, Comedy and Performing Race, by Phillip Lamarr Cunningham
5. "These Black Kids Want Something New, I Swear It": Donald Glover's Racial Performance, Atlanta, and the New Quality Comedy, by Jacqueline Johnson
6. Steve Urkel and the Continuing Resonance of the "Blerd": Satirical Television Characters and Cultural Change, by Timothy Havens
7. Giving (Funny) Face: Prince and His Humors, by Scott Poulson-Bryant
Part Three: The Liberation and Limits of Black Comedy
8. "I Need Miss Rona to Start Tap Dancing Around in Them Lungs": Black Twitter's Political Humor in COVID-19 Times, by Anshare Antoine and Mel Stanfill
9. "Can You Say P-Failure?": The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer and UPN, by Kelly Cole
Part Four: Producing Comedy
10. Geraldine and Me: Flip Wilson's Legacy and this Black Female Sketch Comedy Artist, by Ellen Cleghorne
11. From Network Comedy to Streaming Dramedy: How The Game's Creator Challenged the Boundaries Placed on Black-Themed Sitcoms, by Felicia D. Henderson
12. "Look at Me!": Jackie's Back, Lifetime, and the Production of Black Camp, by Alfred L. Martin, Jr. and Ken Feil
Bibliography
Index