African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today

by Mel Watkins, Dick Gregory (Foreword)

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 examples, and witty quotations presented in their entirety.

Genres: Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting with Uncle Remus and other slave era texts, moving through the Signified Monkey, through the Emancipation and Roaring Twenties, taking the A train into the Harlem Renaissance, and jetting into the Civil Rights movement and the new millenium, Mel Watkins brings it. Trickster tales, Moms Mabley, Stepin Fetchit, Ishmael Reed, Redd Foxx, Chris Rock and more.