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Election gives black comedians something to talk about, but gingerly
Comics who had used the pain of discrimination for inspiration, now wrestle with optimism.
- By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times-Washington PostNews Service
- Published: 00:01 November 12, 2008
Hollywood: Tommy Davidson's centrepiece joke about President-elect Barack Obama at a Los Angeles comedy club over the weekend "killed" - in more ways than one.
Davidson, who was a regular on Fox's hip sketch comedy show In Living Colour, bounded on stage on Friday at the Comedy Union and said he would like to perform a bit from Obama's upcoming inaugural speech. He stood at an imaginary podium - then a "shot" rang out and he collapsed in a heap.
The audience was momentarily shocked, then erupted in laughter. But for some, the laughs stuck in their throats.
"People were crying out, 'Oh, no, don't do that,'" said Lanita Jacobs-Huey, a University of Southern California professor of anthropology who was in the audience. "Tommy then sprung up and said with this smile, 'OK, I just wanted to try that out.' It was pretty amazing."
Welcome to Def Obama Comedy Jam.
Changing routines
In the first weekend after Obama's election, black comedians in comedy venues ranging from the urban-flavoured Comedy Union to the more Hollywood-tinged Laugh Factory steered from their usual, often raw routines about life, dating and sex to weigh in with their feelings about the first black president of the United States.
Black comedians traditionally have made fun of a system they feel has shut them out and treated them unfairly, said Darnell Hunt, head of the Ralph J. Bunche Centre for African American Studies at the University of California.
"It's been a way to relieve the pain, the tension," he said. "Now, there's this self-made black man, and they don't want to undermine the possibility of hope. The Obamas represent a transcendence that brings everyone into the tent, and comics are now grappling with that. They want to treat it gingerly."
Many black comics, whose humour has sprung from the pain or anger of dealing with a discriminatory society, are now wrestling with hope, cautious optimism and celebration.
Ian Edwards, a writer on Comedy Central's Chocolate News, raised his arms in a victory salute during his opening set at the Laugh Factory, saying: "Black people needed some self-esteem. It's about time we won... We haven't won much since the first O.J. trial or since Ruben Studdard beat Clay on American Idol".
And Melanie Camacho said: "This is the first time in history that a black man beat ... a white man and didn't get locked up for it."
One comic, who goes by one name, Godfrey, teased the predominantly white Laugh Factory audience: "I bet you were afraid we were going to line [you] up against the wall."
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