Black Humor

Langston Hughes says, "Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it. Of course, you laugh by proxy. You're really laughing at the other guy lacks, not your own. That's what makes it funny-The fact that you don't know you are laughing at yourself. Humor is when the joke is on you but hits the other fellow first-Because it boomerangs. Humor is what you wish in your secret heart were not funny, but it is, and you must laugh. Humor is your unconscious therapy" Laughter for centuries has been the medicine that ensured the survival of African Americans.

"Herded together with others with whom they shared only a common condition of servitude and some degree of cultural overlap, enslaved Africans were compelled to create a new language, a new religion, and a precarious new lifestyle." (1) As Africans were unloaded by boat and placed onto plantations, slave masters were completely enthralled by the way they spoke, moved, and danced. Out of slavery emerged a culture that would influence America's mainstream culture for infinity. Slavery created bondage for Africans and when it looked like they were going no where fast, they laughed, sang, and amused one another with riddles, jokes and animal tales from the homelan

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The third and final part of the show was a slapstick plantation skit, featuring song and dance with costumed men and women slaves. Therefore, audiences depleted, and troupes started to perform on circuits like the chitlen circuit, which hit most black owned theaters. She appeared on the stage with oversized clodhoppers, tattered gingham dresses and oddball hats she acted like a typical down to earth older black woman. Many blacks took off the face paint and introduced musical comedies. The slaves made the best of the condition

by laughing at the way the slave master treated them and their reaction to this treatment. In doing this, they altered the usual blackface performance routine. Blackface humor gave whites the chance to lift African American Humor from its original context, transform it, then spotlight it for entertainment, amusement (for non-black audiences) and become popular for their supposed originality. Blacks who were part of the troupes started to branch off and start their own troupes.

After the Civil War blackface troupes hired on free black men and women to perform with them. Here is a common type of joke many used; it is called;

"Mr. Correll were a small time duo who had debuted as musicians on a radio station in

Chicago. "(6) There were many performance troupes even professional juvenile troupes. Amos N Andy was the number one show in the country.

As blackface entertainment became more popular so did the actors.

Approximate Word count = 1867
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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