Patriotism is Funny: How White Supremacy Hijacked Patriotism and How African American Satire Takes it Right the Hell Back

You know where black comedy began, don’t you? It began on the slave ships (Richard Pryor, Bicentennial N-, 1976)

Slavery . . . is not funny. Like, its not funny, you know what I mean? But if you can make it funny? Like, you gotta make it real funny. (Keegan-Michael Key, 2015)

Episode includes the following: Dick Gregory, University of Iowa, Darwin Turner Lecture Series on Black Studies (1970); Richard Pryor (Bicentennial N-Word, 1976); Amber Ruffin, “Why We Need White History Month” (The Amber Ruffin Show, 2021); Franny Choi, “Whiteness Walks into a Bar” (2016).

• Dick Gregory, 1970 (University of Iowa)

Scholarship/theory to help us along with these readings/conversations:

Morgan, Danielle Fuentes. Laughing to Keep from Dying: African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century. (University of Illinois UP, 2020)