Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy (trailer)

Dear friends,

It's really sad to hear Chris Rock give so much acclaim to Eddie Murphy. Yet, it's even sadder, because neither one of those guys has ever done anything but pander to "white" sentimentality, regardless of the colors of their audiences.

Red Foxx and Moms Mabley will far more responsible and showing dignity with their comedy… Meanwhile, Steve Harvey jokes: I know a girl so black that when she puts on a yellow dress, she looks like a traffic light. And Robert Townsend who produced and/or directed this one, and put out the beautiful movie "Hollywood Shuffle" did exactly that when he was given a TV program a few years back by ABC.

It's really sad to hear Chris Rock give so much acclaim to Eddie Murphy… It's even sadder, because neither one of those guys has ever done anything but pander to "white" sentimentality, regardless of the colors of their audiences.

All the Black comics these days are more or less cheap versions of Eddie Murphy, including Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle. That is, it's the same pandering mentality. Obviously, Dave Chapelle has far more integrity than Eddie and the rest of them, at least to me. However, the types of jokes that I hear from these guys makes me question just how many experiences they've had in life.

Many of the females, of course, have self-esteem issues as females that cloud their ability to be funny in an inspiring way. Unfortunately, almost all of the males share that same fate. If one has interacted with many types of people, under many types of circumstances then s/he will invariably find plenty of material about which to laugh. The problem is: for arts generally, African Americans must learn to distinguish art from pander, by gaining greater mental stamina so that they can think more deeply about what, why/what for, how, when, and with whom they want to share their thoughts.

Finally, for all of the pretentious comments being made about Black comedy on the link below, aside from the fact that too many people in this country, of all cultural groups, suffer from emotional despair that makes them need to be entertained as opposed to entertaining themselves through activities like, for example, simply sitting by themselves and enjoying their thoughts, reading, writing, singing, involving themselves in any variety of sports activities - be they mental like checkers and chess or physical like basketball or soccer,what over 99% of all of today's African American comics don't realize is: there is a huge difference between self-deprecation and self degradation. 

We must inform to inspire, in order to win the war. And the war is: to win the minds of Our people.

G. Djata Bumpus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEmGyRBmohI