… now before you get all twisted up listen. In the last couple of days I’ve had either Comedy Central or BET (yes, I know why am I allowing BET to stay onscreen longer than 10 seconds) during Russell Simmons Def Comedy Jam at night.

The reason I have come to this conclusion is that most black comedians take the following routines and beat it into the ground:

1.) How blacks are so inherently different than white folks in every aspect of everyday life.

2.) How blacks are different than [insert ethnic group here] and how blacks do it better

3.) Living in the ghetto

4.) How living in the ghetto has made them so much better equipped for life than their white/other ethnicity counterparts.

5.) Drug culture [both selling and using]

6.) The differences in black men/women and their white/other ethnicity counterparts

7.) Baby daddy/baby momma, going to the club to get laid, and skanky women/stupid men

8.) My man’s in jail/he’s a pimp etc

and the list goes on

And liberally saturated among these “jokes” are the words nigger, ho, bitch, motherfucker, etc. I guess I’ve either outgrown this stupid shit that passes for comedy or I’m just not into comedians being forced into a niche’, i.e: you’re a black comedian so you are relegated to the above list and cannot stray from that sphere of material or else you are no longer a black comedian.

Or if you talk about other topics you are *amazing gasp* just a comedian who is funny. There is such a broad range of humor to be exploited, used, and manipulated for laughs instead of just race based “humor”. I guess I just don’t get the humor since I didn’t grow up in the “hood” as it were so about half the list I just put up is eliminated in terms of what I’ll find funny.

The other part of why I’ve just called it quits is that I abhor the N-word and to hear it fall from the lips of people whose job it is to amuse me, so liberally and with no shame hurts me. It makes me weep for the future of black folks when the power of that word means nothing to them but a punch line or an accent.

For them, I leave this video… think on it people. Think about what you are doing when you drop the N-word like its nothing, when you pigeonhole yourself into being a black comedian whose only worth is to give the “black experience” to the audience.

Julian Curry on Def Poetry Jam… My people, my niggas

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker.. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr. She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press) Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.

One thought on “I’ve had the epiphany that I hate most black comedy…”

  1. Great commentary on the state of black comedy. By the way, this is the poet you referenced……..

    Julian Curry

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