Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on the ways in which the comic persona is constructed and changes across media, from stand-up, to the small screen, to film. This title examines the comic televisual and cinematic personae of Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, and Richard Pryor and considers how these figures set the stage for black comedy.
Trade ReviewThis enormously valuable book will have a major impact on the ways in which scholars and general readers alike think about race, gender, and comic performance. -- Valerie Smith * Princeton University *
In Laughing Mad, Bambi Haggins deftly uses comedy to complicate the construction, performance, and masquerade of blackness especially as it relates to racial politics, white supremacy, and black critique. -- Herman Gray * author of Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Enter laughing
From Negro to Black: coming of comic age in the Civil Rights era
Murphy and Rock: from the "Black guy" to the "Rock star"
Post-soul comedy goes to the movies: cinematic adjustments and [pop] cultural currency
Crossover diva: Whoopi Goldberg and persona politics
Dave Chappelle: provocateur in the promised land
Epilogue: Laughing sad, laughing mad
