This comprehensive history of black humor sets it in the context of
American popular culture. Blackface minstrelsy, Stepin Fetchit, and the
Amos 'n' Andy show presented a distorted picture of African Americans;
this book contrasts this image with the authentic underground humor of
African Americans found in folktales, race records, and all-black shows
and films. After generations of stereotypes, the underground humor
finally emerged before the American public with Richard Pryor in the
1970s. But Pryor was not the first popular comic to present
authentically black humor. Watkins offers surprising reassessments of
such seminal figures as Fetchit, Bert Williams, Moms Mabley, and Redd
Foxx, looking at how they paved the way for contemporary comics such as
Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, and Bill Cosby.