Killing Me Softly
A Critical Performance Analysis of Dave Chappelle’s Equanimity and The Bird Revelation through Humour Theory and The Concept of Trauma
MA Thesis Comparative Cultural Analysis / Arts and Culture University of Amsterdam
Luuk van der Vaart (10442707) Supervisor: Dr. Boris Noordenbos December 7th, 2018
Table of Content:
(Me) 4
Introduction 5
Procedure 7
Chapter 1: Introductions of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation
1.1.1 A Soul Song 9
1.1.2 'Love over Hate' and Gregory’s Smile 11
1.2 'Black Power' lyrics 14
Chapter 2: Performing the Black Stereotype
2.1 Equanimity - Introduction 16
2.2 The Black Stereotype 18
2.3.1 Gregory - 'Shovelling snow' 19
2.3.2 Two Tools: Insidious Trauma and Tendentious jokes 20
2.3.3 Insidious Trauma and Tendentious jokes in Gregory - 'Shovelling snow' 23
2.4.1 Equanimity - 'In the pussy' 23
2.4.2 Insidious Trauma and Tendentious Jokes in Equanimity - 'In the pussy' 25
Chapter 3: Problematising the Black Stereotype to Question Black Identity
3.1 Equanimity - 'The Bitch' 28
3.2.1 Problematising the Black Stereotype in Equanimity - 'The Bitch' 32 3.2.2 The Narrative-perspective in Equanimity - 'The Bitch' 35
3.3.1 The Black Identity Trauma of the Straightjacket 36
3.3.2 Questioning the Black Identity in Equanimity - 'The Bitch' 42
Chapter 4: Balancing Conservative Jokes and Progressive Messages
4.1 Equanimity - 'Oh, grow up.' 44
4.2.1 Explicating the Element of Play in Equanimity - 'Oh, grow up.' 46 4.2.2 Preaching the Progressive Message in Equanimity - 'Oh, grow up.' 48 4.2.3 The Narrative-Perspective to Question Black Identity in Equanimity - 'Oh, grow up.' 48 4.3.1 Conservative Implications of Humour and Strategies of Authenticity in Zijp 49
4.3.2 Balancing Conservative Jokes and Progressive Messages in Equanimity - 'Oh, grow up.' 51
Chapter 5: Intellectual and Emotional Engagement with Trauma
5.1 The Bird Revelation - Three segments 54
5.2.1 Trauma Theory: A Progressive Narrative in The Bird Revelation - '400-year Nightmare' 56 5.2.2 Trauma Theory: A Redemptive Narrative in The Bird Revelation - 'Lasting Peace' 58 5.2.3 Trauma Theory: Cross Cultural Solidarity in The Bird Revelation - 'It’s real talk.' 60
5.3 Equanimity - 'An Important Truth' 61
5.4 Feeling Trauma: Singing Blues and Soul in Equanimity - 'An Important Truth' 62
Conclusion 65
Reflection 66
(Me again) 67
(Me)
(This thesis turned out to be a fucking bitch. Admittedly, not a popular first sentence for any academic text, let alone a master thesis. Allow me to explain: When I started exploring the literature of the following thesis, February 2018, I was walking the blues. I recently broke up my relationship of 3.5 years, had a habit of drinking Belgium beers alone at home, and was starting to admit that I found decreasing joy in performing as a stand-up comedian. Humour had been the centre of my existence for over 10 years by this moment. I had enrolled in a course on the
philosophy of humour but to my surprise the black turtle-necked philosophy students were even less humorous than the lecturer who was, and this is a fact, a chirping cricket. I began to believe the studying humour at the university was the biggest mistake of my life, it blocked my creativity as I turned overtly self-critical and I drowned in the omnipotency of humour theories and comedy histories; references to the trauma and tragedies from which all that is fun comes. I tried soldiering through this bitch’s academic literature, but humour’s rebellious and empowering nature for
marginal groups (female, Black, Jewish) made me feel obsolete. Prior, I only had a rough
understanding of feminism, post-colonialism, gender theory, etc., but now I was starting to actually feel that I am straight white male with average height and penis-length. If before I only understood that my own stand-up performances sucked, now I felt my artistic aspirations were also immoral or unethical. Postmodernism had taken the best of me: language is but a construct, there is no
meaning and, of course, no god. A friend gave me his copy of The Myth of Sisyphus from Camus, I read the first thirty pages or so and gave it back. I already knew were this was heading: life is worth living because, though life has no intrinsic meaning, the act of living occasionally provides the experience of meaning. That even Camus, whose famous ultimate efforts were to negate the worth of living life, gave in to such moralist notion was my proof that the search for meaningful experiences could only indicate that there is no meaningful experience. One tends to only look for their keys when they are missing. Acknowledging that I was not doing 'great' meant that in March I stopped working on this thesis and by May I stopped performing stand-up; I had an identity-crisis to attend.)
Introduction
On new years eve 2016, two new stand-up comedy specials from Dave Chappelle appeared on Netflix. Chappelle is a Black American stand-up comedian from Washington D.C., who in 2005 abruptly quit his successful Comedy Central sketch show Chappelle’s Show and stand-up comedy tour to completely disappear from the public eye. To me, and I’m sure to other younger comedians as well, Chappelle attained an almost mythical status. As I was just discovering my passion and accepting the future choices I had to make to take a shot at becoming a successful comedian, the great Chappelle left the game early. He left behind two specials Killin’ Them Softly (2000) and For What It’s Worth (2004) and a multitude of sketches of Chappelle’s Show scattered out on the internet. His media and on-stage appearances were scarce at most. Until in 2016, when Netflix announced that Chappelle would be releasing new comedy specials.
On new years day 2017, my (ex)girlfriend and I watched Chappelle’s two new specials, Equanimity and The Bird Revelation, back to back. From the start of Equanimity’s forty second introduction I was hooked. I heard the song Killing Me Softly With His Song from soul singer Roberta Flack. I saw the logo of Pilot Boy Productions (Chappelle’s own productions company) followed by the vibrantly animated title screen in technicolor yellow, orange, blue, purple and pinkish red. Then, a map of the United States of America (US) in similar style. The screen zooms in on a picture of the Washington Monument, the white obelisk landmarking the nation’s capital Washington D.C. (D.C.). Within mere seconds, 'the nation' is established as a theme, and D.C. as the performance location. Then follows a collage of photos and short videoclips decorated by vibrant animations. One image caught my eye. The best way to describe what I saw is: most photo’s were either pictures of people, of Chappelle or of people with Chappelle. But this one, Chappelle was in the photo with him. The man, I recognised, was Dick Gregory, a Civil Rights activist and the first Black American stand-up comedian (Double, Getting the Joke, 26). The introduction’s carefully constructed dramaturgy struck me as somewhat atypical.
In The Netherlands we enjoy a comedy performance genre called 'cabaret' which is similar to stand-up comedy. Dutch cabaret was adopted from the French genre cabaret-artistiques in the 19th century, but developed into a genre on its own (See Ibo, En nu de moraal… ). In the 1990s stand-up was introduced in The Netherlands and has had increasing influence on Dutch cabaret. However, there remains one significant difference. In my bachelor thesis I researched the
differences in the audience's expectations between the two genres and concluded that, while both raise the wild anticipation of laughter, only cabaret arouses the anticipation of 'meaning' or 'a moral' (See Van der Vaart, "Conclusie"). But those forty seconds, the song referencing to his first
special, the theme of the nation and the picture with Gregory, made it clear to me that Equanimity was more than stand-up: Chappelle had a message.
Watching the specials we saw how Chappelle engages with political and social topics. In Equanimity Chappelle dismantles the 'ruse' that he was raised in poverty and satirises his trauma of growing up Black in a white neighbourhood. Getting arguably unsympathetic, he takes a rebellious stance against 'oversensitive' people, as they pose a threat to his career. Controversially, he ridicules transgenders but not without also attempting to reconcile the conflict the transgender community has with him. He concludes telling the tragic story of Emmitt Till, a Black boy who was brutally murdered in a racist crime. Telling the story he denies the audience the relief of tension until the very end, when he presents his moral. In The Bird Revelation Chappelle starts out by ridiculing the #metoo-movement, the women’s emancipation movement that stands up against sexual assault in the entertainment industry and quickly spread out to be a phenomenon in the Western world. The jokes are controversial , but right after he comes out as a feminist. Risking coming off 1
condescendingly, he advises the movement to draw inspiration from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Community (TRC).
What struck me first during the first viewing of both specials was the discrepancy between Chappelle’s edgy humour on one side and his progressive message on the other. His jokes are often vulgar, aggressive, misogynistic, transfobic and homophobic, while his messages are intelligible efforts to create a universally inclusive community. But what struck me most was the dominance of the 'Black' theme. The song and imagery of Equanimity’s introduction refer to the 'soul' aesthetic, culture and politics of the Black community emancipation period in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. Chappelle describes his trauma of growing up in the desegregated but racially unequal society and the stories of Emmett Till and the TRC emotionally resonate with the ongoing struggle for
emancipation of the Black community. The Black theme is deeply rooted in the Black community's trauma of slavery and, interestingly enough, it seems Chappelle flirts flagrantly with explicit intellectual engagement with the concept of trauma to create cross-cultural solidarity. For this reason it is remarkable that Chappelle uses the Black stereotype for vulgar, aggressive, misogynistic, transfobic and homophobic jokes. Bluntly performing this tenacious negative
representation of the Black community is at times strikingly problematic and raises questions: why does Chappelle appeal to the Black stereotype at all? And, what is it that he wishes to say?
One of many news articles that addressed the controversy is Jason Zinoman "Chappelle Stumbles Into the
1
Procedure
In this thesis I will engage with a performance analysis of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation through humour theory and the concept of trauma. I have selected images and segments of both performances to answer the question: How does Chappelle use the trauma of slavery to perform the Black stereotype for jokes, question Black identity and preach a progressive message?
In Chapter 1, I analyse the introductions of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation. I selected three elements of Equanimity, the song Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack and two images, and one element of The Bird Revelation, the lyrics of the song Revelations by Mos Def, to reveal that the introduction presents two conflicting narratives that have a long tradition within the Black community. One narrative calls for inclusion through "Love over Hate", while the other calls for exclusion through "Black power". Through a brief exploration of Dick Gregory’s life I am
introduced to the Black community’s innate scepticism towards 'the system'. I also explore the blues and soul music genres, because, through referring to Flack’s song, Chappelle suggests that in his comedy performances he will sing the blues, while Equanimity’s introduction is soaked in 'soul'. This raises the question: what song is it Chappelle sings?
The main object of the analysis in this thesis is the first twenty-seven minutes of
Equanimity. The object consist of three stories, to each of which I dedicate a chapter for in-depth analysis.
In Chapter 2, I analyse on the opening of Equanimity in which Chappelle starts by assuming racial inequality and establishing sexual dominance as a joke. This joke invites me to incidentally depart from the analysis of Chappelle, to analyse a joke from Dick Gregory. I will use Sigmund Freud’s humour theory and Stef Craps’ notions of 'insidious trauma' and 'micro-aggression' as tools of analysis to reveal the merits of Gregory’s joke. Then, I return to Equanimity for a comparative analysis between Gregory’s joke and Chappelle’s first story to I argue that his story is similar to Gregory’s joke in situation and both use the comic trope of subverting white oppression to establish Black dominance. At the end of Chapter 2, I answer the question: how does Chappelle engage with Black community’s trauma of slavery to legitimise performing the Black stereotype?
In Chapter 3, I analyse the second story in which Chappelle rebels against 'oversensitive' people. Chappelle draws attention to his performance of the Black stereotype by exaggerating the stereotype’s negative characteristics to a point when he comes off arguably unsympathetic; I call this 'problematising' the stereotype. Using academic literature about Black popular culture after the soul era, I expand on Ron Eyerman’s notion of 'cultural trauma' and argue that the already
revitalised throughout post-soul era due to dominant discourses in popular culture. Problematizing the stereotype turns out to be calculated risk as Chappelle’s actions in the narrative put his jokes in perspective. He ends the story authentically sensitive by coming out as interracial. At the end of Chapter 3, I answer the question: how does Chappelle problematise the performance of the Black stereotype to question Black identity?
In Chapter 4, I analyse the third story in which he continues to rebel against 'oversensitive’ people and targets transgenders. Chappelle approaches the subject with relative precaution; his offensive jokes are counterbalanced by his actions in the narrative and he creates a progressive community rooted in Black solidarity. He explicates his jokes are only jokes, but I will subject him to some of my 'tough love'. Through Dick Zijp’s critical theorisation of the conservative implication of rebellious humour, I will argue that Chappelle’s rebellion against oversensitive people is an a traditional rebellion against white oppression and a strategy to appear authentic. Though it looks rebellious, his jokes and stance have conservative implications. I answer the question why
Chappelle perform the Black stereotype, as I argue this is inevitable and necessary, for if he would not perform the stereotype and rebel against white oppression he would appear inauthentic. More specifically, at the end of Chapter 4, I answer the question: how does Chappelle strategically perform the conservative Black stereotypical humour in order to preach a progressive message? In Chapter 5, I first analyse three segments from The Bird Revelation in which Chappelle refers to the TRC as an example and attempts to create cross-solidarity. I will hold these segments in the light of the trauma literature of Craps and Eyerman to argue that this represents Chappelle’s core message and his ultimate intellectual engagement with trauma. Then, I return to the finale of Equanimity in which he tells the story of Emmett Till to emotionally engage with trauma to practice what he preaches. Finally, answering the question of Chapter 1, I argue Chappelle sings a blues song soaked in soul.
In the Conclusion, I argue that Chappelle performs the Black stereotype with meticulous precision, exclusively for the entertainment of the audience. His actions in the stories always counterbalance his vulgar, aggressive, misogynistic, transfobic and homophobic jokes. Performing the Black stereotype and his rebellion against 'oversensitive' people has conservative implications, but this is inevitable and necessary, for otherwise his message would not be heard this far and this loud. Chappelle uses the trauma of slavery to create his romantically universal community, a community that has only one enemy: ’the system’.
Chapter 1: Introductions of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation
In this chapter I analyse elements of the introductions of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation. First, three elements from Equanimity; the soul song by Flack and two images. Then, one element from The Bird Revelation, the lyrics of Revelations by rap artist Mos Def. Taking a closer look at these elements, I argue, reveals two conflicting Black community narratives. These narratives will prove essential for understanding Chappelle’s subsequent performances, but also raises the question of what kind of song it is that Chappelle sings.
1.1.1 A Soul Song
In 2000 Chappelle recorded his first 1-hour Home Box Office comedy special named Killin’ Them Softly. The title refers to the hit-song Killing Me Softly with His Song written by Norman Gimbel and most famously performed by soul singer Roberta Flack, who won a Grammy for her version in 1974. The song is the soundtrack to introduction of Equanimity.
(Chorus)
Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Killing me softly with his song (Verse 1) I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style And so I came to see him, to listen for a while And there he was, this young boy, a stranger to my eyes Chorus x1 (Verse 2) I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd I felt he'd found my letters and read each one out loud I prayed that he would finish, but he just kept right on
Chorus x2 (Killing Me Softly with His Song written by Norman Gimbel, 1971)
The song starts out with the chorus, climactic building up the musical arrangement in the first three lines. First, Flack’s soothing voice sings "strumming my pain with his fingers" in a slow
tempo with an organ playing chords in the scale of E minor quietly in the background. The next line "singing my life with his words" a second female singer joins her, followed by the title-line "killing me softly with his song" twice, now accompanied by a small female choir, giving the lyrics extra body, hinting undoubtedly towards the atmosphere of a church. This gospel-like arrangement, with its Black lead singer, organ progression and background choir, is distinctive for soul music. Soul music is a genre that from the Black community and attained nation and international popularity in the soul-era. The brilliance of the song is the irony between the graceful musicality contrasted by 2
the hurt and suffering described by the singing first person figure. Hurt and suffering so bad that the violence that inflicts it is compared to the act of killing. Here, 'violence' is not physical but
emotional, the painful experience is invoked by the first person listening to another artists’ song. Killing Me Softly captures the experience of music, and by doing so Flack takes the listener to emotions of feeling exposed, embarrassed, "flushed with fever" and, eventually, killed. What kind of song invokes such a hurtful emotional experience? To answer this question, I will first
contextualise the song within its genre. As Stuart Hall argues, being denied the luxury of education and development of writing for centuries, the Black community has created a deeply rooted
tradition of expressing its politics and culture through music (Hall, "What is this 'Black" in Black Popular Culture', 109).
In his book Soul Music: The Birth of a Sound in Black America (1974) Michael Haralambos argues that the blues is soul music’s predecessor in the Black music tradition. Blues songs present the listers 'a truth'. "When a malady is labelled, a difficult experienced is classified, anxiety and tension are reduced" (60), invoking a feeling of closure as individual disparate experiences are publicly shared (59-60). The blues has a psychological function through emotional catharsis, it "releases the pain and so soothes and relieves the wounds produced by the system." (76). With 'the system' Haralambos means the Jim Crow system, legislation introduced in Southern states after 1880 that re-institutionalised the segregation of Black Americans in the public domain and denied them basic constitutional rights, appropriately named after a racist caricature of a slave called Jim Crow. Haralambos argues that the blues is not so much a protest to the Jim Crow system, but more an expression of the traumatic experiences caused by the system through describing individual situations of struggle, and quotes blues musicians testifying to how the violence and misery caused
In this thesis I will occasionally speak of the 'soul era'; this era spans from the start of the Civil Rights
2
movement in 1954 to the decline of the Black Power movement in the late 70s. The desegregated times after the late 70s up until the moment you are reading this, is the 'post-soul era'. I can not provide any exact dates or years for these periods because the focus of this thesis is cultural, thus profoundly paradigmatic, that hoovers above iconic events.
by the system made their music (71-76). But the blues’s popularity fell, and with the 60s came the rise of soul music. "By the mid-60s soul music became established as the major style of Black American music. Its audience demanded a style that unquestionably Black, yet not too reminiscent of the blues. Soul music, firmly rooted in gospel, probably the oldest unbroken musical tradition in black culture, met these requirements." (154).
Soul music was a mixture of the blues’ gritty scenes of slavery and the new hopes through gospel. Soul music is "the union of the profane and the sacred" (150), as Haralambos adequately puts it. Much later, in 2002, Neal calls soul the defining concept of the Black community in that era. The soul aesthetics challenged the negative narratives and stereotypes, prevalent amongst the white status quo, with a positive meta-narrative that articulated one united Black community (Neal, 3-4). But, as soul music grew more profitable, the new Black aesthetics lost its racial exclusiveness and gradually dissolved into the 'white-owned' capitalist system of popular culture (8). And this was evidently testified by Haralambos, who in 1974 expresses his hesitance about a new trend of singers who adjusted their style to be less racially exclusive by embracing universal themes such as 'love' and 'peace' to attract white audiences while maintaining the appreciation of the Black community. One singer, he mentions, that hopes to bring the two races together through their music is Roberta Flack (Haralambos, 174). Another artist that embraces such themes is Dave Chappelle, as is clear from the following image.
1.1.2 'Love over Hate' and Gregory’s Smile
This image (next page) in the introduction stands out for it is the only visual element besides the title-screen that invites to be read. A handwritten "Love over Hate", a peace symbol and Chappelle’s signature, surrounded by the colourful sketch-like animation with some heart-figures. Alike Flack, Chappelle embraces universal themes of peace and love exhibiting the soul aesthetics, but unlike Flack, this is not an attempt to appeal to white audiences. Especially put in such phrasing and symbols, this is a reference to the period in time when anti-war and emancipation movements protested across the US. A time when peace and love constituted a positive political ideology before being subjected to the cynicism that disregards them as naive, symptomatic for the post-soul era. Weeks before the release of Equanimity, conservative candidate Donald Trump was elected as the successor to US President Barrack Obama, this raised much anxiety and chaos. In this context, Chappelle points towards an era when people stood side by side for simple righteous things, such as "Love over Hate". In turbulent times Chappelle keeps a clear head as is also evident the special’s title Equanimity. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines 'equanimity' as following:
'Introduction at 0:28' Image from Dave Chappelle: Equanimity, copyrights belong to Netflix Entertainment International and Pilot Boy Productions.
———————————————————————————————————————————-
The quality of having an even mind. 1. Fairness of judgement, impartiality, equity. 2. Evenness of mind or temper; the quality or condition of being undisturbed by elation, depression, or agitating emotion; unruffledness. (OED.com, accessed 20-10-18)
But, as Haralambos and Neal hinted at, the Black community also harbours an innate
mistrust of popular culture and 'the system', and rightfully so. Just four second before this statement of "Love over Hate" there is the picture of Chappelle together with Dick Gregory (see next page). Double calls Gregory the first Black comedian who successfully performed in front of a white audience (26). Gregory’s career started in the Chitlin Circuit in the 50s, a series of venues
entertaining exclusively Black audiences, but on January 13th of 1960 Gregory performed in front of a Southern white audience at the Playboy club. He filled in for white comedian who had to cancel at the last minute. The controversy of his performance was immense for it was a taboo for Black entertainers to play in front of white audiences. The Playboy management even told Gregory he didn’t have to perform, but he did, and it was a success. Becoming the first Black comedian to have a commercial break for the white audiences (295-296). Gregory later became Civil Rights activist and even ran for president in 1968. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover deemed Gregory a national-threat, so he was monitored and risked being 'neutralised'. In 1978 a journalist of The
'Introduction at 0:28' Image from Dave Chappelle: Equanimity, copyrights belong to Netflix Entertainment International and Pilot Boy Productions.
———————————————————————————————————————————- Washington Post showed Gregory FBI files that revealed a scheme in which the mafia would be inspired to assassinate him. To which the comic replied that, if that were true, he deserved a medal for making the FBI and the mafia work together. (Rob Warden, The Washington Post, 10-3-1978) Gregory jokes, though he must have been conscience of the severity of the issue. Those files were leaked from COINTELPRO, the abbreviation for counterintelligence program. This was a wide-scale systematic and illegal operation executed by the FBI and CIA let by both Liberal and
Republican cabinets to sabotage and eradicate adversaries of the government of the USA, especially targeting active members of the various socialist, anti-war and emancipation movements.
Gregory died a natural death in D.C. on 19th of August 2016. The picture is an homage to the man that made Chappelle’s career possible and it comes up right when Flack sings "there he was, this young boy". Chappelle is humble, just a youngster following in the footsteps of the great Gregory.
The elements of Equanimity’s introduction refer to the Black community in the soul era. In these turbulent times the community sought for racial unity through the soul aesthetics. Some, like Flack, inspired to share the racial unification of soul through focussing on its universal positives to reach an interracial audience. Most noticeable in "Love over Hate", I argue Chappelle has similar
aspirations with soul. It is this unity and optimism that lies at the heart of the first Black community narrative: the aspiration for racial equality and inclusion. But, testified by the scepticism of
Haralambos and Neal and hidden behind the endearing smile of the old comedian, there is a
different story: the constant realisation of the ongoing oppression of the Black community. For this second Black community narrative I will analyse the lyrics of Revelations by Mos Def from The Bird Revelation.
1.2 'Black Power' lyrics
Mos Def is a in hip hop artist, critically acclaimed by scholars of African American and music studies alike. Mos Def is his stage name, he was born as Dante Terrel Smith, but changed his name to Yasiin Bey. From the start of his career in the late 90s, this politically conscious rapper is known for his "non-commercial, art-focused underground rap music." (Schaub, 383). The lyrics of
Revelations do not speak for themselves:
Revelations. Sunshine. Ecstatic. Flaco. Boogieman. Standing in the sun getting Black as I want You playing good man that ain't backing me up Sky woke a baby ain't no jackin' my hem I got a whole lot to say so I ain't talking to them I hear knees dropping, I turn it up louder Black freedom Black genius Black power Black ink for printing the Black dollar Until I see C-I-A, I say now what? (Revelations written by Yasiin Bey, Otis Jackson Jr. and Michael J. Drake, 2009)
The first series of words are all, more or less, self-referential; "revelations" is the song title, and, in context, refers to Chappelle’s special, "sunshine" is the title of a different song from Mos Def, "ecstatic" is the title of the album on which Revelations is a track, "flaco" is Spanish for 'skinny' and another nickname of Mos Def, both references apply to "boogieman", as this refers to another of Mos Def’s song in which he names himself 'the boogieman'. The next four lines are quite ambiguous thus I will focus on their literal sense: Mos Def wishes to be as Black as he wants, wants back-up and has a lot say. These lines continue the theme of self-identification, though now it is clearly 'racial' self-identification within united Black community. The Black community is
underlined in: "I hear knees dropping, I turn it up louder.". Though this line may not have been significant when the song came out in 2009, late 2017 it refers to Black Community political activism. Players in American football competition kneeled during the national anthem to raise awareness for ongoing racial inequalities. Black racial activism is further articulated with: "Black freedom, Black genius, Black power, Black ink for printing the Black dollar". "Black power" is the name of popular political movement that called for the Black community emancipation through exclusion from society, if necessary, through violence (Eyerman, Cultural Trauma, 179). These militant connotations are further articulated with: "Until I see C-I-A, I say now what?". Here, Mos Def implies that the only thing that could stop him is a governmental defence institution. As this is the final lyric of the introduction, the Netflix viewer has Black community rebellion ringing through his or her head when Chappelle starts his performance.
Even though the lyrics of Revelations are quite cryptic, it is clear that Black community rebellion is the central theme. The rebellion is against the CIA is an extension of the rebellion against COINTELPRO, and a long standing and utterly understandable tradition of the Black
community to distrust 'the system'. As I will argue in Chapter 3, by repeatedly re-identifying himself Mos Def represents the identity crisis that lies at the core of the trauma of slavery. For now it is important that these lyrics showcase the second Black community narrative. In the light of constant realisation of the ongoing racial oppression, this narrative calls for the rebellion against inequality through racial exclusion.
In this chapter I revealed that under the introductions of Equanimity and The Bird Revelation lay two Black community narratives: one of inclusion and one of exclusion. As I will argue in the following chapters, both narratives have long traditions in the Black Community going back to the abolishment of slavery and both are crucial for Chappelle to create his community that opposes 'the system'. As the song Killing Me Sofly refers to Chappelle’s first special Killin’ Them Softly,
implicating that Chappelle is the singer in Flack’s song, I took special interest in the blues and soul music genres. For the reference seems to suggest that Chappelle intents to invoke the painful experiences of the trauma of slavery. Is the blues the song he sings in his stand-up comedy
performances? If so, why put so much emphasis on the soul era? I will return to these questions in Chapter 5, but first I engage with the performance analysis of the opening of Equanimity and contextualise Chappelle’s performance of the Black stereotype by comparing his story to one joke of Dick Gregory.
Chapter 2: Performing the Black Stereotype
In the following chapter I present the performance analysis of the the first seven minutes of Equanimity. First, I will analyse the opening in which Chappelle acknowledges situation, assumes the ongoing oppression of Black Americans and plays with the Black stereotypical sexual
aggressive attitude. Next, I explain what I mean by 'the Black stereotype' and take an incidental excursion by analysing one joke of Dick Gregory. I present trauma and humour theory I will use as analytical tools throughout this thesis, and argue that establishing sexual dominance is a Black comical trope. I return to Equanimity and compare Chappelle’s first story to Gregory’s joke to argue Chappelle deviates from the trope. At the end of this chapter I have answered the question: how does Chappelle engage with Black community’s trauma of slavery to legitimise performing the Black stereotype?
2.1 Equanimity - Introduction
Chappelle stands on a square platform, roughly four by four meters, that extents the stage into the auditorium so that he stands amongst the audience. On the stage behind him there is a grey decor consisting of a geometric and asymmetric structure, that, together with the blue lighting, does not attract attention nor causes any distraction. The focus is on the performer, with his casual outfit of black jeans, black t-shirt and grey denim jacket that on his right arm has a small patch baring his logo, a white 'C', that also decorates the platform standing on. In his right hand he holds the
microphone and with his left an e-cigarette, from which he casually smokes during the entire show. Chappelle starts out by compactly acknowledging various elements of the performance situation. "I came back here where I started, because I will shoot my final Netflix special tonight [cheering]". Washington D.C. is the city in which Chappelle grew up and recorded his first comedy special. He discloses that the occasion of the performance here, namely recording his final of three Netflix specials in D.C., is out of personal sentiment. By 'representing' D.C. he acquires cheering, a response of appraisal that constitutes the direct dialogue-like interaction between the comic and the crowd that is unique to the stand-up performance. "That’s right. And after this shit… it’s time to make America wait again. [laughter]". The first joke of Equanimity is a reference to the new US President Trump’s campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" and Chappelle’s own infamous escape from show business in 2003, and hints he may disappear again. It is impressive how Chappelle, who looks relaxed and comfortable on stage, acknowledges the location, the occasion,
the audience anticipation risen during his absence and the controversial new president, within just two lines. This is his arena, he is aware of everything, even that he comes off like this.
"I’ve done too well. You know, if you black in show business and do too well, it’s scary. […] You gotta get the fuck out of the casino while the getting’s good, while you’re still winning.
[laughter]". Chappelle nonchalantly testifies to the current day racial segregation within show business, implying the business is not Black and Black people are less welcome. The industry is compared to a casino, thus it is the individual is up against an institution where a racially biased system decides your 'chance'. The implication resonates with the Black community's cultural memory of systematic racial suppression that posed a direct threat to their community members, in this case: Black entertainers trying to 'make it' in showbiz. Within historical context, showbiz is implied to be white. By authentically admitting Chappelle feels threatened and considers quitting stand-up again due to the racial discrimination that threatens his livelihood, the popular performer, who over a thousand people that night came to see perform, humanises himself and creates
sympathy, placing himself as a member of the Black community who deals with the same problems as they do. Also evident by how Chappelle addresses the audience with 'you', as if he is just talking to a friend offering him or her a piece of advise.
His advice is simple: "walk away from the table" before they get "Kevin Hart-ed. [laughter and applause]". The punchline refers to the popular Black American stand-up comedian Kevin Hart who grew to showbiz fame over the last five years. Around the time of the special’s recording, September 2017, Hart received a lot of negative press after a sex tape leaked out showing Hart cheating on his wife, who was pregnant of their baby at the time. Chappelle first attains audience’s sympathy by appealing to the emotions caused by racial discrimination. This subject raises tension, that is subsequently ventilated by a joke that frames the leaking of the sex tape as an operation organised by the showbiz industry to discredit Hart’s public reputation. Discrediting ones public reputation was a technique often used against Black activists utilised by COINTELPRO during and after the soul era. In his introduction to COINTELPRO (1975) Noam Chomsky wrote that
COINTELPRO’s criminal efforts of the undermining the nation’s democratic principles were so extensive that it made the Watergate scandal, which directly let to the first resignation of a president in US history, look like "a tea party" (10). Through a "systematic and extensive program of terror, disruption, intimidation and instigation of violence" (Ibid.) governmental forces opposed the Civil Rights movement, with the leaked files indicating an exceptional hatred against Black activists (83). Both iconic leaders of the Black Emancipation Movement, Black Panthers’ Malcolm X and reverent Martin Luther King Jr., were targets of COINTELPRO and both were assassinated (respectively in
’65 and ’68), though the causation has never officially been proven. Even after the soul era the Black community has witnessed how the reputations of many of the community’s male role-models have been destroyed after (accusations of) sexual misbehaviour and judicial and public trial. 3
In Equanimity the audience laughs out in recognition as the history of violent racial
oppression is unsuspectedly correlated with a topical event. Chappelle realises he can not leave the joke at the cost of a fellow Black comedian and goes on stressing that he is part of the Black
community with "That’s my man… I’m just saying, if he got a sex tape out, well…", craftily raising tension by foreshadowing the last punchline "well, it’s just a matter of time for me. [laughter and applause]". Chappelle cheekily implies his own sexual dominance over comedian Hart,
simultaneously making himself the ultimate butt of the joke. His career, too, Chappelle jokes, is bound to fall into disgrace after the inevitable exposition of his sexual misbehaviours.
2.2 The Black Stereotype
By implying sexual dominant behaviour Chappelle plays with a tenacious characteristic of the negative stereotype of the Black man, but raises the question what is the Black stereotype exactly? The OED defines 'stereotype' as: "A preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person" (OED.com, accessed 18-11-18). Then, what are these oversimplified
characteristics of the Black American racial stereotype? A recent study regarding racial stereotyping of children by white adult volunteers working with children in the US shows that, compared to white children, Black children are considered to be less intelligent and healthy, but more lazy and prone to violence. (N.Priest, N. Slopen, et al.. "Stereotyping Across Intersection and Age", PLoS One, September 2018) The literature discussed in this thesis further suggests other characteristics, such as; using the words 'nigga' and 'motherfucker, acting lawless, cool and vulgar (Carpio, ch. 2); heteronormative, patriarchal, proud and sexually aggressive (Neal, 9); misogynistic, homophobic, transfobic, materialistic, unhealthy, inferior, hyper-sexual, rhythmic and athletic (Rabaka, 4-6). It is clear that the majority of the characteristics are negative; predominantly aggressive and
heterosexual behaviour. The latter is interesting for it the result of the fetishisation of Black sexuality due to taboo of interracial sex (Carpio, ch. 1). When in this thesis I write of the 'Black stereotype' or Black stereotypical 'behaviour' or 'attitude', I mean the above characteristics with
Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Bill Cosby, Tupac and R. Kelly all have stood trial for various
3
sexual misbehaviours. Though, undoubtably most of these men are guilty, the point I make is that once they were role-models for the Black community, but after sexually related press they got discredited.
special emphasis on Black aggression and sexual dominance, but in the following chapters two other characteristic become evident: insensitivity (or hardiness) and rebelliousness.
In his opening of Equanimity Chappelle confirms the Black stereotype so he himself come out on top, and he is not the first stand-up comic to do this. Dick Gregory, too, utilised the
stereotypical sexual aggression to establish dominance in a joke from his 1962’s vinyl album Dick Gregory talks Turkey. Following, I will first have a look at this beautifully concise joke of Gregory and then return to Chappelle's introduction of Equanimity. Both jokes touch similar themes, namely: racially segregated neighbourhoods, embodying the negative Black stereotype and subversion through sexual and aggressive jokes. Comparing Chappelle to Gregory will help me put Chappelle’s performance in perspective.
2.3.1 Gregory - 'Shovelling snow'
Gregory sketches the situation: he, a black man, moved into a white neighbourhood. His neighbours are out of town, but they are in for a surprise when they come home finding a black man living in their neighbourhood. Already, this gets a big laugh, as Gregory admits his presence is unwanted. Due to snowfall he is out on his front lawn shovelling snow, when his white neighbours come home. The woman calls out to him in a degrading manner: "Hey boy!". The audience response with a nervous laughter as Gregory pauses to let the tension rise. The woman assumes that Gregory is a servant and she compliments him on his work. Gregory sings "If she only knew [laughter]", again stressing that his presence in the neighbourhood is unwanted, but now also highlighting the ignorance of the white lady as she doesn’t even consider a Black man living there to be an option. Her assumption of Gregory being in service of a white person is in line with the ongoing racial inequality between Black and white Americans after the abolishment of slavery. The lady is not aware she is victimising Gregory and expands her compliment: she’s never seen the place looking this good in the 50 years she’s been living there. Here, Gregory implies the lady is from an older generation, allowing the audience to distance the woman from 'all white people'. "What do you get for doing that?" she asks. Gregory plays along with her false assumption. This would show white dominance, but there is irony in his reaction on two levels. The first is the irony that the audience already knows that he is not a servant, and although Gregory seems to be subordinate, the audience knows he shows superiority by outwitting the lady using the stereotype against her: "O, I get to sleep with that woman inside. [laughter and applause]". The audience knows the remark is innocent, as they know Gregory only plays along with her assumption.
Having entered the realm of play by using the Black stereotype of sexually aggressive attitude against the oppressor, Gregory pushes it even further. "And I walk up to her husband and say: hey baby, do you want me to do yours next. [laughter and applause]". Here Gregory implies having sex with the neighbour’s wife as well, making his sexual aggression a direct bodily threat, ultimately showing dominance over both her and her husband.
This last line is interesting for two reasons. First, Gregory never breaks character by staying in the role of the servant, and he presents his aggression towards the white lady in a similar fashion as she did when objectifying him for the colour of his skin; with good intentions. As she meant good with her compliment but was in fact racist, Gregory plays by the same rules, acts being a servant with good intentions while actually threatening with sexual dominance. The second reason why this last line is interesting, it poses ultimate ironical subversion of the status difference that lies at the heart of the systematic oppression of Black Americans. Instead of walking towards the lady, Gregory walks up to her husband, immediately approaching him with dominance by calling him "baby", before proposing "I could do yours next.". "Yours’ has a double meaning: the lawn and the lady, both being approached as possessions. And since the joke is that Gregory outwits the lady using the Black stereotype against her, and sexual aggression was already the subject of the former line, the audience is assured of the sexual interpretation of 'yours' and thus the lady herself has become objectified.
2.3.2 Two Tools: Insidious Trauma and Tendentious jokes
Gregory’s joke is concise, visual, and very, very funny. Listening to the audience’s suspense in the recording reminds me of the amount of tension that coalesced with racial segregation in the soul era and testifies to the mastery of Gregory’s capability to wield such gravity. Next, I will briefly present two different concept of trauma and humour theory, respectively 'insidious trauma' and 'tendentious jokes', that help to attain a better understanding of the merits of this joke.
1. Insidious trauma
In his article "Wor(l)ds of grief" Stef Craps argues that the interdisciplinary field of trauma theory is in crisis. During the 90’s trauma theory attained momentum amongst academics, since the
understanding of various traumatic experiences could "contribute to cross-cultural solidarity and to the creation of new forms of community" (53). Trauma theory potentially provided academics the long-awaited ethical tool with which they could engage with society (52). Though Craps recognises its potential, he argues that since the academic engagement has proved oblivious to non-western and
non-individual definitions of trauma, the field is yet unsuccessful (53). In order to do live up to its potential, "traumatic histories of subordinate groups have to be acknowledged on their own terms" (Ibid.). Traumas should be treated on their own cultural merits without forcefully drawing similarities with western trauma references (54). Setting the right example, Craps engages with 'insidious trauma', a concept conceived by Maria Root, that regards the type of trauma experienced by disempowered groups, such as continuously oppressed by a system. In line with Craps, Roots argues that traditional western definitions of trauma based on the individual’s psychological
recovery through talking over its singular event origins, is too limited. This 'talking cure' does little for the insidious trauma inflicted through (not necessarily physical) systematic oppression (55). In Trauma (Caruth ed., 1995) Laura Brown also engages with Root’s concept, though specifically for in regard to the experience of women who live in fear of harassment and assault. Brown defines insidious trauma as "the traumatogenic effects of oppression that are not necessarily overtly violent or threatening to bodily well-being at the given moment but that do violence to soul and
spirit." (107).
This does not suggest that insidious trauma is strictly metaphysical or elusive, it is the result of the accumulation of 'micro-aggressions'. In his book The Empire of Trauma (2009), Craps argues that in modern western countries less obvious racism still traumatise marginalized groups through an accumulation of 'micro-aggressions', such as "being denied for promotions, home mortgages, or business loans; being a target of a security guard; being stopped in traffic; or seeing one’s group portrayed in a stereotypical manner in the media." (26). Craps provides an excellent example of the devastating psychological effects the accumulation of racist micro-aggressions can have, discussing the writings of psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon: who, after a young white boy was
frightened by his Black body, felt stripped of his subjectivity and objectification let to self-hatred, expressed vividly in metaphors of physical pain (29-30).
2. Tendentious jokes
In Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905) Freud differentiates two types of jokes. The first type are 'innocent jokes' and are harmless, while the second, called 'tendentious jokes', do pose a threat as these cover sensitive subjects (132). Freud sub-differentiates three functions of
tendentious jokes: obscene, hostile and cynical jokes. Obscene jokes ventilate the sexual desires which society oppresses in all its forms: exhibition, verbalisation, and touching (140-145). Hostile jokes offer ventilation for one’s hostile desires. Aggression towards each other is repressed by authorities, but through ridiculing authorities one can experience the joy of overcoming them
(146-147). These jokes satisfy our sexual and hostile desires while evading the oppressive authority that makes public enjoyment inaccessible (144). Through technical allusion a tendentious joke can prevent insult and rebel against repression and are sometimes the only way to criticise authorities (149). The acknowledged of its own depraved successful and unsuccessful rebellion of these last critical allusions Freud names 'cynical jokes' (155).
Freud’s humour theory, also called 'relief theory', is particularly interesting for the analysis of stand-up as for Freud jokes are inherently social. An innocent joke takes two persons, a joker and a listener, and the joke functions "in and on its itself" (132), like a pun, but tendentious jokes also need a subject or victim. Tendentious jokes do not solely function on their own merits but within but within a social frame, Freud states that tendentious jokes are generally more hilarious than innocent jokes (139). In his master-thesis 'Re-thinking Dutch cabaret' (2014) Dick Zijp provides a detailed reading of the inner-workings of Freud's tendentious jokes:
On the one hand, Freud points here to the rhetorical strategies used by the joke teller to draw attention away from the anti-social tendencies of the joke. He explains how the 'innocent' pleasure provided by the joke technique actually works as rhetorical strategy that easily convinces us of the innocence of the joke as a whole, including the 'thought' of the joke, even though this 'thought' is not at all innocent, but rather the expresses a sexual or aggressive impulse. On the other hand, Freud points to how we tend to
perceive humour: we are inclined, Freud writes, to deceive ourselves about the possible anti-social tendencies of laughter (41).
Through Zijp’s reading it becomes apparent that through rhetorical strategies the tendentious joker claims the joke as only a joke, allowing the listener to let oneself be tricked that the joke is innocent or "in and on itself" (Freud, 132), while in fact it functions to ventilate the obscene and hostile desires oppressed by society. The subliminal 'anti-social tendencies' of tendentious jokes thus are inherently rebellious to the authorities.
In line with Zijp, I prefer the terms 'sexual' and 'aggressive' jokes over Freud’s 'obscene' and 'hostile' jokes, for this terminology will prove clearer to applicate within the rest of this thesis. Also, I propose and engage with my own concept of the 'element of play', which refers to the implicit and explicit claim on the joke as only a joke as described by Zijp’s reading of Freud. The element of play is key in the following analysis of Gregory’s joke, in which I briefly exemplify the concepts of insidious trauma and tendentious jokes.
2.3.3 Insidious Trauma and Tendentious jokes in Gregory - 'Shovelling snow'
The situation Gregory sketches immediately introduces the racial segregation in US society and the history of slavery in which the segregation is deeply rooted. The tensions raised by the plot, a Black man moving into a white neighbourhood, and Gregory admitting that his presence is unwanted, testify to the insidious trauma suffered by the marginalised group of Black Americans. In 1962, Black Americans were still overtly systematically oppressed by the governmental authorities through the Jim-crow laws, which were abolished in 1965. The white lady’s assumption that Gregory is a servant to a white family is a clear example of a micro-aggression. "Hey boy!" refers to slavery’s objectification of Black Americans and conjures so much aggressive racial tension it sparks the audience’s nervous laughter in anticipation of the relief of aggressive desires.
Surprisingly, Chappelle confirms the Black stereotype and relieves the tension with a sexual joke: "O, I get to sleep with that woman inside.". The audience wants to believe the joke is innocent because, through playing along her racist assumption, Gregory invokes the element of play, thus applies the rhetorical strategy of tendentious jokes to mask the joke’s social rebelliousness. By walking up to her husband and saying: "Hey baby, do you want me to do yours next.", Gregory further confirms the Black stereotype with an implicit sexual and aggressive joke. It ventilates the audience’s oppressed sexual and aggressive desires that underly the racially segregated society and, by objectifying the white woman, Gregory ultimately subverts white oppression and establishes Black sexual dominance.
It is apparent that the merits of Gregory’s joke are deeply rooted in the insidious trauma inflicted by the systematic oppression of Black Americans. Ventilating the sexual and aggressive desires that are oppressed within the racially segregated society through appealing to the element of play while confirming the negative Black male stereotype, as Gregory shows, can be very funny. The severity of the insidious trauma of Black Americans is evident by Chappelle, who, over half a century later, applies a similar trope when placing himself in the segregated showbiz and implying his sexual dominance over fellow comedian Hart. In the following performance analysis I argue that Chappelle intelligibly deviates from this trope, but still legitimates performing the Black stereotype.
2.4.1 Equanimity - 'In the pussy'
After Chappelle concisely acknowledged the situation, occasion, audience’s anticipation and
political turmoil, he returns to stating he considers stop performing stand-up. Though not due of the threat from the showbiz system, but because Chappelle has become too good of a comedian for it to be exciting. Although he says he does not want to come off as a braggart, he also says "I’m dope
nigga […] I’m not even exaggerating. It’s not exciting [laughter]". In fact, Chappelle claims to be so good he writes jokes backwards: instead of starting with a set-up, he takes a random punchline and afterwards writes the set-up that makes "that shit work [laughter]". The random punchline he picked for this occasion "is not an easy punchline to pull-off". He pauses to raise tension: "Here it goes… The punchline is: so I kicked her in the pussy. [laughter and some applause]". He responds to the their laughter; "I haven’t finish the joke yet. [laughter]" and seamlessly tumbles into telling a story.
Chappelle recalls his childhood in D.C., revealing that he was not raised in 'the projects’, the epitome of the Black community’s impoverished neighbourhoods, but in Silver Springs, an area where the majority of residents were white. Chappelle debunks the general assumption that he grew up in the projects, but that he consciously kept it up as a "ruse". Saying: "I never bothered to correct anybody [laughter] because I wanted the street to embrace me. [laughter]". Interestingly, Chappelle reveals he did not feel a part of the Black community whilst he did wished he did. Sometimes he felt like 'poser' in the company of Black rappers, who said things like " 'Yo, it was wild in the PJ’s, yo' and I’ll be like: 'word, nigga, word.' but I don’t know. [laughter]". Placing himself as an outsider draws the audience’s sympathy and grabs their attention, for it is exciting to witness Chappelle distancing himself from his former stage-persona to evolve in one who does not want to keep up appearance. Though Chappelle grew up in white Silver Springs he comically relativises the luxury in which he grew up: "My parents did just well enough, so that I could grow up poor around white people. [laughter and applause]". Chappelle exaggerates his traumatic experience of growing up Black in Silver Springs to satirise the relativity of racial socio-economical inequality, by revealing that he once romanticised 'the projects':
I used to get jealous. Because it sounded fun. Every-body in the projects was poor, and that’s fair. But if you were poor in Silver Springs, nigga, it felt like it was only
happening to you. [laughter] Nas [a rapper] does not know the pain… [laughter] of that first sleepover at a white friend’s house. [laughter and applause] When you come back home on Sunday and just look at you parents like: 'Y’all need to step your game up, [laughter and applause] everything at Timmy’s house works'. [laughter and applause]
Even though Chappelle did not experience the poverty of the projects, the rather foolish, tragicomic disposition of somebody whose traumatic experience is too small to connect with others, which to him is traumatic, is relatable and touching.
Having sketched his situation and disposition, Chappelle engages with the plot of the story about growing up in D.C.. His first white friend Timmy, who comes from a Mormon family, invites
Chappelle over for dinner, but the young Chappelle politely declines the offer. Saying to Timmy that his mother wants him home before sundown, while revealing to the audience that was a lie. His mother works multiple jobs, he hardly ever sees her. The reason for the pretence is because the young Chappelle did not believe "white" dinner could be tasteful, he would "rather go home and fry some bologna or some shit like that. [laughter and some applause]". Timmy then tells him his mother made 'Stove Top Stuffing', to which Chappelle responds "what the fuck? Stove Top?! [laughter] Hold on, nigga. Let me make some phone calls real quick. [laughter and applause]". Overdoing the pretence, he stays in character but radically changes his answer, contrasting the Black profane language and the white business-management attitude. 'Stove Top Stuffing' is a dish Chappelle never had before and desperately needs, clarifying his objective in the story.
Timmy proposes that Chappelle helps him set the table and say the blessings for dinner, to which young Chappelle is more than reluctant. He comes up with another scheme: take his time washing his hands in bathroom, so when he comes out the only thing left to do is eat 'Stove Top Stuffing'. But while in the bathroom, "suddenly, one of his mothers came to the door [laughter, applause and some cheers]". This joke is only for the audience, within the story young Chappelle politely responds to Timmy’s mother knocking on the door. The tension rises towards the climax with a brief dialogue between a good-mannered young Chappelle and Timmy’s mother, who sadly informs her guest that there is not enough 'Stove Top Stuffing' for everybody. The audience
responds with nervous laughter, before Chappelle relieves the tension with "So I kicked her in the pussy, bam! [laughter and applause]". The promised punchline successfully surprises the audience, concludes the story as Chappelle switches back to bragging: "[continuous applause and cheering] Ladies and gentlemen… I told you I’m dope, nigga. I told you that I was gonna say it, and you still didn’t see it coming. And that’s why I make the big bucks! [laughter]".
2.4.2 Insidious Trauma and Tendentious Jokes in Equanimity - 'In the pussy'
Chappelle starts out by demonstrating his comic talent through two different ironies. The first is that the announcement of the punchline is already the set-up of the joke. By disclosing that he had written the following joke backwards Chappelle ploys that the joke is only a joke, thus claiming the element of play. The second is that by mentioning he doesn’t want to come off as a braggart, he highlights that he is bragging. Chappelle follows a classic rule of thumb in theatre: by bragging he shows, rather than tells, his awareness of the audience’s expectations that arose during his legendary years of absence. But after all the bragging, the punchline Chappelle presents seems senselessly
blunt, and so he subverts the audience expectations he showed he set out to meet. By satirising an artists’ humility Chappelle acknowledges their expectations, which he the undermines.
In Laughing Fit to Kill (2008) Glenda Carpio ranks bragging, or boasting, as an element of the Black American tradition of 'toasting'. Toasts, she writes, are "metrically and rhythmically complex compositions" (ch. 1) of verbal articulation. I detect elements of toasting language in various of Chappelle’s lines, such as "Yo, it was wild in the PJ’s, yo' and I’ll be like: 'word, nigga, word'." and his concluding brag "I told you I’m dope, nigga. I told you that I was gonna say it, and you still didn’t see it coming. And that’s why I make the big bucks!". Both lines are rather rhythmic and contain elements of rhyme, and utilise what Carpio calls the "poetics of cursing" (ch. 2).
Leading up to the climax, the story contains four elements that resonate with the Black community. First, a mother that works multiple jobs leaving her little time left to see her son,
indicating a lower working class social status. Second, Chappelle hides the fact that he is brought up in a lower social environment. Third, the young Chappelle shows innate scepticism towards white society, in this case through the ridiculous notion that there is a 'white' food that opposes Black food. Lastly, Chappelle, a Black boy, desperately wants something that his white friend has. Although Chappelle did not grow up in the projects, the story does illustrate a microcosm of racial inequality, outlining his insidious trauma of growing up Black in a white neighbourhood.
I argue that, by recalling his individual memory of growing up in D.C., Chappelle appeals to the 'collective memory' of the Black community specific to the post-soul era to legitimise his Black identity, and thus the Black stereotype. In his article "The Past in the Present" Ron Eyerman
theorises the 'cultural trauma' by exemplifying it with Black American community. Like insidious trauma, cultural trauma covers the trauma experienced by a marginalised group, but Eyerman focusses on trauma’s temporal and spacial hybridity through memory, narrative and identity. Not all members need to have directly experienced the trauma of the slavery, because the group’s collective memory is interlinked with the individual memory through narratives (161). Groups have 'master frames' of collective narratives that unify the community and allow individuals to locate their own biography within the collective memory so that he or she can identity with the 'collective
identity' (162).
I will return to Eyerman’s cultural trauma of the Black community in Chapter 3, for now it is important that Eyerman describes the travelling nature of insidious trauma. Insidious trauma does not only effect those who are (not necessarily physically) systematically oppressed in micro-aggressions, but through narrative unaffected individuals can identify with those effected to feel a part of the group. The microcosm of racial inequality that Chappelle describes appeals to the Black
community’s master frame narrative of growing up in a desegregated but unequal society. By appealing to racial inequality, the contemporary sociopolitical aftereffects of the history of slavery, Chappelle attains the Black identity. I argue that, through sharing his past on stage, the audience can identify with Chappelle as he unifies with the Black collective identity. Meaning that Chappelle invites every willing audience member, regardless of race and background, to identify with the Black community. As mentioned before, this is exciting for the audience: Chappelle started by dismantling the 'ruse', but now, accompanied by the audience, authentically identifies with the Black community, ultimately legitimising the evocation of the merits of Black insidious trauma and performing the Black stereotype.
Chappelle’s most definitively Black stereotypical joke in this story is when, closing in on the climax, he catches the audience off guard with a description in passing: "one of his mothers came to the door". The foundations for the joke was lain throughout the story: Timmy comes from a white christian family, constituting his parents are white and heterosexual. "One of his mothers" is a cunningly descriptive implication that fully emasculates the white heterosexual man and establishes the sexual dominance of Black men. This is amplified by the fact that the audience sees the white father through the eyes of a young Black boy. With this joke, like the concluding 'pussy'-punchline, Chappelle, like Gregory, ultimately confirms the Black stereotypical aggressive and sexual
characteristics to ventilate the aggressive and sexual desires oppressed within the racially
segregated society with great humorous effect. Also like Gregory, Chappelle positions himself as a Black outsider in a white neighbourhood and, as in his joke on Hart, places himself as a victim a segregated system. But unlike Gregory, who in his joke falls victim to the micro-aggression that solidifies Black insidious trauma, Chappelle only conjures Black trauma whilst white oppression stays remarkably absent. Though emphasising the foolishness of his prior disposition leading up to the climax, the story contains various elements that authentically establish a microcosm of racial inequality that evoke the tensions and sensitivities of Black insidious trauma that also seem to motivate Chappelle’s actions and attitude. The entire set-up implies Chappelle will fall victim to racism or, at least, a micro-aggression, but the story has nothing to do with this. In fact, Timmy and his mother both are notably friendly. By portraying the microcosm of racial inequality Chappelle appeals to the collective memory of Black trauma and frame himself as a victim of racism to legitimise and exploit the comic trope of conforming the Black stereotype to subvert white oppression and establish Black sexual dominance. He does so first implicitly, with "one of his mothers", and finally explicitly with "So I kicked her in the pussy".
Certainly not all laughter produces in this story is the result of sexual and/or aggressive jokes. In fact, some laughter is not even the result of actual jokes but induced by Chappelle’s phrasing, timing and way of talking, and testifies to the abilities to the performer. Nevertheless, I would argue the story itself functions as a tendentious joke because the story is framed as only a joke. Chappelle first announces that the blunt punchline is only a joke; an innocent construct solely for the audience’s entertainment, and, immediately after the final punchline, he starts bragging again to remind the audience of the element of play and mask the rebellious, anti-social nature that
underly tendentious jokes. And, as Freud reminds us, the audience is tricked willingly. Different from Gregory, within the story Chappelle does not act rebellious but polite, the jokes are
exclusively for the audience. Thus, the plot of the narrative puts his jokes in perspective. Ironically, white oppression is not the only victim of the joke. By performing the negative Black stereotypical characteristic of aggression to overtly unnecessarily subvert white oppression, Chappelle does come out on top but also satirises his own traumatic experiences of growing up Black in a white
neighbourhood.
Over half a century has passed since Gregory’s joke, the abolishment of the Jim Crow laws, and, officially, US society is desegregated, but Chappelle shows the virility of Black community’s insidious trauma. Using a comic trope similar to Gregory, Chappelle shows the persistent humorous potential of the Black stereotype. For Carpio, Chappelle is just one of a handful of post-soul era’s artists that have the talent to illuminate the tenacity and theatricality of this stereotype and US society’s obsession with racial stereotypes (ch. 1). This obsession is a tradition that is a direct result of slavery and the first Black entertainment genre of minstrelsy. In her book, Carpio investigates the relationship between violence and humour in recent representations of Black stereotypical humour (ch. 1) and analyses fragments of Chappelle’s Show. She notes that in his show Chappelle performs the Black community’s 'fantasy of violent retribution' of slavery against white people (ch. 3). I argue this fantasy is also apparent in Gregory’s joke and in Equanimity, when Chappelle, though admittedly only within the element of play for the audience, frames Timmy’s mother as a white oppressor and kicks her in the crotch to establish Black dominance.
Interestingly enough, Carpio also notes how Chappelle appeals to Victor Turner’s concept of 'communitas', meaning Chappelle attempts to create "intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging " (ch. 1). Carpio states: "While Chappelle’s communitas is decidedly infused with Black solidarity, it is also interracial and often multicultural."(ch. 1). This side of Chappelle has not been
fragrant within the previous jokes but will appear explicitly within The Bird Revelation and the rest of Equanimity.
In this chapter I revealed how Chappelle appeals to Black trauma to legitimise performing the Black stereotype for jokes. Differing from Gregory, within the narrative Chappelle never acts aggressive or sexual; his Black stereotypical jokes are only for the audience. This approach to the element of play will appear constant throughout his performance and will appear essential for the creation of his communitas. Before I have argued that, while Chappelle legitimises performing negative Black stereotypical characteristics to establish dominance over white oppression, he also satirises the trauma of his youth, in doing so, Chappelle subjects the Black community identity. In the next chapter I focus on how Chappelle problematises his performance of Black stereotype and, like Mos Def, struggles with the Black identity.
