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Watkins, MelWatkins, Mel | Alt 1
Watkins, MelWatkins, Mel | Alt 1

Mel Watkins

Mel Watkins is a former editor at The New York Times Book Review. He is the author of Dancing with Strangers: A Memoir.
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Titles by Mel Watkins

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Titles Found: 2
African American Humor
African American Humor ›
Edited by Mel Watkins, Foreword by Dick Gregory
Price 21.99

Trade Paper

Published Aug 2002

This collection of anecdotes, tales, jokes, toasts, rhymes, satire, riffs, poems, stand-up sketches, and snaps documents the evolution of African American humor over the past two centuries. It includes routines and writings from such luminaries as Bert Williams, Butterbeans & Susie, Stepin Fetchit, Moms Mabley, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Redd Foxx, Ishmael Reed, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock. This anthology includes classic stage routines, literary examples, and witty quotations presented in their entirety.
On the Real Side
On the Real Side (4 Formats) ›
By Mel Watkins
Trade Paper Price 28.99

Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Published May 1999

This comprehensive history of black humor sets it in the context of American popular culture. Blackface minstrelsy, Stepin Fetchit, and the Amos ā€™nā€™ 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.