A satirical takeover // Black femmes in comedy - Bubblegum Club

A satirical takeover // Black femmes in comedy

“Woke people are the funniest people I know” — a quote from a tweet I penned earlier this year in defence and reply to the ‘sensitivity’ that ‘woke’ or socially conscious people have been accused of in the past. ‘Political correctness’, ‘cancelling’ and ‘censorship’ are some of the phrases and talking points that have been popularised against justifiable critique towards comedians that use people’s identities as punchlines, banking on the audiences own prejudice and bigotry to carry them through multiple Netflix specials. On the contrary, there’s something quite hilarious about being socially aware and, parallel to that, being able to land punchlines that your words thread into jokes that redirect stereotypes and hatred against certain groups of people. This hypothesis was further cemented by the out-of-pocket reaction I had when I could barely keep my body still sitting in a quiet Johannesburg office, watching a 5-minute interview on the internet.

Ziwerekoru “Ziwe” Fumudoh launched ‘Baited With Ziwe’ in 2017, a show on her YouTube channel that primarily featured some of her non-black friends whom she would ‘bait’ into making derogatory statements about race and Black people, all in the efforts of getting a “soundbite” from them as the gag. It was an edited show including special effects that highlighted when someone was “baited” and the guests knew that she was intentionally being provocative in her questioning in order to get them to say something offensive. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Ziwe moved the show from YouTube to Instagram Live with new guests each week. The new version had no special effects and the show featured more prominently well-known guests including Caroline Calloway, Alison Roman, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan. In the IG Lives, Ziwe asked guests direct questions, such as “Qualitatively, what do you like about Black people?” and famously getting the soundbite “I’m racist” from Caroline Calloway. Ziwe’s attempts with ‘Baited’ have never been to get anyone cancelled but rather have a good discussion about race while entertaining people, and to critique the system, not individuals, case in point the first guests being her friends. In this month of May, Ziwe comes back bigger, looking for an even bigger catch with her self-titled Showtime talk show ‘Ziwe’ — the show from which the clip I was watching was an excerpt. The six-episode series features sketches, musical numbers and interviews with guest stars. In addition to hosting the show, Ziwe also writes and produces.

Growing up as a feminine person I didn’t think of comedy as space for femmes to direct and lead. I remember toying with the idea of becoming a comedian in my early high school days because I connected with the intellect I thought you needed in order to make people laugh with your words, however, that soon faded away when I didn’t see anyone I could adapt my aesthetic and style of humour from. I didn’t see or hear anyone I could relate to and connect that reality of being a comedian to. I appreciate Ziwe’s colourful sets, musical numbers, constantly changing hair and glamourous costumes because the representation of identity comes in different forms, outside of just a person’s racial or gender attributes but also character and expression. In her essay, Black Women’s Satire as (Black) Postmodern Performance Jessyka Finley writes, “Black American women have taken up satirical humour imbued with postmodern aesthetics that privilege emotion and experience in order to critique particular incidents of racism, sexism, and the lack of access to rights and resources”.

In the last decade, a number of Black American femmes have taken up satirical comedy as their occupational storytelling mechanism of choice and have broken into Hollywood and subsequently onto our screens with their strategy — from Issa Rae with her ‘Awkward Black Girl’ identity, ‘The Black Lady Sketch Show’, ‘Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show’ to Quinta Brunson and Ziwe. On our shores Coconut Kelz, a character created and performed by Lesego Tlhabi, rose to quick prominence when audiences couldn’t deduct whether or not a Black femme calling Black boys and men “iz’gebengas” with the persona of a white femme was real or not. There is no shortage of funny Black femmes who also have the ability to think critically in our diaspora so I have no doubt that sooner or later I’ll be in the office trying to keep my laughter in again, following up on this article.

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