D.L. Hughley Headlines a New Political Comedy Show on CNN
It feels to me like the reassertion of racist notions of black people and our proper place in the world. Sometimes popular culture and media operate as forces of regressive and reactionary sentiments even as the political system is changing. It happened during the feminist movement. As white women were gaining control over their fertility, asserting their independence, and moving into the workforce, popular culture developed a new feminine aesthetic saying that women must be rail thin in order to be beautiful and desirable. Whew! Don’t worry about women competing for power if they are so worried about the size of their thighs that they starve themselves and stay at the gym all day.
Same deal here. No worries about black people as serious contenders for political leadership on the world stage if we can be safely constrained to our stereotypical role as the comedic relief.
Both Melissa Harris-Lacewell and AverageBro raise good points that should not be overlooked. It is important to understand the personal context (as expressed in AverageBro’s post) and the political context (as expressed in Harris-Lacewell’s post) as to why there might be opposition to the show.
However, after watching the show, it appears to hold some promise.
I am still not convinced that D.L. Hughley is right for the anchor position on the show – and from what I saw, it doesn’t appear that he is convinced either. He was visibly nervous on camera and stumbled over multiple jokes. He also didn’t seem very comfortable onstage, in stark contrast to many of his stand up performances. But I can respect that – it is difficult to try something that is kind of out of your league, and there are so many ways political comedy can go wrong.
And indeed, some of the sketches felt extremely stale – the issue of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac was recast with Donnell Rawlings as Freddie Mack, with all the predictable “government and politicians as pimps” jokes. There was a fake attack ad from the RNC, which is fairly unmemorable save for the last few lines – “You know he’s black, don’t you?” and “Paid for by the Committee for Irresponsible Racism.” Often times Hughley talked over guests and the editing was kind of strange.
Yet, there were parts of the show I found quite compelling. I enjoyed the CNN Fact Checkers breaking in on DL’s opening monolouge (though most write ups hated that part), and the sketch where DL Hughley actually attends a Palin rally and tries to get them to vote for a Palin/Hughley ticket in 2012. The responses to his questions were classic.
What I most enjoyed were the frequent format changes and his discussions with the experts. His segment with Neil deGrasse Tyson was my favorite, but I’m biased toward people who like to talk about astrophysics. (It’s a total brain crush, for those of y’all who can read between the lines.) Hughley’s other notable segment was where he compared the rise of Barack Obama to the trajectory of black presidents in films. Illustrating his point beautifully was a 1933 film called “Rufus Jones for President” with a young Sammy Davis Jr. declaring that pork chops would be free once he was sworn in as President. It’s Minstrel-icious. You can see the film reels and Tyson’s segment in the video below:
I hope that this show turns out well. And it probably will if it can zero in on how to produce a smart, factual comedy show. I’d love to see more experts, more intelligent discussion, and please, producers, let D.L. be who he is – the asshole who cracks jokes both on and with the smart folks. I’ll check it out next week and report back on how it progresses.
That is, if my brain doesn’t rot from watching Chocolate News.
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