African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today

. Lawrence Hill Books, $18.95 (448pp) ISBN 978-1-55652-431-8

""If I really want to scare the hell out of my white friends, I drive out to the suburb they live in and walk down their street slowly, carrying the real estate section of the New York Times."" This bon mot from 1960s comedian Godfrey Cambridge (1933-1978) is among the many jokes, snaps, comedy sketches, satires and folk anecdotes gathered in African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today. Selected by editor and writer Mel Watkins (On the Real Side), the witticisms come from such luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston, Satchel Paige, Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor, Damon Wayans and many others. ()

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Craig Unger

Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign really did make a deal with Iran to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the election, according to this labyrinthine Continue reading »

Edmund White

With his trademark irreverence, White (The Humble Lover) celebrates more than six decades of sex in a candid memoir that doubles as an indispensable work of queer history. A Continue reading »

Jason de León

Smugglers who help Central Americans traverse Mexico and cross into the U.S. are not the “slick haired... kingpins” portrayed in popular media but are usually themselves poor Continue reading »

Dorian Lynskey

This sweeping cultural history from journalist Lynskey (The Ministry of Truth) chronicles how films, novels, and other media have imagined the apocalypse from ancient times Continue reading »