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by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin
From Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Damon Wayans up
to Dave Chappelle, Black male comedians have given us
a belly full of laughs and brought out some serious
issues in their diverse characters they play dealing
with the Black community. Many are purely fictional
but the stories behind them and the new ground they
broke needs some attention. As a Black disabled
researcher, it hit me, all the male Black comedians
I've mentioned have used disabled characters in their
movies, on stage and on television series. Sometimes
especially, us, Americans, take things a little bite
too serious and can't laugh at our own selves. Yes, I
have to admit many of the characters these Black
comedians take on are not politically correct but damn
they are hella funny if you can laugh at yourself.
Lets go back to the controversial Steve Wonder act on
Saturday Night Live, SNL, by Eddie Murphy. I remember
the media outcry when Murphy did Stevie. When I watch
these old Saturday Night Live episodes, I'm on the
floor holding my gut watching Eddie Murphy rocking
back and forth almost falling off his stomp next to
the piano. I love Stevie but Eddie was so good in
this role. Lets stay with Eddie Murphy. Did his
early years on SNL give him the ideas of his later
disabled characters in Nutty Professor, Bowfinger and
his short lived animated family, The PJs. How did
he do his research in these characters? What about
the social environments surrounding these characters.
In PJs, that took place in an inner city housing
project had many disabled characters. Is this too far
fetch! It'd make you wonder about poverty and
disability in the Black community! Many people didn't
like the PJs but if we can have sitcoms like Friends,
Married With Children and these reality shows why
can't we have some real Black reality? However other
movies like Bowerfinger just plopped a disabled
character in the middle of the movie with very little
plot for just a few laughs.
Toward the end of the king of Black comedy,
Richard Pryor's career, he played a blind man in See
No Evil Hear No Evil. This was a great tag team movie
with his close friend, Gene Wilder. Although the
movie was hysterical it brings up a lot of issues we
face today i.e. how some like the law enforcement,
treat people who are blind and deaf. Although Pryor
and Wilder saw a murder took place nobody including
law enforcement would listen to them, thinking they
couldn't have any knowledge about the case. The issue
of race is another theme that came up in Seeing No
Evil Hearing No Evil. The question, can blind and
deaf people be racist especially when they have to
relay on each other for survival? I recommend you
check out this movie again and go beyond the jokes!
How can we forget all the hoopla when the Wayans'
Brothers came out with In Living Color. The disabled
community nailed Damon Wayans to the wall when he came
out with Handyman, a Black superhero with cerebral
Palsy. This character was hella funny especially when
you found out that Handyman was protecting the rights
of the disabled in his own way.
This was agroundbreaking way to see a Black man with Cerebral
Palsy. I have Cerebral Palsy and I almost bust my
head wide open when I saw Handyman for the first time.
I was also proud to see a Black show tackle this
issue. As many have found out that this character was
not a big stretch for Damon Wayans because of his own
disability. Damon was born with a clubfoot, wore
braces and endured many operations. He went on to
make the comedy Blankman in the mid-nineties, a
regular Black young man living in the inner city that
thinks he has super powers so he tries to save his
hood. In 1999 I was so much inspired by the character
of Handyman that I wrote my own fiction story
entitled: The Battle of the Century: Handyman vs.
Superman. The plot in this short story is two
disabled superheroes, one Black and other White are
called on to save the day.
Today the polite gloves are off with Dave Chappelle.
His first skit on his hot comedy show was
out-of-the-box about a Black blind KKK member. I know
this sounds almost impossible and I thought so too
until I read the background of this character named
Clayton Bigsby. Dave Chappelle in an interview said
Bigsby never knew he was Black. He was raised in an
all white orphanage for the Blind and doctors used to
tell him that everybody in the orphanage including
himself was white. What really sparked my interest is
how Clayton Bigsby came to life. Dave Chappelle's
said in the same interview that his father looks like
he is White but he continues to say he is Black. It
got so bad that during Martin Luther King Days Black
bus rider harassed him because they thought he was
White. So Bigsby goes around with his hood on
preaching how he hates niggers. I have to say Clayton
Bigsby has me on the floor. On a serious tip, it
also shows how hate can boil in anybody if the wrong
people have control over his or her environment. I
know someone will say Leroy how can you laugh at that?
My answer Chappelle is a comedian that deals with
Black issues and as a Black man I can strip away the
laughter and see the serious side of his characters
and I can also laugh at the seriousness of it too.
You have to admit, the examples above are damn funny!
I wonder where are all my Black women comedians
doing their jokes and characters that have
disabilities? It is good to laugh at yourself and it
is also good to have empowering serious roles for
disabled Black characters like movies such as Radio,
Bone Collector and The Water Dance to name a few.
Keep on laughing but also go deeper in these comedies
to sees the connection in today society on the big
screen. it is there!
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