History in the Making Volume 6 Article 6 2013 Black Stand-Up Comedy of the 1960s Claudia Mariscal CSUSB Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making Part of the African American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mariscal, Claudia (2013) "Black Stand-Up Comedy of the 1960s," History in the Making: Vol. 6 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making/vol6/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in History in the Making by an authorized editor of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Black Stand-Up Comedy of the 1960s By Claudia Mariscal Abstract: Vast research can be found on African Americans’ culture and their use of humor to overcome struggles within American society. Much of the research found focuses on the study of African American humor in literature, folk tales, art, and theatre, but little has been done on the study of black stand-up comedy in the 1960s and comics’ use of humor to overcome and combat racism and social struggles during this decade. Different methods of approach are used to gain a broader understanding of the use of humor as a combative tool by black comics in the 1960s. The comedic performances and styles of Dick Gregory, Godfrey Cambridge, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, and Jackie “Moms” Mabley are analyzed as well as newspaper and magazine articles during the 1960s for an in-depth perspective in how their humor impacted American society.