Comedy Central's 'The New Negroes' Highlights Black Comedians Who Tell Their Truths
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
There's a new show on Comedy Central that's paying respects to everything black comedy comes from and where it's headed. It's called "The New Negroes."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW NEGROES")
BARON VAUGHN: Some people thought that you would all be like, negro? No, burn this show to the ground with the hot fire of black Twitter and salt the earth so nothing may grow there.
CORNISH: It's part standup showcase, part song in the vein of '90s shows like "In Living Color" and "Def Comedy Jam." The minds behind it are rapper Open Mike Eagle and comedian Baron Vaughn. I sat down with Vaughn to talk about how it all got started.
From one new negro to another, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
VAUGHN: Happy to be here. Happy to be a thing that is considered.
CORNISH: So this originated as a live show, right?
VAUGHN: Yeah. A couple years ago, the first iteration of "The New Negroes" happened. It was at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Ore. I was struck by the range of styles that I saw with all of the black comedians.
CORNISH: But let me jump in there.
VAUGHN: Yes.
CORNISH: Why was that significant to you, especially if you'd been working in the biz for a while?
VAUGHN: The term black comedy or black comedian tends to be a very, you know, specific box. You know, like, people expect you to look, talk, feel a certain way and that your content will always be a certain thing as well.
CORNISH: Like what? You're being vague.
VAUGHN: Yeah, I'm being very vague. Thank you very much for noticing. I guess I would say like sometimes talking about, quote, unquote, "the hood," life in the hood, sex or sexuality in a very specific way, something that's been established in the past. There's a full generation or maybe even two generations of black comedians that haven't had to adhere, I guess you could say, to the segregation that the comedy scene has always sort of had and have influences from all over the place, have styles from all over the place, want to talk about everything. Sure, they might talk about the hood. They might talk about sex if that's their genuine experience. But the expectation that they have to talk about those things, I would say, is gone.
CORNISH: What kind of comedy showcases did you enjoy growing up - because the opening credits of the program have a very '90s feel that made me think of kind of, like, "In Living Color" or "Def Comedy Jam," like the style of the graphics and the fonts and the colors. And it made me wonder about your background.
VAUGHN: Thank the Lord you recognized those things.
CORNISH: I mean, it's not subtle.
VAUGHN: Yeah.
CORNISH: I was like, I'm in the Wayback Machine right now.
VAUGHN: The intro is a tribute to a lot of those shows, like black sitcoms that we grew up loving - "Family Matters" and "What's Happening!!" and "Sanford And Son" and, you know, like, all of these different - like "Amen" - "Amen" was how I wanted to start the thing.
CORNISH: Are you serious?
VAUGHN: And just have the - like the blue sky that says "New Negroes" and you come down. And then I get out of the car like I'm Sherman Hemsley, do the little dance. There was going to be - we had all these ideas. These are sitcoms that, you know, we used to love - "227." We wanted to try to do all these different things.
CORNISH: Oh, so good.
VAUGHN: Yeah. So those shows are influential to us.
CORNISH: Yeah. And the way you guys - the way you guys talk about some pretty big ideas in the culture right now is really interesting. I want to play a clip from the opening monologue between you and Open Mike Eagle on your episode about toxic masculinity.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW NEGROES")
OPEN MIKE EAGLE: Because everybody's talking about masculinity and how toxic it has become. I mean, it hasn't become. It's been this way. It's, like, ingrained in our culture, plays a big part in things like workplace harassment, homophobia, domestic violence.
VAUGHN: Right - mass shootings, police brutality, Matt Damon.
OPEN MIKE EAGLE: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Baron. Baron. If you're going to put Matt Damon on that list, put him first.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUGHN: OK.
CORNISH: OK. (Laughter) So my apologies to Matt Damon but very good joke. And one thing I'm interested in is this flies in the face of something we hear from a lot of maybe older comedians which is like audiences are too PC. They talk about these things in a way that's very annoying. And you guys are not doing that at all.
VAUGHN: There's all these different kinds of issues that Mike and I are very confused about or, you know, want to dig into. So it's like, how can we talk about these things with a little consideration but then also make them silly? A lot of comedians go, yeah, there's, you know, audiences are too PC. They're too sensitive. And I don't agree with that. I just think that the sensibilities of the audience have evolved beyond what we all assumed was comedy before. So I don't think that a comedian is supposed to be like, oh, I can't even do a joke. It's like, no, just evolve. You know, do better jokes; learn more.
CORNISH: And there are really great women comedians on the show as well. And in that episode, they did comedy that - it was unexpected, right? It wasn't just like, men are this, and women are that, just kind of like what I think can happen with that kind of theme. Is there a moment from that episode that you enjoyed or a comedian that you liked?
VAUGHN: Sonia Denis is a comedian that I've had my eye on for a while.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW NEGROES")
SONIA DENIS: But no. I went to see a psychiatrist recently. And for those of you that are like, I'm happy, what's that? Like, shut up. No, you go to a person. You tell them all the deep, dark secrets you can't tell your friends without bumming them out. And they throw pills at you. And some days, you feel all right - would recommend. It's pretty tight.
VAUGHN: She has a very wild energy on stage. You know, there's a lot of voices. There's a lot of animation and has this rhythm that's very quick and just jumping all over the place. And I kind of like that. I mean, I don't kind of like it. I like it a lot. Obviously, I like it enough to put her on my TV show.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW NEGROES")
DENIS: It's like, can you sexually harass your therapist? Yes, you can. Whoops. They tell you you can tell them anything, but apparently there are boundaries.
CORNISH: In the age of social media and podcasts, it almost seems like a comedy showcase is old-fashioned. Like, there's so many ways a comedian can come up and get attention. What do you think is the value in this format?
VAUGHN: I think the value in this format is to see that standup comedy is its own thing. You know, in the world of social media, it is very easy to get big. But being able to get on stage in front of a group of people that came to see something and report, whether it be on your experience or how you feel about the world around you, in a way that is structured in the standup comedy style is its own thing.
CORNISH: The whole idea for this came from you being a kind of, as you said, like, elder statesman - right? - in your comedy community. And now you have your own show. What's this moment like for you?
VAUGHN: All I can think of is ways to do it better. You know, my personal mission is to show somebody their new favorite comic. That is my personal mission. If people watch the show and walk away with, I really liked that comic and then will follow that person's career for the rest of their career, then my job is done. The work is done as far as I'm concerned.
CORNISH: Baron Vaughn is a comedian and one of the creators of the Comedy Central show "New Negroes." Thank you for speaking with us.
VAUGHN: Happy to speak with you.
CORNISH: The season finale of "The New Negroes" is on tomorrow.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.