Open AccessAntiracism in Othello sketch comedy, 1967-1999
Author(s) -
Stephen Hamrick
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
european journal of humour research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 2307-700X
DOI - 10.7592/ejhr2022.10.1.596
Subject(s) - comedy , blackface , comics , sketch , literature , racism , variety (cybernetics) , art , history , art history , sociology , gender studies , computer science , hollywood , algorithm , artificial intelligence
Despite Shakespeare’s rejection of comic, racist stereotypes in Othello, minstrel shows offered racist blackface caricatures of slaves and others of African descent that filtered through British Music Hall and Variety to television sketch comedy. Analyses of twenty-five screened appropriations of Othello provide a cultural history of racism for 1967-1999. The article recovers an antiracist tradition overlooked in comedy studies.