By Asia Thompson
Humor is served in many different forms, sometimes wrapped in satire or unruliness. Perhaps Black humor is the richest and most revealing form of American humor, as writer and editor Damon Young suggests in his recent anthology, That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor.
The anthology, organized and edited by Damon Young, celebrates the complexity and uniqueness of Black humor. At first, I expected a collection that would knock your socks off, slap you on the knee, and make you laugh wholeheartedly. And much of it does. But That’s How They Get You is also deeply heartfelt, emotional, and explorative. It’s a collection that thrives on the diversity of experience through humor and complexity, offering a nice laugh and a comforting jab. In his introduction, Young writes that being Black in America provides enough material: the honest truth of just existing. “That this is bloody and Black-as-fuck honesty is where the best comedy is born. It’s lowbrow. It’s midbrow, it’s highbrow. It’s every brow.” In That’s How They Get You, Young reminds us that the best jokes often tell the truth, from clownin’ on your busted white shoes to complementing you on your outfit.
Young’s intention with the anthology was to have two things: “One is I wanted to have as many diverse types of Black American humor as I could.” The anthology features stories, essays, and email chains from diverse voices and perspectives, from dealing with grief in “No One Makes ‘Yo Mama’ Jokes After the Funeral” by Hanif Abdurraqib, to Black women complementing you in “You Ain’t Killing That Shit Until a Black Woman say So” by Mahogany L. Browne, to a chaotic group chat between a mother and her two daughters in “Group Chat” by Deesha Philyaw (excerpted today at PRoB). One example he gives is raising of young Black girls in America in Nicola Yoon’s “We Don’t Make Princesses in Those Colors” and D Watkin’s “Baby Wipes.” Although these stories focus on raising children, Yoon and Watkins bring their own perspectives, humor, and references to the topic. Secondly, the connective theme, Young says, is that Black humor is the best American humor because it can go to places others can’t—to places others can’t reach. “The best humor comes from honesty, comes from vulnerability, comes from a synergy of experience, of sensibility, and of observation. And who has to be more honest about America than the Black American?”
This, along with many other artists, such as Jill Louise Busby, Mateo Askaripour, Alexander Hardy, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Clover Hope, Angela Nissel, Saida Grundy, Panama Jackson, Brian Broome, Kiese Laymon, Shamira Ibrahim, Rion Amilcar Scott, Roy Wood Jr., Hillary Crosely Coker, Ladan Osman, Joseph Earl Thomas, Wyatt Cenac, and Michael Harriot. These 24 authors, along with the three works that Young contributed himself: Introduction: Black Humor is Every Brow, “You Gonna Get These Teeth”, “A Real Actual Text Thread About Real Actual White Presidents with Names Like Real Actual …”, and “An Ode to Cappin-Ass …”, all make up That’s How They Get You.
Young noted that although he enjoyed editing the anthology, he would not do another one because, administratively, it was like asking 24 people to the prom. “That part was not fun. The editorial and curation part, I did enjoy that. These 24 generous geniuses just trusting me with their work, with their thoughts, and with their vulnerabilities. It was really just a joy.”
However, That’s How They Get You is not a “Black” book. Though the book is composed of and written by Black people, the intended audience is everyone. Young reflects that when he did press for the book in May, a podcast host asked him whether labeling it Black would put a cap on the type of humor it would include. He replied that “[I] had never thought of Blackness or calling the theme Black or labeling the theme Black puts a limitation on it. If anything, it allows for an expansion. It allows for a diversity of thought. A freedom, a vulnerability and honesty that you’re just not going to find other places.” He thought the question was like asking him “what would it be like if orange juice tasted like milk?”
In my opinion, Blackness is everything, and it can be anything. It shouldn’t be limited to being from a hood up the street or your favorite rap song. It exists in every crevice and molecule. Blackness is a part of everyday people. It truly is every brow, and the book reflects it. Young says everyone who picks up the book is the potential audience. “I want everyone who picks up the book to believe that they are an intended reader.”
With one of the works Young contributed to the anthology, “You Gonna Get These Teeth”, I had asked him if he felt more confident writing after publishing this work and previous ones. Young replied that when he was at lunch with a few other artists, one whom he’s known for fifteen years said, “Man, I could not do what you do. You know, how open you are, some of the things you say out loud, some of the things you put on the page, and some of the subjects.” Young thanked him, but believed that “it’s vulnerability with a caveat, and a caveat is validated for it”. Young said that he wouldn’t have the confidence or the craft to write something that took chances with form. With one of his contributed works in the anthology, “You Gonna Get These Teeth”, which discusses Damon’s new confidence with porn, teeth, and money, Young says it’s a Trojan horse about shame.
“Shame is like the connective thing in that piece and how I deal with shame. How shame can shapeshift and how shame can constrict if you allow it to. And I allowed it to for a long time. I don’t think I would have the confidence to go there if I hadn’t been validated for going there before.”
That validation, he continued, came from his community, family, and the public. “Community is always important whenever you’re writing a thing, or any artistic endeavor, you need friends who you can trust, who you can send stuff to.” From the people who don’t know Young and yet continue to pay money for his work. However, he notes, “I’m not going to be the person who pretends to be impervious to what the general public or what the book reading public.”
Young wanted anyone who picked up the book to be the intended reader. However, when he thinks of the term “target audience”, it applies to him for this work. “It has to be things that I think are funny, that I think work, that I think [it] possesses rigor, nuance, and things that challenge me and haunt me. And I hope that it has the same effect on other people.”
Damon Young is an award-winning Pittsburgh writer and best-selling author of his debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays, and That’s How They Get You. He noted that his upcoming novel is his first, which he notes as “an absurdist take on the performance of race on the trends and tropes in publishing.”
Asia Thompson is the Pittsburgh Review of Books’ Associate Editor for Interviews. Hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Asia Thompson came to Pittsburgh with her cat Bingo for a taste of the city and the unique literary culture. Asia loves reading and writing about Black studies, built environments, cultural criticism, and aesthetics. She received her Bachelors in Communications and English Literature from the University of South Florida.
