I love the Daily Show as much as the next person, but throughout the Obama presidency I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “Dave Chappelle would be having a field day with this.” There is a glaring absence of a humorous African American take on the cultural and political events of the day. That’s why we can all get happy about the news that FOX has commissioned two new prime time specials of In Living Color to run next summer with an option for a new series. Keenan Ivory Wayans can actually make us laugh again instead of just grossing people out.
Yes, there’s a lot of humor from In Living Color that you’d never get away with today, (Men on Film comes to mind ) but at the same time the show’s sketches, from President Jesse Jackson’s farewell address and Homey the Clown to “Timbuck: The Last Runaway Slave” and my personal favorite The Wrath of Farrakhan were a level of biting social and political satire that launched or influenced a decade of great work. The Chris Rock Show, Chappelle Show, Boondocks, and Mad T.V. (as well as some crappy ones like House of Buggin, Carlos Mencia and the downright shameful Chocolate News) all owe their existence to the sketch comedy of In Living Color.
With Saturday Night live being way to corporate and safe to touch anything racial, Boondocks off the air and Chappelle Show done in by its own creator, the return of In Living Color might be our only chance to see some Black humor on the president and America in 2011. Let’s just hope they get the show up and running by next summer – they might only have 4 years of material to work off of with Obama.
This article originally appeared at Politic365.com.