Laugh At Our Pain: Why We Need ‘Def Comedy Jam’ More Than Ever
“We don’t need a Black superhero who’s bulletproof, we need one who can get juries to believe them,” joked D.L. Hughley, at Def Comedy Jam 25, the 25th anniversary special of the groundbreaking series. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to watch the show live, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where it was being recorded for a Netflix special that debuts this Tuesday, September 26 on the streaming platform. Somewhere in the midst of my own laughter, I got a little teary-eyed. I try to refrain from doing that thing where people get weird and overly nostalgic about the '90s, but this was different.
This was being in a room with the greatest comedians of all time, hearing jokes that might not be said in public outside of a Black beauty salon or barbershop. It was being in an environment where I didn’t have to scan the room to make sure the white people weren’t laughing too hard. Now, there were white people in attendance, but they were spots in a sea of Blackness. It was then I remembered that Def Comedy Jam was so much more than a Friday night comedy program. For a lot of us, it was home.
