Original subtitles

You know what that looks like?

Comedy without black people would be like the NBA without black players.

Your biggest, biggest superstars in comedy have been black.

Just genius and hilarious.

This Chappelle show redefines sketch comedy.

You live and call a set up a platform for black comedians blowing up. I don't

think so.

Homie don't play that.

Arsenio Hall was woo woo woo woo woo. It was groundbreaking.

You had a black man willing to fight the power. It's nice being out of jail.

Laughter is healing.

Laughter purifies the air.

Actually, I don't like to talk about the races because I'm white. And we as

black people have been doing it forever.

I am.

This is a freckle.

All black comedians discuss race.

It's harder being gay than it is being black.

I didn't have to come out black.

We have to address our pain to make you laugh and so that we can get through it.

Mom, I'm black.

In the 1930s, segregation kept black audiences out of white theaters.

In response to this, entertainers would perform on the Chitlin Circuit.

The Chitlin Circuit were clubs and theaters that were meant to only serve a

black audience. There was music, there was comedy, there were shows of variety.

But very few of these performers could break the color barrier to reach a

audience.

Comedy and music have always been released from stress.

in black culture.

Chippin' Circuit comedy was the outgrowth of the chattel slavery

the pain that we had gone through. And what did we have left?

We could laugh, man. That's one thing you couldn't take.

White audiences have been afraid of black comics, black comedy, because

comedians are truth tellers. And sometimes you don't want to hear the

So what it meant was, if you saw black characters on television, they were

always going to be subservient to allay white fears.

and to protect kind of white comfort.

Ethel Waters was really the first black to have her own variety show. It was

1939, and later was Hazel Scott in 1950, but they did not last long on

the tube.

So in 1956, we had the debut of the Nat King Cole show. You had a smooth, suave

black man leading a variety show.

Oh, boy, I'm lucky.

I'll say I'm lucky.

This is my lucky day.

So he was singing and acting in sketches. The problem with the show is

show this kind of black representation in southern cities.

Advertisers were afraid that if they sponsored Nat King Cole, that white

audiences would boycott their products.

And if you can't get sponsorship, you can't exist.

And when the show was canceled, what he said was Madison Avenue is afraid of the

dark. And they were.

In the late 50s, early 60s, the country starts to change more. When civil rights

hit, then you're getting grittier comedy that is going to deal with race.

I hate to see any baseball player having trouble, but that's a great sport for

my people.

That is the only sport in the world where a Negro can shake a stick at a

man and won't start no riot.

Dick Gregory put politics in his comedy.

It was like seeing a curveball. And he'd throw it and you couldn't see it

coming. In 1961, appearing on the Jack Park show, Dick Gregory becomes the

black comedian ever to sit down on the couch after his performance.

What kind of car you got?

A Lincoln, naturally.

Oh, well, that's it.

Dick Gregory, in the 50s and early 60s, was making $10 ,000 a week. And he

gave all that up to Martin Luther King.

Dick Gregory has been dubbed the father of black political comedy.

And Mom Mabley was the mother of black female comedians.

He said, where would you find another man like me?

I'd say in the graveyard.

She was one of the first black female comedians ever, the Harriet Tubman of

comedy. When she got off that stage, she would transform into her real truth,

which was wearing a zoot suit and having two women on her arm.

We have to understand who Moms Mabley was.

She was a gay, black woman.

Nobody knew that at the time because she couldn't be out. No one was out.

Red Fox and Moms Mabley both toiled for decades on the Chitlin circuit.

Red was back then, the day when Nat King Cole, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte could

play in Vegas, but they couldn't stay in the hotel.

Dorothy Dandridge had to go through the servant's entrance.

to go to her dressing room, she went out by the pool and just dipped her feet,

her little pretty feet, in the water. They drained the pool and repainted it.

Red was from that era, from that chitlin' circuit.

Red Fox, he had comedy albums that were raunchy, and they thought he would never

make it on TV. How could he clean up his act? And then he goes on television.

My first wife had a 1942 Buick and her.

And I left both of them to come to California.

Didn't hurt too bad, because neither one of them was working.

Now, did he clean up his act? In a way, he did, but you knew what he was

thinking.

In 1971, the intensity was something that was really everywhere.

You know, we've had assassinations, recently riots.

There's Nixon talking about law and order. But Soul Train suggested... that

there's joy in black culture. We're going to turn the question over to the

Train gang, Marvin, okay?

What else do you like to do besides playing at your spare time?

I enjoy it.

I like fooling around.

One reason Soul Train succeeded 15 years after the Nat King Cole show is because

they found a sponsor to take it national.

That was for us, by us, and we loved it.

Let's welcome them warmly, Gladys and the Pips.

Mr. Barry White. Fly and the Family Stone. Curtis Mayfield.

Aretha Brightland.

Don Cornelius was an icon.

This man changed the game. When I was growing up, you did not miss Soul Train.

I mean, that was the part of my youth.

It was the regularly scheduled national platform for black culture. Someone does

popping on Soul Train in 1971, and people are trying popping in the

two hours later. It was a kind of universal black experience.

Back in the 80s, which I'll never forget, I was a soul -trained dancer.

Oh, my God, that was such a huge deal. To go to the set was just mind -blowing.

And then here walks out Don Cornelius with his afro.

I was just kind of like... Oh, my God. Pinch me. Is this real?

Soul Train was clearly geared towards a black audience. But at the same time, in

the 1970s, you had Flip Wilson, who was the first black comedian that could gear

a show for all of America and still stay very authentic to who he was.

Flip Wilson was amazing. He was brilliant.

Forty million people would watch that show, and I was one of them. And he was

also bringing in black artists, black entertainers.

He proves that black people can be on television.

They can have 40 million viewers.

They can be shown in the South. If we're given a chance, it can happen. Now, you

don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't fool around with wild women. When you go

into training, what do you give up?

Chip Wilson was really huge.

Who didn't know Geraldine?

Hey, Geraldine, is it true that blondes have more fun?

Not in my neighborhood.

And Flip played the character so well that you thought Geraldine really

When that character came out, baby, the audience just went up. So before there

was Nutty Professor, before there was Shanaynay, there was Geraldine, baby.

And one of Flip's writers was a young Richard Pryor. And when he found his

voice, he became the new king of comedy.

The first time on television, Richard Pryor.

Hate to take the subway because the first thing you see when you walk down

subway, some guy down there, give me a nickel.

On television back in the 60s, you've got to come on stage clean. And Richard

Pryor adapted for a while, but he wasn't happy.

And Richard at some point understands this is not who I am. This is not what I

care about. And I have to speak in a way that's authentic to me. So Richard left

Hollywood. People who live in Berkeley are put under curfew. They're tear gas.

In the late 60s, Richard Pryor went up to Oakland.

At the time, it was just a black militant wild thing, man. And he met

Panthers. But the main guy he met there was Paul Moody.

Paul Mooney was his muse.

You can't get sight. You got to get hip to what you are.

And Paul Mooney told him, you come out, you do your thing, you be black, you go

for it. Without Paul Mooney, there is no Richard Pryor.

Comedy before that and comedy after that is never the same.

Richard's appearance in 1975 on Saturday Night Live kind of showed what black

comedy could be.

You got to get down and say things like, excuse me?

Would you move out of my way?

And you walk back, just check this one.

What people don't know is that Richard Pryor insisted upon writing a lot of his

own material for that show. So he didn't rely on the white writers to write his

skits. He said, I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to bring Paul Mooney

come in and help me write this. So they write these amazing sketches that are

talking about what blackness is.

It's just a word association.

Throw you out a few words, anything that comes to your mind, just throw it back

at me, okay? And I say blackness because that's exactly what it was. It was

about blackness.

Colored.

Redneck.

Jungle bunny.

Peck of wood.

Spade. Hunker.

Nigger. Dead hunker.

Richard's voice.

was so powerful, NBC gave him The Richard Pryor Show.

So The Richard Pryor Show was ahead of its time. They were doing sketches about

Star Wars.

They were doing sketches about the black president.

That sketch show was incredible.

Mr. President, you've been courting an awful lot of white women. Will this

continue?

As long as I can keep it up.

For the kids that are coming up now, look to the Dave Chappelle Show.

And to me, Richard was the Chappelle Show before the Chappelle Show. He knew

to take what was deemed taboo, what was deemed dangerous, and make it hilarious.

Four years later, Pryor's influence was seen on Saturday Night Live in a 19

-year -old black comic named Eddie Murphy.

This is how you answer a door in my neighborhood.

He was fresh and funny and fearless.

I want to be a hoe.

You could just feel the energy that this kid had and you knew he was going

somewhere.

He showed a versatility that white people didn't think

black people were paying attention to. And it made them go, oh.

Oh, he knows about all these different white artists and actresses and actors,

whatever. He mimicked them, you know, and it made them accept him more, and it

made us go, wow.

How are you?

That's good that we feel good. I feel great.

Now, Eddie Murphy made it real easy for Leslie Jones, Chris Rock, and Kenan

Thompson to have regular spots on there.

So he's this breakout star on SNL.

And then he was like, boom, I'm going to land this huge, influential HBO special

called Delirious. My favorite stand -up, bar none, is Delirious. He does the

impressions of James Brown.

Tell me about that!

Banter, yeah!

Do you!

Yeah! Tell me about that!

Yeah! Banter, what the fuck is James talking about?

Luther Vandross.

But more importantly, Elvis.

Elvis, want some lemonade?

Lemonade.

That's a refreshing drink.

It showed you how talented he was because he could do it all. He opened

for so many people. His boy, Arsenio Hall.

So black entertainers were being showcased in variety shows and sketch

things like that. But in late night TV, it was like the water fountains back in

the 60s.

Whites only.

So when we were watching David Letterman in college or Johnny Carson or Jay

Leno, here comes Arsenio Hall, a black man.

Who does Eddie go to for advice when he has problems?

Do you have somebody you can talk to when you have problems, even on a

level?

Just you.

That was like a party every single night.

Arsenio created the destination for black entertainers to be themselves.

I was born with the name Sinbad. What's your last name?

Bad.

He kind of set the table as far as, like, hey, look, hip -hop culture, black

culture, it can be represented on TV.

You can watch Arsenio Hall every night. Oh, yeah, 11 .30 after the news. Oh,

yeah, watch Arsenio.

It was a thing.

You've had late -night shows before that weren't on the same level as Arsenio.

He was going toe -to -toe with, like, Jay Leno, all the big shows. He had big

guests. He was able to kind of conquer that late -night space.

And he was able to give us people like Prince and Michael Jackson as guests,

which led that to be a great show.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of

He's been called enlightened and inspirational.

He's also been called racist and anti -Semitic.

Many people are thrilled that I'm having him here tonight.

Others are furious with me.

Arsenio's interview with Louis Farrakhan was groundbreaking and controversial.

And advertisers and networks were like, we can't have this guy on TV.

So he brings in Louis Farrakhan and he sits the minister down for an hour and

lets him talk.

Their fear is that nobody will oppose me. And as a result, truth will get out

and people might be made free.

America may not have been ready for a sit down hour long conversation with

Farrakhan on late night television.

And that's unfortunately the demise of the Arsenio Hall show.

Now, Arsenio, you got to remember, he's really well situated because he's part

of the black pack.

The black pack was five gentlemen, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Robert Townsend,

Keenan Ivory Wayans, and Paul Mooney. Certainly there were other famous black

comics, but they had never really corralled their forces like the Justice

or something. That level of talent and that connectivity with creators was not

something that we'd seen before.

So it turns into some specials. It turns into some movies. You know, it turns

into all sorts of wonderful offshoots. You know, the Black Pack were very

significant because they had agency over their careers and ownership.

Laying this foundation to what we see now. Laying the foundation for

Laying the foundation for OWN. Laying the foundation for Tyler Perry.

All this stuff kind of has its roots in the Black Pack and what they were able

to do.

So it was a really fertile crew.

Robert Townsend made his first movie on credit cards, and it was a great movie.

I was auditioning for slaves and, you know, all the stereotypes.

Then that's when I was saying to Kenan, we should make our own movies.

Winky dinky doll.

Winky dinky doll.

Yeah. My dad and Kenan came up very closely together.

Kenan and him would stand in line at the unemployment office to see what they

could figure out. They were both young, broke, extremely talented, just trying

to get in the game, and they did it.

In the case of In Living Color, I did pitch it to Robert Townsend, he didn't

want to do it, so we brought Kenan into Fox and we pitched a very bare -bones

idea, just a black sketch comedy show, and we gave him a pilot.

Welcome to the Homeboy Shopping Network!

Everything past the idea is Kenan's thing.

Sometimes those little fellas don't like to come out!

Well, hell, can you blame them? I wish I could move back!

It was an immediate hit, out of the box, huge.

You know, the younger audience ate it up. They were able to sort of merge the

suburban white crowd with the black crowd, and they all just started

that show religiously. You had Kenan, Ivory Wayans, and he had his family. We

had never seen that before.

He had all the Wayanses. You had the Fly Girls, and they would come out, and it

was so much hip -hop, and it was dancing.

You had to be in front of the TV because you never know what sketch was going to

come out. Now I'd like to talk about it.

a film I've been anxiously awaiting to see, Great Ball of Fire.

In Living Color was so breakthrough, so innovative, so many great characters,

and the tone of the writing was from a perspective we had not seen before.

When his mama gave birth to him, he ran off with the princess.

We were coming out of an era in television where it was all the white

perception of what blacks were.

So Kenan got Paul Mooney as head writer.

It's a big, big difference.

Who are you?

I am the Minister Louis Farrakhan.

So Jim Carrey had been kicking around comedy in Hollywood for years.

Kenan said, I know how you use that guy.

And he put him in, and next thing you know... Deadly combination!

I discovered Jamie Foxx from In Living Color.

You know, I was like, who is this guy that can do so much?

He was funny. He really could get into a character that you forget it was him.

We were doing things that were really on the edge. There was some controversy.

There was some pushback from Fox.

If living with oppression is a sin, then I'll be guilty.

Oppression for black men.

If only he wasn't so dark.

Another show that really served up our comedy and our music, our culture,

was Showtime at the Apollo.

For a lot of artists to make a name for themselves, you had to come through the

Apollo and prove yourself.

And don't know where backwards to yield would I be.

The Apollo Theater is a very magical place.

You can literally feel the energy of every performer that ever performed

I was reading about Michael Jackson, and you know all about the nose.

I don't get it, because they tell me you can't breathe late at night. I want my

black nose back.

They always say if you can perform on that stage, you can perform anywhere in

the world. But the whole family had their noses worked out.

Do five, get one free.

The crowd at the Apollo was a hard crowd. You had to be good to be at the

Apollo.

I've seen a gospel choir get booed. How do you boo Jesus? I don't know.

The great Dave Chappelle got booed on Showtime at the Apollo.

From Showtime at the Apollo, there became this interest in black

And BP created 106th and Park, targeting a younger audience.

for a long introduction. Give it up for T.

Please make some noise for Rihanna.

106 and Park had a real monumental statement on the hip -hop culture. It

boy. What's your favorite collaboration you've ever done?

It's All I Need with Method Man. It was like for the next generation.

Little Bow Wow for these younger acts. We got Lil Wayne in the house right now,

though. Yes, sir.

106 and Park compared to something like TRL is putting on younger, edgier

guests, but at the time there was nothing that was more edgy than Def

Jam. Peg was a game what we played at the mall.

You know, when you go to the mall, you see some shit you like, you notice that

the price is way too fucking high.

You find a tag appropriate to your financial need.

In the 1980s and 90s, black comedians have an extra burden. Their comedy is

judged through a different lens of authenticity versus... Oh, I'm just

placate mainstream audiences.

Folks on Madison Avenue, the advertisers, believe that black comedy

and people don't want to hear it. Then the whole phenomenon that Townsend,

Kenan, Murphy, and Arsenio had helped push what I was able to do with Def

Jam. This is where we as black comedians come together and unite as one.

The fact that he was on HBO, they didn't have to worry about sponsors. Is Ajax

going to pull back because he said the N -word? And, oh, my God, Palmolive

doesn't like when we say shit.

Don't say shit. Like, he doesn't deal with all that.

Martin Lawrence was the best host.

You come in.

Yes. Martin was good at being spontaneous. He could come off the cuff.

you look at some of those old Def Jam performances, a lot of what he did was

improvised. I don't know that he ever went out there with a playbook. I know

Bird out of business, but what the fuck?

Def Comedy Jam was a black comic paradise.

After decades of being told how to behave, what's appropriate, what's okay

what's not okay, black comedians had it up.

You will no longer censor me. We put on the acts that we wanted to see.

Edgy. I'm so broke, if a nigga rob me, he'll just be practicing.

Def Jam comes along, boom.

Now everybody knows Bill Bellamy, Adele Givens, Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, Eddie

Griffin. So I'm grateful for it. How could you not be?

Just let this pussy taste like pumpkin pie.

You know,

the women of Def Comedy Jam hold a special place in my heart because they

like the women of gangster rap. They had to really make room in such a toxically

masculine space.

That is not an easy thing to do.

You should have been fucking with a country hoe such as myself from

You would have got your dick sucked and biscuits from scratch up in that moment.

At about the same time as Def Comedy Jam, SNL was looking for another great

black sketch artist because Eddie Murphy left and Chris Rock was super young and

he wasn't quite ready at the time. He eventually left and became much bigger

after SNL.

So after Chris Rock does Bring the Pain, it was an explosive moment for him and

there was no going back.

Chris started dealing with social commentary and dealt with real issues

was going on today and dealt with them honestly.

Because if a bullet costs $5 ,000, there'll be no more innocent bystanders.

If you can take that stuff and make that funny, that separates the men from the

boys. Every time somebody gets shot, they'll be like, damn, he must have did

something.

So they put $50 ,000 worth of bullets in his ass.

So at the time, Network wanted to find another late night talk show that could

be just as good as Arsenio to sort of fill that void.

You know, they wanted Chris to do Network.

Chris wouldn't do it. He knew he couldn't do it five days a week and keep

high level of quality that he wanted to do. And here we go, HBO, to the rescue.

Chris Rock was able to, like, wall out on HBO. He had that one sketch where

just slapping people.

Like, that doesn't sound that controversial, but other networks would

whoa, we're not showing this, we're not showing this. As you see here, Davis

enters the building, and within seconds, the rampage begins.

He's edgy. He's always going to make you think. He's always going to challenge

the status quo.

As late night TV was back on the map, the Kings of Comedy tour was blowing up.

White people hope things don't go wrong.

Black people don't hope. We wish.

We wish a motherfucker would be an actor.

They do this arena tour that sells out all across the United States. And then

they get Spike Lee to film the show.

it makes like another $100 million.

So it's this runaway success.

I've had three black people over my house.

If you know how many niggas been over your house, you racist like a

motherfucker.

I think the Kings of Comedy tour was a game changer because you were seeing

something that you'd never seen before. Harvey, Cedric, Bernie, and DL. You're

talking about four heavyweights.

I said, where you going? He said, to get some American cookies.

He said it so funny, I wanted to hear it again. I said, it's a lot.

He said something, I can't come.

So at the same time, this happens in 2000, over on HBO, Dave Chappelle does

Killing Them Softly.

Oscar, you are so mean.

Isn't it, kid? He talks about race, you know, poverty, stuff like that.

It's like, bitch, I live in a fucking trash can.

I'm the poorest motherfucker on Sesame Street.

You would catch yourself.

gut -busting laughing, but then being like, damn, that's true. You know what I

mean? I didn't know he was taking me to the ghetto at first.

I started looking out the window. I was like, what the fuck? Gun store, gun

store, liquor store, gun store. Where the fuck he taking me?

Three years after that, Dave Chappelle teamed up with Comedy Central.

Bam. Dave Chappelle show.

Yes, they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell.

The Chappelle Show redefined sketch comedy. It brought in living color back

the fore, but it even took it further.

I always wanted to say this.

We're shizzle.

It passed boundaries that you thought were, woo, we can't touch. A blind,

black, KKK member.

So Powell was an amazing show.

He was like so on it with the commentary, but still hard, funny, which

to do, man, to tell that line.

What black man don't have some bloody gloves on his property? Man, that one

right here. That don't mean I did anything.

He's willing to tell it like it is, and sometimes what it is is not comfortable.

But his ability to make us laugh at those uncomfortable things, that was a

I feel like Dave Chappelle can't exist because there was a Richard

Pryor. That is the mold.

You have to understand that at the height of his power, he felt

that the original concept of the show was not where the show was going.

The Comedy Central star stunned his fans when he suddenly just walked away from

a hit TV show and a $50 million contract.

Everybody was like, what the hell is going on? We were all perplexed and

confused. I was doing sketches that were funny, but socially irresponsible.

It's like you're getting flooded with things and you don't pay attention to

things like your ethics.

I mean, I don't want black people to be disappointed in me for putting that out

there.

What Dave was saying was that... It has to be my way.

In the 80s and 90s, in comedy, especially black comedy, it's just hard

to break through. Where are the sisters?

Because sisters have a very distinct voice that you hadn't seen since Moms

Mabley. You know, people always ask me, what black women comedians inspired you

to be a comedian?

And I'm like, none, because I didn't get to see any.

But black women have been funny this whole time. And so often, we are simply

just not considered star worthy.

Different female comics, they had to do different things in order to get

exposure. Like with Whoopi Goldberg, she wrote her own one -woman act, and she

put it out herself.

Nobody would have given Whoopi her set if she hadn't did it herself.

And she ended up getting it on HBO.

She come up to me and talk about it.

That's in her seatbelt.

I said, fuck you.

She was funny and she was real. And I really related to her characters. The

little girl who put the shirt on her head so she could have long hair, that

me. Nancy said, even if you sit in the vat of Clorox till hell feeds over, you

ain't going to be nothing but black.

And she was right because I sat in the Clorox and I got burned.

Although it was really successful, she was the only black female that had a

special for a really long time to come.

2001 was a very important time in black stand -up because you cannot ignore the

sisters in comedy.

The queens of comedy was Monique, Samore, Miss Laura, and Adele Given.

And these were ladies who, on their own, were powerhouses.

Fuck these skinny bitches.

Look at her shaking. Bitch, cause you hungry.

But to put all that power together, it exploded.

Oh, no, no.

I think it was just like girl power unleashed. They got together and they

us women can do it too.

God bless you, people.

People don't know that I wasn't one of the original queens of comedy. They had

taken it out a couple times, and then I got the call.

We were and still are the highest -grossing female comedy tour in history.

Now, you can't talk about black female comedians and not talk about Wanda

Being gay is not a choice.

It's not a choice.

Wanda gets on stage completely unapologetic. I am a black woman who is

lesbian. If you believe that it's a choice, then you're saying that straight

people are straight because they chose not to be gay.

Right?

And I'm sure a lot of straight guys in here, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm sure there's on several occasions, you know, you probably think, you know,

think I'm going to suck a dick today.

She's like, this is me. Accept it. And we have.

And we love it. So to go from a point where Moms Mabley has to hide who she is

to Wanda Sykes being able to be celebrated for who she is, progression

possible in this country sometimes.

When Barack Obama was elected president, there was such this exhale, and you

felt that the world had shifted. It changed.

And not only has America changed, but we have changed as a culture.

We expect their representation.

When Chappelle decided not to renew his contract and return with the Chappelle

show, Comedy Central knew they needed to do something to capture that magic

again. And they looked to MADtv alum Keegan -Michael Key and Jordan Peele and

decided to give them their own show.

Where'd the picture go? We deleted it. Gross.

What? I had childbirth days. Yeah, it looks like my grandmother having an

orgasm. Delete it.

Key and Peele was so brilliant to me because the range of characters was out

this world. Man, how you want me to smoke somebody when I got poop in my

From the wigs to the voices to the risks that they were willing to take, it's

unbelievable work.

One of the most iconic sketches on Key and Peele involved Barack Obama and his

alter ego, Luther.

A lot of folks say that I haven't done a good job at communicating my

accomplishments to the public.

And it was so popular that Obama himself invited Luther to come up on stage with

him during a White House correspondent dinner.

So funny.

We won't always see eye to eye. Oh, and CNN, thank you so much for the wall -to

-wall Ebola coverage.

For two whole weeks, we were one step away from the walking dead.

TMPO proved that an all -black sketch show could be...

something that was bankable. And the best thing about it is that it paved the

way for the next one.

Kevin was a good boyfriend, okay?

Now, he stole my car one time, but he brought that shit back.

With a girl in it. The creator of a black lady sketch show, Robin Thede,

that show with so many talented black women. So it was huge.

It's so awesome to see black women really step into so many different

characters. The beauty of sketch is everyone is different. So you get the

villains, the goofballs, you get straight -laced characters.

Sources are telling me that you've been considering switching to another team.

Are you thinking about a crossover to women? Look, I've taken a lot of

in my career, and I'm always hoping it's strapping out a new uniform.

And we get to see this awesome ensemble of Black women play all of these

different characters.

Sometimes I just want to sit down for five minutes without wearing a waist

up. Oh, this whole trying to take deep breaths?

Yeah! Read when you die, honey, okay?

This show shows women writing their hand in history, even giving plain men a

chance. This nigga wear camo like me? This nigga got a beard like me? Oh, he

does? All right, I'm gonna sit down.

I love what she has created, an experience that is just us, by us, for

else to enjoy all of our magic.

I think it is important for us to have our own authentic voices.

the Shonda Rhimes, the Robin Thedes, Kevin Hart, who's now taking his

productions into the stratosphere.

I know I'm not a fighter. That's why I carry a whistle.

I'll blow the shit out of a whistle in somebody's face.

Talk to me if you want to. You're going to win the fight, but you ain't going to

hear shit tomorrow, bitch.

Like she'll pass out for three seconds and wait and then peek to see if anybody

looking. Take me, Jesus.

When you watch Kevin's specials, you know what you're going to get. You know,

you're going to get stuff talking about his life.

Kevin is vulnerable.

He's authentic.

I just don't feel like I need to whoop my kids ass.

My voice is enough.

Shut the fuck up. It's enough.

I love it that Kevin Hart can sell out a football stadium.

You know, I love it that he's the king of the box office.

Comedy movies, his production company, he's got a serious satellite, you know,

network. You have a mogul showing that you can own your own space.

Hi, I'm Kevin Hart. Unless you hate laughter, click and subscribe.

He's able to do what he wants to do as a comedian and as a mogul to create an

empire. There's another mogul who was willing to stand up for his own

Nick Cannon.

We started this show together, and now...

He's kind of successful.

You're going to get your ass beat by a star today.

Nick Cannon has literally created a world out of his personality.

He's quick.

It was like, how spontaneous can you be?

Three words after getting shot.

I'm still pregnant.

We've seen variety shows, but we've never seen them like this.

He really brought the hip -hop culture to variety.

Anything you always wanted to say but never had the gut to say it, this is the

show for that.

Hey, yo, E!

How you know the muffin, man? He stole everything I had. That's my cousin, man.

Hey, yo, Tim!

How you know the muffin, man? He hit my chick, put a muffin in her oven, man.

While and now is the springboard.

to the higher level of success.

Because there have been people that have used that platform and that it's been

monumental for.

Shout out to Nick Cannon, who helped us very early on in our career.

The way he treated us and took us under his wing, that will always, like, stand

out to me.

Jesus and Mero are two of the most hilarious brothers out there.

You know you're in a McDonald's when the drive -thru says, yo, no walking? Like,

you cannot walk through here?

Just be knocking on the glass like, hello?

I'm in the car. Don't worry about it.

Look, 10 and 2. 10 and 2. Look.

And they're like, sir. I'm like, hold up.

How can I help you? Late night TV has certainly expanded its table of black

voices and people who can not only entertain but offer black perspectives,

have long been missing from late night television.

As far as like pressure and feeling like, oh, I have to represent this, I

to represent that. It's like we are who we are and we are that. The show we make

is a reflection of black culture in America.

Part of their success was going viral to keep the audience engaged.

With cable and streaming, there have been so many more opportunities and

platforms for black comedians. The more I think about the future, I think about

the black comics that really sort of moved me. I think about people like

Ruffin. I think about Sam Jay.

I think about Nicole Byer.

Streaming allows for new faces and new players to get into the game to find

success. With the explosion of streaming, black comedians started

record -breaking deals on streaming networks.

The list goes on and on.

So to see them be established and getting big checks for doing big series,

shows that there has been some growth in the industry.

You're looking at half of Netflix's budget right here on stage.

Thanks, Netflix.

Thanks, Netflix. Not me.

Not me. I made all my millions on the road.

You mean touring?

No, I got hit by a truck.

As much as we love to talk about the successes of Dave's $60 million for

Christmas, $50 million, that's amazing, Redd Foxx died broke.

And he had one of the biggest shows on television.

Look at the ratings.

50 million people.

It's absurd that he would die broke.

He died with nothing.

You know, Eddie Murphy paid the funeral cost.

I think it's important that we don't forget about the great people that came

before us.

When signing these huge deals, because there were a lot of people who gave

all to the craft and died with nothing financially to show for it. Looking back

on everything that you've done, if you could change anything, what would it be?

Writing my underwear.

It's a great time to be a black comedian right now.

Because when you think about our past and where we've come from,

the Moms Maybelline, Dick Gregory, Red Fox.

They weren't getting the opportunities as Black artists are getting today.

Give me a hand, Rick. Feel my heart.

Ah, that's quite a beat there.

But that has never stopped us.

from existing and thriving and telling our stories.

The best thing that we can do is use our platform to uplift other younger Black

artists and give them their time to shine.

I used to carry extra panties in my purse in case I got lucky. Now I carry

in case I sneeze.

Black TV is Black life, and it is intrinsically a part of not just our pop

culture, but of our actual story.

I want to ask so big that if I want to talk,

Yeah, it's a TV show, but little black kids are watching, and that's important.

Here's the original Chris.

He drowned in a bath of activated.

We have a voice. It was hard work, but I think the future of black television is

bright.