Mumbo Jumbo Humour

The humour in Mumbo Jumbo is used to critique both western and black culture. For example, Gould and Hinkle try to educate Woodrow Wilson Jefferson, a black man, on how to speak with the common African-American vernacular they have observed. Most of the black characters speak proper, grammatically correct English, while the white characters use the vernacular. As someone in class said on Friday, it played with the preconceived notions of race we have about the characters. I did not expect the secret organization for the advancement of the white race to speak in vernacular. W.W. Reed also uses the humour to critic black culture. For example, W.W. is rejected from a cabaret for being too dark. This is criticizing the black racism that happened during the Harlem Renaissance. This time, a black character, W.W., is made to look foolish by another black character who has some amount of power over him. I enjoyed this humour, but I probably would not if the roles were reversed; i.e. the whites coming off as superior. It seems that satire comes from the bottom up; only those without power can effectively make fun of those who have power over them. Even when Reed is criticizing black culture, he’s not doing it by having a white person belittle an African-American. A black character is always in a position of power, never the sole butt of the joke.