Revolution Televised.pdf

208 Notes to Chapter 4
4. This Ain’t No Junk
1. Jones, quoted in Bill Davidson, “The World’s Funniest Dishwasher
Is Still Cleaning Up,” 29.
2. Joe X. Price, Redd Foxx, B.S. (Before Sanford), 114.
3. Foxx and Miller, The Redd Foxx Encyclopedia of Black Humor,
238.
4. Signifying refers to a verbal challenge; by using funny or sharp
comments, one person attempts to put down another. Toasts included the
use of language that rejected middle-class values and thus contained obscenities
and sexual innuendos.
5. The Bad Nigger character was depicted in 1920s urban black folklore.
The Bad Nigger was more aggressive than the trickster and more
openly confronted white society. He was therefore to be feared by mainstream
America. Watkins, On the Real Side, 458–76.
6. Foxx and Miller, The Redd Foxx Encyclopedia of Black Humor,
239.
7. Redd Foxx, “LBJ,” on Fugg It!!! The Very Best of Redd Foxx, #64.
8. Redd Foxx, “Chains,” on Fugg It!!! The Very Best of Redd Foxx,
#35.
9. Michael O’Daniel, “He’s Come a Long Way from St. Louis: Still the
Comedian Hasn’t Found Contentment,” 25.
10. Watkins, On the Real Side, 361.
11. Price, Redd Foxx, B.S. (Before Sanford), 1.
12. Ibid., 2.
13. Ibid., 4.
14. Ibid., 85.
15. Ibid., 47.
16. Archie Bunker remains one of the most controversial figures in
U.S. television history, and All in the Family is considered one of the most
influential shows. Archie was a problematic figure. Although a bigot, he
was embraced by many Americans. As Donald Bogle points out in Prime
Time Blues, Archie was so popular that during the 1972 presidential election,
stores sold bumper stickers that read “Archie Bunker for President.”
A CBS study also indicated that although many believed the show would
instigate change in people’s attitudes about race, apparently it simply reinforced
long-standing racist beliefs. Bogle, Prime Time Blues, 185–86.
17. Dick Adler, “Look What They Found in the Junkyard—the Spare
Parts of a Comedy Series That Breaks Some New Ground,” 28.
18. Joel Eisner and David Krinsky, Television Comedy Series: An Episode
Guide to 153 Sitcoms in Syndication, 720.
19. For more information on the history of this figure, see Gates, The
Signifying Monkey.