omg this collection frickin ROCKS. there was maybe just one or two stories in this collection that I didn't adore and while I'm probably not the target audience for a lot of this humor, I felt enriched reading it and loved the different perspectives and layers of themes explored, humorously but also sometimes really poignantly. 4.5 rounded up~

I've been a fan of Damon Young ever since he ran the funny, engaging blog Very Smart Brothas (before it was bought and sadly run into the ground under the Gawker network) and his voice is sharp and hilarious as always here. It made me wish his writing made up more of the book since a lot of the other pieces were not as funny or insightful. There's a wide variety of essays from a range of talented folks though so any reader should find a least a couple pieces they enjoy.

I was, as usual, hopelessly optimistic that another anthology of humor writers would actually contain humor. Most fail miserably, but Damon Young’s That’s How They Get You actually has some talented writers and some good laughs in it. The differentiator here is that all the writers are people of color.

Most of the efforts are autobiographical. They are family or friend or dating anecdotes fleshed out into stories. This gives the author the ability to show some style, or really – attitude. It adds a lot to a memory when character can frame and shape it with perspective and attitude. Many of the writers here understand that, which already puts this collection ahead of most others I have reviewed.

Some of the stories are clearly fiction, such as The Gorilla, from Joseph Earl Thomas, in which he attempts to save his father from being eaten by a gorilla in the house. It is a fever dream of a story, with events that are not so easy to relate to unless hallucinating, but it is written well enough to overcome such trifles.

Some are totally humorless, making the reader wonder where the bar was set. But at least none of them are badly written, always a risk. Again, making this collection better than most.

There are 26 entries, including several by Damon Young, who put it all together. Young demonstrates his talents by things like a five page sentence – no punctuation at all, called You Gonna Get These Teeth. It is a story of crooked teeth, spending years torturing himself hiding them, and eventually straightening them out and rejoining society with a vengeance. He also posts several racist comments he (supposedly) received by email throughout the book, some of which seem reasonable until the end when they go off the rails, just like in the real life of social media. (Imagine that: social media is real life.)

Interestingly, the actual subject of race doesn’t get fully treated until a good hundred pages in, when Nicola Yoon’s We Don’t Make Princesses In Those Colors appears. It is the story of her young daughter attending one the interminable birthday parties kids have, seemingly every weekend all year. The balloon lady hired for the event does not have and would not consider making a princess balloon piece in her daughter’s skin color. Peach was pretty much the only choice. The story gets appropriately snarky and sarcastic, but as her daughter was much more interested in stuffing her face with birthday cake, she was not traumatized by it all. But her mother clearly was.

Michael Harriott has the longest piece, describing his growing up in an evangelical household/sect, where the Holy Ghost is literally the family business, right down to his mother’s abominable lyrics to team spirit songs to sing in church. It is a long and straightforward memory of skirting the business, a totally linear story. Clearly, he grew out of it.

Some things I noticed a lot of were brands. These writers love to cite brands: of clothing, food, makeup and such, as well citing small town names and locales, as if everyone reading would know immediately what and where they meant. It’s not true. Readers need to be led, not deposited. But one excellent use of it appears in Michael Harriott’s An Oral History of the Holy Ghost, where he says “being saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost is like Jesus’s version of Amazon Prime.” It might be expensive, but everyone knows about it and pretty much everyone must have it as a minimum requirement. Excellent use of a brand reference. Far better than the simple name-dropping of most of the others.

And of course, the n-word is everywhere. It could hardly be called Black if it didn’t use the word endlessly these days. This is particularly true of phone call dialog or online chats, which give each character the ability to slather the n-word over every speech, it seems. It is unfailingly unfunny, but sometimes it is actually endearing and affectionate, which is a nicer use of it. Still, it is stereotyping, and I’m not fond of that. You would think Black writers would not be fond of it, either. But you would be wrong.

Easily my favorite comes from Roy Wood Jr. It’s called Crowd Work, and it’s about his first travel date to do standup. It was at New York’s Showtime at the Apollo TV show. It is a terrifically constructed story; actual thought went into it, and it pays off. Up front there is a delightfully funny rant about how he had mapped out his entire career and life, with every turn hinged on pulling off some (basically impossible) event or accomplishment, the totality of which is obviously ridiculous to anyone but the teenager he was.

That’s how he gets you, and then it’s back to the narrative. He drives to New York and books himself into a classically seedy New Jersey motel, since the show provided no travel, hotel or per diem money. He does his thing in Harlem and circles back to the motel, where the hookers have been watching him, suspicious as to why anyone with a collared shirt would be staying there three nights in a row, and without sampling either their wares or the dealers’. When he’s done (and depressed), he finally has a conversation with one of them, who gives him the wisdom of a lifetime, salvaging a largely failed trip and pointing him in the right direction. It is complete, tight, well-paced, and even instructive. It has a message! It is an inside look at life in comedy, and it is funny. Just a lovely piece to read.

David Wineberg

A wonderful collection of essays, short stories, and conversations about Black humor. It’s not all ha-has and hee-hees. It’s humor as a coping mechanism, it’s irony, and dark humor.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

Here's the thing about any anthology: there are going to be some hits, but also some misses. This had more hits for me as a reader, and the misses were pretty easy to skim/skip.

This was a great anthology of essays by a variety of beloved Black writers and comedians. The essays were very well written and really all showcased the complexities around blackness.

this was a strong anthology and enjoyed the humor going on in this collection of stories. Each story worked well overall and appreciated getting into this type of book. I thought each stories worked well together and kept the theme going on.

Great Read ! Informative and humorous! I got a few laughs even learned a few things ! My people and their humor and intelligence is always top tier to me !

This is an anthology of fiction and essays by a variety of Black writers and comedians. They cover instances in childhood and adulthood where humor helped them through something, or that they can look back on with humor. They cover the complexities of growing up predominately white areas, having difficult parents, being a Black parent, being a Black comedian, having a miscarriage and more. There’s also odes to Black culture, such as Black names and how Black women lift each other up.

Like a lot of anthologies, it was a mixed bag. I was expecting a lot more humor, but it was a lot of deeply emotional insights on trauma. I definitely think this is a book where you could pick it up and sort of snack on the different stories.

Nice selection of essays/stories. Nice variety of subject matter. I had never heard of this author prior, but I will be looking for him again. I found myself getting done what was ahead of me for the day to pick this book back up and continue reading. Some of the stories will resonant with the reader, maybe due to similar situations, which I feel adds something to the essays. Thank you for sharing with us. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Receiving the book in this manner, had no bearing on this review.