ABSTRACT
This chapter charts three generations of Black feminist stand-up comics in the United States and shows how Black feminist stand-up comedy challenges dominant ideologies around Blackness, sexuality, and gender, all while defying and reinventing conventions of the stand-up form. From the civil rights rhetoric of Jackie “Moms” Mabley in the 1960s to the body/sex-positive performances of Mo’Nique in the 1990s to the contemporary podcast 2 Dope Queens, Black feminist stand-up comics have played imperative roles in shaping Black political thought and are vital figures in the history of Black performance in the United States.
