ABSTRACT
In addition to providing a humorous, satirical view of the venerated concepts of history, economy, and location, American humor also refl ects the differences between diverse groups in American culture. Nancy Walker writes that “the diversity that is one of America’s distinctive qualities has in turn produced much humor expressive of [ethnic and cultural] differences” (What’s So Funny? 8). In early American history, ethnic humor was one of the means by which dominant white culture maintained its superiority. Nevertheless, in underground arenas, ethnic humor took a different course-it at once mocked the supposed superiority of the dominant group while keeping a critical eye on the discursive political opinions held within the oppressed group. In particular, African-American humorists and satirists can especially tell “the Great American Joke” because they have often been denied the privilege of partaking in “the American Dream,” making the tragic gap that Louis Rubin writes of even more pronounced, more incongruous from the AfricanAmerican perspective. As a result, African-Humor humor has developed as a clear subset in the Great American Joke as African-Americans have had to fi ght for freedom in the land of the free.
