Word: yassuh
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Laugh-In and Soul shows, warns that the "here-come-de-judge syndrome can be very dangerous, because it is apt to convince white audiences that Negroes are, after all, just kidding." He misses the point. No matter what the show or how limp the humor, the "Yassuh, boss" jokes are still, basically, satire...
THIS week in the U.S. of 1968, a Negro waiter will shuffle off, mumbling: "Yassuh, I'se hurrin' fas' as I know how." An angry Indian will vow: "Many white eyes will die!" A Marine sergeant will cry: "Come on, let's get the yellowbellies...
...clean shirts-but when it comes to singing, Chad Mitchell and friends pride themselves on being latter-day Weavers, a combo with a conscience. They specialize in satirical numbers such as Which Hat Shall I Wear (a giddy social type talking to her Negro cleaning woman) and Yowzah ("Shonuf, Yassuh Boss!"), an acid comment on the Uncle Tom refrain. They have three of the smoothest voices in folkdom, and their racial protests, though skimpy in content, are strictly nonviolent...
...shirtfront--ripping it and straining himself--and dragged me back into the interrogation room (there I noticed that the police escort had drawn guns on the other dozen or so prisoners and everyone seemed quite nervous). All this time the deputy had kept up a high pitch shout of "Yassuh, you sonovabitch! Yassuh, you black bastard! Say YASSUH!" Now he reached into his desk drawer and I perceived that pronouncing two syllables could save me a pistol whipping. The hell with it, I thought--"Yes sir." He stood there breathing heavily and looking down for a good minute... "Get away...
...script is still a stage play, the settings are obviously painted flats, the actors yassuh-massuh and lay on the Virginia ham as though the camera were 30 rows away. What's more, Scenarist Davis plays up to the white folks as often as he beats them down. The side characters are sarcastic caricatures of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom and any old suth'n cunnel (Sorrell Booke); the hero is a big-mouthed burlesque of Dr. Martin Luther King. Nevertheless, every third line sinks in like a needle-not so deep it draws blood but deep enough...