Serious laughs: Blackness, Humour and Social Media in Contemporary France

Abstract

This chapter analyses the emergence of a generation of influential black French humourists through YouTube, Instagram and other social media platforms, and connects it to the history of minority humour in France. The work of the new generation differs from the sketches of early comedians because of the specific opportunities and constraints that social media offer. Thanks to new media technologies, these comedians’ work addresses both African diasporas within France and audiences in African and Caribbean countries connected to France by the legacies of the colonial experience. It thus has repercussions both within and beyond the nation.