Paul Mooney: Know Your History – Jesus Was Black… So Was Cleopatra

Paul Mooney: Know Your History – Jesus Was Black… So Was Cleopatra
Studio: Image Entertainment
Rated: NOT RATED
Release Date: 2007-02-06
Cast: Paul Mooney
Director: Johnathan X
WorkNameSort: Paul Mooney: Know Your History – Jesus Was Black… So Was Cleopatra
His Chappelle’s Show character Negrodamus may have seen the future, but Paul Mooney seems steadfastly stuck in the past on this peculiar DVD that winds up being part hagiographic documentary, part stand-up comedy. The majority of the non-comedy content on Know Your History consists of various comedians ‘ and Mooney himself ‘ rhapsodizing about how funny the erstwhile writer for Richard Pryor has been, and how important and edgy his comedy remains to this day. The actual riffs he engages in, on the other hand, don’t do much to hold up their end of the bargain. Mooney’s strength has always been his ability to highlight the contrasting perspectives in black and white culture, and his cutting observations are philosophically agreeable, if somewhat pedantic. His delivery, however, drains all the life out of those observations; his timing is so shoddy, he winds up stepping all over his best lines, and there’s a stilted sort of formality to his diction that’s great for a lecture, but not so compelling in a comedy club. (The club, by the way, is Hollywood’s Laugh Factory, where Michael Richards had the meltdown that caused Mooney to swear off ‘the n-wordâ?�; he’s definitely under no such constriction here.) Mooney seems infinitely pleased with himself when a white couple walks out midset. While he seems to think they just couldn’t handle the material, in all likelihood they bailed because his set was a snoozer.

This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2007.