Open Mike Eagle and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return star Baron Vaughn are bringing their touring comedy showcase to Comedy Central. Excellent news all around.
Deadline reports that in Comedy Central’s 2017-18 development slate is the now picked-up series The New Negroes. (You can practically hear the hard-right mouth breathing talk radio rants about this title already.) The program is being billed as a stand-up comedy and music hybrid showcase with Vaughn and Open Mike Eagle hosting and executive producing.
Comedy Central president Kent Alterman seems pretty keen on the series. That makes sense seeing as it’ll be his network airing it.
“[The New Negroes] taps into something that is so real and vital, it’s tapping into black comedy while presenting multiple points of view and different angels on material and performances that is reflective of the world we are living in,” said Alterman.
No, the title will not be getting a rebranding when it arrives on basic cable.
“I think they were really thoughtful when they arrived at that title,” offered Alterman on the name.
In a 2016 interview with Spin, Open Mike Eagle explained what the New Negroes concept comes from.
“We feel like part of what is going on with America now — especially if you look at micro-interactions between white folks and black folks — [is] there is a lot of real, instant-judging that is happening, especially by the police. Part of the reason why that happens [is] the dominant culture doesn’t always take the time to realize minority cultures, especially black American culture, are varied. It’s a lot of different experiences under the guise of being in America. This platform, as a comedy show, serves to promote voices that speak to how the experiences among us are varied. And it’s not like they have to be even radical or wildly different from each other. It’s just that you come to one of our shows and you hear comics that represent all sorts of different cultural perspectives inside of America.”
Comedy Central has not announced a series debut date as of yet. And in case you missed it, last year Open Mike Eagle also put out one of the best rap albums of 2016. Talk about multi-talented, you know?
