Comedy as a Coping Mechanism: Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage

If you offered me a million dollars to direct a “how it’s made” episode where I explained the science behind creating jokes, I would thank you for your money and then flee the country. Here is a more likely scenario for most of you: imagine that you are in an office, or a school, or really anywhere people gather, and someone has just told the worst delivered and least amusing joke of the year. As they lock eyes with everyone in the circle grinning as glints of sadness shine from their eyes, a chilly silence settles. We have all been in this situation, whether we are the grimacing victims or the unfunny perpetrators, but it begs the question: What makes something funny? Is it the structure, is it the delivery, is it the positive reaction from an audience, or is it the misdirection followed by understanding? Humor is a misunderstood and at times underutilized element of writing. While writing functions as a doorway connecting one person’s life experiences to another, the reader is under no true obligation to walk through that doorway. Comedy is just the carrot at the end of the stick that authors employ to coax the reader into engagement and eventually connection. The inherent nature of good comedy is subtle: wordplay, irony, contrast, and hyperbole. When these tools are utilized effectively, the results run far deeper than a small chuckle or even a burst of laughter. The impact of thoughtfully written comedy is apparent when examining Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. Cooper effectively juxtaposes humor and hardship in order to demonstrate the duality of the black female experience and force the reader to confront modern political struggles from a place of compassion.

It is difficult to critically analyze comedy without appreciating the structure that empowers the humor. Throughout her telling of an Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper lays a foundation rooted in two intertwined narratives. The first narrative is a hyperpersonal retelling of her life up to that point. It is an intimate reflection on the people in her life who formed her values and identity: her smart but removed father, her loving but overworked single mother, her pragmatic and religious grandma, and her homegirls who she turned to for companionship. Cooper’s second narrative serves as a broader political and social commentary. She indicts police brutality and discusses the feebleness and the farce of respectability politics. She illustrates how dangerous white womens’ tears are even in modern times and requests that Americans develop a love and care for Black women they have historically lacked. Cooper constantly weaves these narratives together, Employing comedy to intentionally blur the distinction between personal and societal. 

The chapter entitled “Grown Woman Theology” demonstrates the intentionally interconnected construction of An Eloquent Rage, and highlights the role that comedy plays in advancing that structure. Cooper begins her chapter with an amusing anecdote in which she is returning to rural Louisiana to reconnect with her grandmother. She recalls the first thing Gran told her when she arrived: “It’s time for [her] to start having sex”(Cooper 125). The absurdity is not lost on Cooper as she asserts that “[she’s] sure [her] eyes bugged out of [her] head, as the horror dawned upon [her] that this wasn’t going to be any old regular visit to the country”(125). Cooper conjures an image of comical absurdity with dual purposes in mind. The first is to establish mutual understanding between Cooper and her readers. The second is to utilize a comedic segue into the very difficult topic of Black womens’ journey of sexuality and self-love. Cooper continues the anecdote with another one of her grandmother’s jarring lines:  “Back in my day, we did it…don’t ever let anybody tell you we didn’t.”(Cooper 126). Cooper intentionally contrasts her grandmother’s blunt delivery with her own indignation. This humorous setup instantly builds a connection between Cooper and the audience. After all, no one wants to know about their grandparents’ sex lives. After establishing the initial connection, Cooper shifts her focus to dissecting her grandmother’s comments, addressing what it means to be loved and touched stating that “[Gran] looked at me with those laser eyes that Black mamas use to see right through you and commanded me to ‘start having sex.’ She meant real, good sex. Sex that left you with telltale signs that you had been touched right and handled with care”(127). Cooper juxtaposes the crassness of her grandmother’s words with the loving motivation behind them, taking advantage of a comedic scenario to highlight the importance of self-love in the black community, thus transforming what would usually be a funny, but out of place story, into an emotional contemplation of her relationship with sexuality. 

On the surface you would think, “Well duh.. including a funny story makes people care more, I learned that in third grade” and even though you sound obnoxious, you would be completely right. However, Cooper’s story structure and use of comedy has a slightly more nuanced purpose. . I had mentioned previously that Cooper uses her intertwined story structure to intentionally blur the line between the personal and political. On every occasion, Cooper threads her two narratives together making it impossible for the reader to discount either aspect of her identity. Her two narratives are inseparable and are a rejection of separate logical and emotional appeals. It is as if you accidentally combined your whites and colors in a load of laundry and can no longer tell the origin of the shirt. The only difference is intention. Cooper intentionally combines both appeals as a way of legitimizing both forms of argument. When the reader can no longer identify how they are being impacted by the piece, they are left only with the effect. 

If you approached me—which would be strange because we do not know each other— and asked me to surmise an Eloquent Rage in one sentence, I would tell you that it is a genuine reaction to the absurdity of life from a Black woman’s perspective. Philosopher Immanuel Kant once “explained laughter as a response to an “absurdity.” We first have an expectation about the world, but that expectation is then disappointed or “disappears into nothing”(Clewis). Cooper designs Eloquent Rage as a response to the absurdity, but an absurdity that diverges wildly from Kant’s definition. To Cooper, racism is absurd, sexism is absurd, and the repression of healthy self-love is absurd. Cooper uses comedy to both combat and cope with the absurdity in her life and reveal a crucial aspect of the Black experience: self-love despite generations of trauma.

Works Cited:

Clewis, Robert R. Kant’s Humorous Writings: An Illustrated Guide. Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Cooper, Brittney C. “Grown Woman Theology.” Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Picador, New York, 2019.

Stewart, Marjorie. “Weaving Personal Experience into Academic Writings.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3, Parlor Press, Anderson, SC, 2020.