The Black Pack: Comedy, Race & Resistance is the first book to chronicle the untold history behind the iconic collaborations between a legendary group of comedians—Eddie Murphy, Paul Mooney, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Robert Townsend, and Arsenio Hall—who joined forces as the “Black Pack” in the late 1980s to create a series of socially-charged comedies that revolutionized popular culture and transformed American comedy. 

Working together as writers, directors, producers, actors, and consultants, the Black Pack created some of the most provocative and enduring Black films and television shows of the twentieth century, including classic productions like In Living Color, Coming to America, Hollywood Shuffle, and The Arsenio Hall Show. The Black Pack collective was armed with a signature comedic style which combined politically-Black satire with edgy social humor that entertained millions, shattered box-office records, and slyly critiqued America’s racial condition. Amid escalating social tensions in the 1980s, the Black Pack’s comedic output transformed anger into art, wielding the cloak of humor as a rebellious tool to confront unjust business practices in Hollywood and challenge racial narratives embedded in American culture. Their work empowered unapologetically Black voices and expanded creative possibilities for Black artists in the entertainment industry.

In The Black Pack, Artel Great delivers the most comprehensive analysis of this groundbreaking comedy collective, uncovering how the group’s socially and politically-charged humor defied systemic barriers to achieve unprecedented commercial success and establish a cultural legacy that continues to inspire media creators today and across new generations.

ARTEL GREAT is the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in African American Cinema Studies and assistant professor of cinema and media at San Francisco State University. He is an Independent Spirit Award–nominated filmmaker and the coeditor of Black Cinema & Visual Culture: Art and Politics in the 21st Century.

Contents
Introduction: Black-American Humor and Rituals of Resistance
1 Planet Provocative: Paul Mooney, The Richard Pryor Show & Revolutionary Laughter
2 Black Star Power: The Economics of Eddie Murphy & the Rise of the Black Pack
3 The Mothership: Hollywood Shuffle & the Arrival of Robert Townsend
4 The Hipness Litmus: The Arsenio Hall Show, In Living Color & Black Pack TV
Coda: Black Resistance Humor into the Afro-Future
Acknowledgments
Notes
Appendix

Introduction: Black American Humor and Rituals of Resistance 1
1 Planet Provocative: Paul Mooney, The Richard Pryor Show, and
Revolutionary Laughter 31
2 Black Star Power: The Economics of Eddie Murphy and the
Rise of the Black Pack 69
3 The Mothership: Hollywood Shuffle and the Arrival of Robert
Townsend 109
4 The Hipness Litmus: The Arsenio Hall Show, In Living Color,
and Black Pack TV 145
Coda: Black Resistance Humor into the Afro-Future
183
Appendix: The Complete List of Black Pack Productions 207
Acknowledgments 211
Notes 215
Index 229