Yes I know you want the story to go away and so do I.Among the several discrepancies in the story of Dr.Gates and Officer Jim Crowley is that Skip said "yo mama".Black people don't talk like that. John Gibson on his FOX radio show kept repeating it.First, I don't think Skip would talk like that to a white man with a gun like that. Second, it's really juvenile.
When people see reruns of "Good Times" or "What's Happening", black people curse a strange way.Writers for these shows like Jay Leno couldn't use the word MF, so they made up some words.The word chosen was "Jive Turkey".No one I know used it,except when we were commenting on a show we heard it off of. Sometimes we used it in front of our parents because we couldn't use MF.The only place you will hear black people talk like that is on Nick Cannon's comedy show and old black sitcoms.
Yes I know you want the story to go away and so do I.Among the several discrepancies in the story of Dr.Gates and Officer Jim Crowley is that Skip said "yo mama".Black people don't talk like that. John Gibson on his FOX radio show kept repeating it.First, I don't think Skip would talk like that to a white man with a gun like that. Second, it's really juvenile. When people see reruns of "Good Times" or "What's Happening", black people curse a strange way.Writers for these shows like Jay Leno couldn't use the word MF, so they made up some words.The word chosen was "Jive Turkey".No one I know used it,except when we were commenting on a show we heard it off of. Sometimes we used it in front of our parents because we couldn't use MF.The only place you will hear black people talk like that is on Nick Cannon's comedy show and old black sitcoms.
Dr. Gates teaches African-American history and culture at Harvard.His demeanor is prim and proper
"The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism is a work of literary criticism and theory by American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. first published in 1988. The book traces the folkloric origins of the African-American cultural practice of "signifying" and uses the concept of Signifyin(g) to analyze the interplay between texts of prominent African American writers, specifically Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston and Ishmael Reed.
Signifyin(g) is closely related to double-talk and trickery of the type used by the Monkey of these narratives, but, as Gates himself admits, "It is difficult to arrive at a consensus of definitions of signifyin(g)."[1] Bernard W. Bell defines it as an "elaborate, indirect form of goading or insult generally making use of profanity."[2] Roger D. Abrahams writes that to signify is "to imply, goad, beg, boast by indirect verbal or gestural means."[3] Signifyin(g) is a homonym with the concept of signification put forth by Semiotician Ferdinand de Saussure wherein the signifier (sound image) interacts with the signified (concept) to form one whole linguistic sign.[4] Gates plays off this homonym and incorporates the linguistic concept of signifier and signified with the vernacular concept of signifyin(g).
Sounds boring, don't it?This is the spoken word jazz word of it.
SIGNIFYIN` MONKEY - Lyrics
[verse 1]:
SAID THE SIGNIFYIN` MONKEY
TO THE LION ONE DAY,
`HEY,
THERE`S A GREAT BIG ELEPHANT
DOWN THE WAY,
GOIN` `ROUND, TALKIN`,
I`M SORRY TO SAY,
ABOUT YOUR MAMA
IN A SCANDALOUS WAY.
YES, HE`S TALKIN`
`BOUT YOUR MAMA
AND YOUR GRAN`MA TOO,
AN` HE DON`T SHOW
TOO MUCH RESPECT
FOR YOU.
YOU WEREN`T HERE
AN` I SURE AM GLAD,
`CAUSE WHAT HE SAID
ABOUT YOUR MAMA
MADE ME MAD!`
Now here's the real version as told by comedian Rudy Ray Moore:
Way down in the jungle deep,
The bad ass lion stepped on the signifyin monkey's feet.
The monkey said, "Muthaf***a, can't you see?
Why, you standin on my g**damn feet!"
The lion said, "I ain't heard a word you said."
Said, "If you say three more I'll be steppin on yo muthaf***in head!"
Now do you think that Skip Gates talked to a officer like that?I almost forgot to John Gibson,Bill Oreilly,Sean Hannity,Rush Limbaugh and everyone at FOX, yo mama!
*I should have pointed out that The Signifying Monkey story is an old Yoruba folktale that made it here to the New World.
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3 comments:
my neighbor is a retired school administrator,not even close to being a harvard prof, he would never in a million years talk like that.
the signifying monkey is very interesting, i need to learn more about it. thanks
don't you remember I told you about Rudy Ray Moore,Dolomite?A lot of people know this from memory.
yes i remember Dolomite, that was good:))
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