To say that comedian Baratunde Thurston, director of digital for The Onion, is simply a social satirist is a huge understatement. He is also a revolutionary. Thurston’s keynote address “How to Read the World†at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival drove that point home.
Like his book How To Be Black, which was released January 2012, the author’s insightful keynote was full of biographical comedy. In 2005, after his mother died he was searching through her belongings and found an article about his grandmother, learning she was the first African-American woman to work in the U.S. Supreme Court Building. It was surprising because it was so far removed from his mother who lived the life of a revolutionary, protesting outside the supreme court and influencing Thurston and his sister at a very young age to read books like This is Apartheid. It was also set apart from his own career, making and distributing satirical news. In addition, he told the audience about his great-great grandfather a former slave who taught himself how to read, a skill prohibited by law for blacks.
Upon her death, Thurston wrote a letter to his mother’s family and friends detailing her life and death in a way that was sad yet humorous at the same time. The sequence of events triggered a deeper investigation of himself and how he approached life, comedy and storytelling. He had an epiphany. “Comedians have always played a role of communicating truth directly…making people more receptive to what you have to say,†said Thurston, who co-founded the black political blog Jack & Jill Politics.
Embeded in his keynote was also the message that we are living in a world where everything is connected.”This creates a lot of noise and a scarcity of attention, which in turn creates an opportunity for clarity and trust,†said Thurston. In his opinion, despite our
inclination to look to institutions, governments, and religion for trust, they all let us down. But comedians speak truth. He analyzed how the freedom of truth is reflected across different cultures. His conclusion: “…across the world, what those comedians are saying is revolutionary magic.â€Thurston provided an attentive audience with international examples of real news-inspired satirical content. He talked about how Bassem Yousef, a cardiologist in Egypt, was inspired by John Stewart‘s Daily Show to create his own version that mocked local news coverage, calling the recent Egyptian revolution a mere “festival and a carnival.†The comedian pointed out satirical headlines like “Nigeria have more enemies per capita than any other country†from an Onion-esque Nigerian news service.
He spoke about a television show in Afghanistan similar to NBC’s The Office that highlighted incompetent bosses and corporate nonsense, as well as women in politics and assassination attempts at the highest level of
government but all in a comical way. The show has become so popular that a British ambassador is set to appear on the program playing himself. Because Thurston is a product of the digital age, the importance of telling the story, even with humor, isn’t where this story ends.Thurston discussed how the use of comedy gives him and others the ability to marry the tools of technology with the stories that matter. He explained that the story is more important than the tools by themselves. But together they help upgrade our humanity and freedom.”We are creating magical tools and people around the world are using them,†said the author. “It’s not just YouTube and Facebook, it’s bigger than that. With all this info and data we throw at machines…there is a need for storytelling narrative to work in concert with the code to get us to further steps of freedom.â€
From the thread of boldness embedded deep in his gene pool to the revolution held not on streets but on Internet comedy shows across the world, learning how to revolt is necessary in learning how to read.
Autumn Caviness, assistant director of the W.E.B. DuBois Honors Program at Huston-Tillotson University, thoroughly enjoyed Thurston’s keynote address. “I loved the linkages between his grandmother being able to be the first African American working at the U.S. Supreme Court building, to her grandson having the opportunity to mock the world as a satirist,†she said.
But in 2012, Thurston’s way of interpreting his great-great grandfather’s defiance in teaching himself how to read is through reflecting truth in political comedy, being savvy on the web, and staying up on the latest tech trends and news. Based on the laughs that erupted from the packed exhibit hall, it was certainly a memorable address.