“Dolemite Is My Name,” the Signifying Monkey and the Black Comedic Tradition

Today, the based-on-real-life comedy Dolemite Is My Name premiered on Netflix.

The film, set in 1970s, follows struggling performer Rudy Ray Moore (played by Eddie Murphy) who moved from Arkansas to chase show business in LA. Down on his luck, Moore goes for broke in his quest for stardom by taking on the jive-talking, raunchy and outrageous alter ego “Dolemite.”

I don’t want to spoil the film’s plot too much, but in many ways, the character Dolemite is a metaphor for the Signifying Monkey—a character rooted in West African mythology, carried with enslaved people to America and transformed into African American folklore.

Though the specific details may differ depending on what part of the country it’s told, the story goes as follows: the Signifying Monkey hurls insults at a lion (telling him he is merely reporting what an elephant was saying about him). The lion confronts the elephant and gets his clock cleaned. Though the lion gets payback on the Signifying Monkey in the end, it’s a story of wit, cleverness and wisdom. It also highlights the African American Vernacular English tradition of “double talk.”

History and linguistics scholars date double talk back to Africa, but in the American context, it stems from the Black slave experience…