That's How They Get You

From the Thurber Prize-winning author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker comes a ground-breaking collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers at work today

A critic explores what happens when a Yo Mamma joke goes too far. A violent town ritual causes an all-too-familiar moral panic. A writer shares the secret untold politics of The Electric Slide. All across the nation “Karens” become illegal overnight. These are just a few of the hilarious worlds contained in Damon Young’s groundbreaking anthology featuring the best, funniest, and Blackest essays and short stories.

With words that roast, ignite, and burn while connecting to and coalescing around a singular thesis, this anthology emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing. It’s not just a mixture of observational anxieties and stream-of-consciousness lucidities but also an acute political clarity about America. Edited and with an introduction by Damon Young, the critically acclaimed author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, the collection features an all-star roster of contributors, including Hanif Abdurraqib, Mateo Askaripour, Mahogany L. Browne, Wyatt Cenac, Kiese Laymon, Angela Nissel, Deesha Philyaw, Nafissa Thompson Spires, Roy Wood Jr., Nicola Yoon, and more