FOOTNOTES:
1.
Wilmore grew up in a “very Black middle-class place”; his parents divorced when he was a child.
2.
He played both basketball and football: “I was lucky when it came to sports because I was really good.”
3.
Wilmore co-created
Insecure with Rae before The Nightly Show:
“Sometimes, I’m like, I didn’t want to leave Issa.”
4.
Reginald Denny was a white truck driver who was filmed in South Central L.A. during the riots by a helicopter news camera as he got pulled from his vehicle by a group of Black assailants, who beat him and threw a brick at his head, causing lasting cognitive damage.
5.
In the sketch, original In Living Color cast member T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh plays Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown.
6.
Other comics who’ve crossed the line? Wilmore cites both George Carlin and Lenny Bruce’s foul mouths.
7.
Highly regarded screenwriter, producer, and showrunner known for Soul Food, Everybody Hates Chris, and Marvel’s The Punisher.
8.
The late producer also consulted on The Tyra Banks
Show and directed the ’90s films Above the Rim, Booty Call, and Lost & Found.
9.
The Jamie Foxx Show aired August 1996 to January 2001.
10.
It ran from 1999 to 2001 and starred Loretta Devine, Ja’Net DuBois, Jenifer Lewis, James Black, Michael Paul Chan, and others.
11.
The Bernie Mac Show aired from 2001 to 2006; it co-starred Kellita Smith, Jeremy Suarez, Dee Dee Davis, and
Camille Winbush.
12.
Wilmore played “Mr. Brown,” a Diversity Today rep sent to “train” the Dunder Mifflin Scranton staff.
13.
A bit that was about how the era’s racist politicians had gotten lazy and uncreative with their insults.
14.
In 2022, Stewart won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, one of the highest honors in comedy.
15.
The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore aired for two seasons between January 2015 and August 2016. It was canceled owing to poor ratings.
16.
Conservative uproar ensued after Wilmore ended his WHCD roast by telling President Obama, “Yo, Barry. You did it, my nigga.”
17.
“Speaking of drones, how is Wolf Blitzer still on television? Hey, Wolf, I’m ready to project tonight’s winner: anyone that isn’t watching The Situation Room.”
18.
Marc Wilmore was best known for his work on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and more recently F Is for Family. He famously got a job writing for The Simpsons after impersonating the mayor of East St. Louis during a visit to the writers’ room—arranged as a prank to teach a lesson to one of the show’s producers, who had made disparaging remarks about the city during an interview.
19.
On The PJs, Marc voiced Walter Burkett, a parole officer and former crooked cop.