Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

See Also

See Also in This Set

African Americans

Cable television

Comedians

In Living Color

Late night television

The 1990s in America

Chris Rock

by Dodie Marie Miller

Identification African American comedian and actor

Rock’s humor represented an evolution in African American and urban-oriented, stand-up comedy.

Chris Rock’s clenched-teeth delivery and energetic onstage pacing as he explained aspects of cultural and political phenomena to urban audiences made him one of the most popular stand-up comedians of the 1990’s. In a style that could be described as one part rap artist, one part urban intellectual, Rock put into perspective the issues that confronted African Americans as well as Americans in general, taking on sensitive subjects such as race relations and black poverty.

Chris Rock accepts his award for entertainment host for HBO’s The Chris Rock Show at the 1997 CableACE Awards.

ph_Rock_Chris.jpg

(AP/Wide World Photos)

Rock’s particular brand of comedy seemed to resonate with African Americans who had been born during or after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, and who therefore were familiar with the comedian’s topical humor about integrated schools, rap music, the Rodney King beating, and the dating scene in the 1990’s. Additionally, Rock’s stand-up performances included material about the African American community’s relationship with television news media and that community’s internal divisions.

By 1990, Rock had already appeared on national comedy shows and in films, such as Home Box Office’s (HBO) Uptown Comedy Express and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) with Eddie Murphy. In 1990, Rock had become a regular on Saturday Night Live, where he remained until 1993. Throughout the early 1990’s, Rock appeared in a variety of films, most of which held a great deal of significance for the new generation of African American urban audiences, including New Jack City (1991), Boomerang (1992), and CB4 (1993), which he also cowrote.

The early 1990’s saw Rock returning to television. In 1993, Rock briefly joined the cast of the Fox network variety show In Living Color. By 1994, he was headlining HBO’s Comedy Half-Hour. Throughout the late 1990’s, Rock’s urban wit would be showcased on several HBO shows, including the Emmy Award-winning Chris Rock: Bring the Pain (1996) and Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker (1999). In 1997, Rock was the host of HBO’s The Chris Rock Show.

In the late 1990’s, Rock appeared on a number of shows, including Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central and the MTV Video Music Awards, which he hosted in 1997. In a return to film, Rock offered his trademark voice to a guinea pig character in Eddie Murphy’s remake of Dr. Dolittle (1998) and starred as Rufus, the fictional thirteenth apostle, in Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999). Rock’s relevance to the MTV generation was evidenced by his hosting the MTV Video Music Awards for a second time in 1999.

Impact

Rock came into prominence at a time when African American comedians’ routines were expected to contain a certain amount of vulgarity, following in the footsteps of previous decades’ stars, such as Richard Pryor in the 1970’s and Eddie Murphy in the 1980’s. Rock’s approach to comedy was traditional in that sense; his sharp insight demonstrated his cultural and political knowledge and illustrated the complexity of the postmodern, urban, African American experience, appealing to audiences who had yet to find a comedian who shared their voice.

Further Reading

1 

Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. Chris Rock, Comedian. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2000.

2 

Rock, Chris. Rock This! New York: Hyperion, 1997.

3 

Zolten, J. Jerome. “Black Comedians: Forging an Ethnic Image.” Journal of American Culture 16 (Summer, 1993): 65-76.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Miller, Dodie Marie. "Chris Rock." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1470.
APA 7th
Miller, D. M. (2009). Chris Rock. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Miller, Dodie Marie. "Chris Rock." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.