Salon's James Hannaham grapples with a question that has long vexed the guardians of popular culture, not to mention John Singleton: what is it about black comic actors and ladies' dresses? And is the eagerness of such performers as Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy (and such predecessors as Flip Wilson, the first black comedian with his own network variety show, which made his character Geraldine a household name) somehow a step back for racial progress? Drag has a long and distinguished show business lineage, if you're in England, where comedians both low (Benny Hill), high (Monty Python), and in between (the Australian Barry Humphries) had treated women's wear as just another weapon in their comic arsenal, but in America it's often been looked down upon.
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