"Coon Songs" and Minstrel Shows

A poster featuring the character 

of "Jim Crow"

Background Information-

“Coon Songs” and minstrel shows were both highly popular forms of entertainment in America from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Both mediums of entertainment were based around the lampooning and ridiculing of African American culture and peoples, and often perpetuated the “coon caricature” of what black people were like.

Minstrel shows were a popular form of entertainment which cast white people in blackface (makeup meant to create a visual stereotype of African Americans) and parodied the culture and mannerisms of African Americans. The phrase Jim Crow, as we know it today, originated from one of the earliest examples of a minstrel show, titled “Jump Jim Crow”, a song and dance number which featured American actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface as “Jim Crow”. The character of Jim Crow was noted for being depicted in programs for the show with huge eyeballs, an overly wide nose, and a thick-lipped mouth with a foolish grin, as well as his jaunty walk which was modeled after the original inspiration for the character, a crippled slave. Minstrel shows after the production of “Jump Jim Crow” featured similar characters as this, and played upon the grotesquely caricatured model that Jim Crow established. They were based on this slave archetype, and were shown as being lazy, stupid, without morals, heathenish, and generally inhumane. While minstrel shows enjoyed popularity between the years of 1840 and 1860, their popularity decreased greatly after the Civil War. The emergence of minstrel shows preceded the popularity of coon songs by about forty years, and went on to influence the “coon caricature” used greatly in coon songs as well.

Sheet music for the song "All Coons Look

Alike to Me" by Ernest Hogan

Coon songs constituted a genre of music whose lyrics focused on racially degrading and stereotyping African Americans. They were most popular between the years of 1880 and 1920. These songs employed the popular composition style of the time referred to as “ragtime” music (meaning music without a “ragged” and diverse rhythm), and were almost always intended to be comedic in nature. Lyrically speaking, coon songs intended to keep up with the popular stereotypes of blacks that were projected by minstrel shows of the mid-nineteenth century, and often featured African Americans as "watermelon and chicken-loving rural bufoon[s]. Ironically, while most of these songs were written by whites, a good portion were written and composed by African Americans themselves. Even more ironic is that the African Americans who wrote these songs went on to achieve commercial success, and their works allowed for a greater widespread acceptance and listening of African American music. Notable examples of such African American musicians who contributed to this genre would be Ernest Hogan, Bob Cole, Sam Lucas, George Walker, and others.

Here featured are the some of the lyrics, and audio recording, of a popular coon song titled “All Coons Look Alike to Me”, written by Ernest Hogan, an African American entertainer and songwriter:

All coons look alike to me

I've got another beau, you see

And he's just as good to me as you, nigger!

Ever tried to be

He spends his money free,

I know we can't agree

So I don't like you no howAll coons look alike to me

Relevance to Against the Day-

There are a few instances within the novel that present examples of these two forms of entertainment. The (unfamiliar) reader may assume, with Against the Day being a historical novel written in the 21st century that features these elements, that the allusions and inclusions of coon songs and minstrel shows are meant to criticize the existence of these forms of entertainment in the era. However, it is the context in which they are used that makes them important to the story, not their presence in it of itself. Against the Day doesn’t necessarily have any overarching message regarding the mistreatment of any racial demographics, let alone those of African Americans, however grotesque they were by today’s standards. Context is key, and usually the context in this novel is meant to imply that the individuals associated with these songs and shows are dupes, whether or not they are African American.

For example, the very first reference to a coon song occurs during the scene in the bar with Lew and Franz Ferdinand in the first section of the novel, where the African Americans in the bar begin to sing “All Pimps Look Alike to Me (which is originally titled “All Coons Look Alike to Me”) after being treated to a round by F.F.. The irony of the situation being of course that those who were singing it happened to be African American, and the nature of coon songs are very degrading towards African Americans. The greater irony though is that those in the bar were duped by F.F. as he dashed away with Lew, leaving them all with the bill for their drinks, as they were singing a song that perpetuated their foolishness as a whole.

In addition, there is a scene much later on in the novel in the second section of the novel with Dahlia Rideout observing one of Con McVeety’s shows during her time as a card girl, where one Dr. Ictibus is presenting his “Safe-Deflector Hat”. His seemingly ingenious explanation of an absurd device that doubtfully works is followed by the guttural affirmative moan of his assistant Odo, who cries, “Unnhhrrhhh!” in affirmation of the device’s guaranteed results. Odo’s exaggerated eagerness onstage is reminiscent of the character Jim Crow from minstrel shows of the era, and his buffoonish affirmation of the Safe-Deflector Hat is an allusion to these minstrel shows. In case the reader is skeptical of this, Pynchon follows up on the joke with Wilshire Vibe’s appearance afterwards, asking her if she’s seen shows such as “African Antics” yet. The close association with Odo’s actions and other in-story minstrel shows as discussed by Wilshire Vibe confirm the implied absurdity of Dr. Ictibus’s technology, or, if the reader speculates, Pynchon’s implied jab at the blind commercial and capitalist idealism of the era. If the reader is aware of the way in which characters are portrayed in minstrel shows, it’s not a stretch to see the relationship between the two in this moment.

There are other references to both coon songs and minstrel shows in the novel, such as Mr. Hop Fung’s “chop suey stories” (which are easily comparable to minstrel shows), “Dope” Breedlove and his Merry Coons (whose music inspired beastly behavior from the patrons in the saloon surrounding Ruperta), and the association between Ray Ipsow’s socialism and “Old Zip Coon” as he leaves the room where Scarsdale Vibe and Professor Heino Vanderjuice are discussing business. All these examples and more draw upon the connection between the nature of coon songs and minstrel shows, and the context of the situation and the individuals involved. In more ways than one, it seems to be Pynchon’s era-related pun to brand somebody as being stupid. It’s not exactly classy, but it’s certainly Pynchon.

Sources-

1) Shaping the Popular Image of Post-Reconstruction American Blacks: The "Coon Song" Phenomenon of the Gilded Age
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712997

2) In Search of Coon Songs, Racial Stereotypes in American Popular Song
http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/coonsongs/coonsongs.php

3) The Coon Caricature
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/

4) Cockrell, Dale (1997), Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World

5) Mahar, William J. (1998), Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture