Prometheus 6

For example, the funny and personable Adele Givens does a routine making liberal use of a colorful obscenity that was a mainstay of the series in its 1990’s heyday...[w]hat distinguishes Ms. Givens’s bit is that it doesn’t just use the word; it is actually about the word. Specifically, it is about a clergyman who chastises her for using the word onstage, and whose self-righteousness leads to a hilarious comeuppance. It’s dirty, it’s clever and it has something to say. What a concept.

A young comedian named Vince Morris provides an even bigger departure from the “Def Comedy Jam” norm. Bespectacled and soft-spoken, he neither looks nor sounds like the stereotypical black comic, and that in a way is the point of his very smart act.

An Old Show Returns, With Just a Little News About Race and Sex
By PETER KEEPNEWS

...A lot has changed since “Def Comedy Jam” was last on the air, but you wouldn’t know it from the first two shows of its new incarnation. There is the occasional topical reference: three of the six performers have jokes about the high price of gas. But otherwise, the subject matter, the humor and the attitude are essentially the same as they were back in the day: usually irreverent, often vulgar and, as the euphemism has it, urban.

And yet amid the punch lines about sodomy and sagging breasts, amid the ritual repetition of “bitch” and even ruder words, there are a few self-referential moments that suggest that something new is in the air.