USA: Writers; Bruce Jay Friedman and Black Humor

National Educational Television and Radio Center · June 19, 1966

"As for Black Humor, by this time it has a kind of tired sound to it; like last year's beer commercial" say Bruce Jay Friedman, himself one of the most brilliant writers of the so-called Black Humor spectrum. But he adds: "if there is any Black Humor, then the bible and main source of it is still the New York Times." Mr. Friedman feels that the newspaper reporter who has to cover the absurdities and travesties of the modern world has become the satirist, and therefore the satirical novelist "has had to make an attempt to discover new territory, invent a new currency, new filters for his vision; has had to sail into darker waters somewhere beyond conventional satire, and this may or may not be a definition of Black Humor." Appearing with Bruce Jay Friedman, the author of "Stern" and "A Mother's Kisses," to discuss Black Humor, are literary personalities R.V. Cassill, critic and novelist Leslie A. Fiedler, and author George Mandel, one of the initiators of the "beat" movement in fiction. They comment on Black Humor in general and on Bruce Jay Friedman's work in particular, especially his novel "Stern." A line-drawing strip illustrating "Stern" over which a synopsis of the novel is read is one of the special features of the episode. USA Writers #5 - Bruce Jay Friedman and Black Humor is a National Educational Television production with the facilities of WNDT, its New York affiliate station. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) USA: Writers is part of an assessment of the state of the literary arts in the United States, which concentrates on contemporary prose writers across many genres. The half-hour episodes that comprise the series were originally recorded on videotape.