Written by Nadia Nugent, Image sourced from SCAD aTVfest
A notoriously funny cast, an unconventional animation-live-action hybrid and the nation’s most pressing social issues are key features of Hulu’s “Woke,” which showed episodes from its first season at SCAD’s aTVfest Friday, Feb. 5. Lomorne Morris, Keith Knight and Marshall Todd were the representatives of the show speaking on the panel.
The show, created by Keith Knight and Marshall Todd, follows self-proclaimed apolitical comic book artist Keef Knight (Lomorne Morris). After being racially profiled by a police officer, he finds himself not only able to see and hear microaggressions more clearly, but also able to hear inanimate objects speaking to him. His “woke-ness” causes him to lose a major syndication deal for his acclaimed comic “Toast and Butter,” launching Keef on a journey that makes him confront the social issues he once ignored.
Knight revealed that the show’s inciting incident was based on a real-life encounter with police officers while he was hanging posters for his band. Todd also experienced aggressive law enforcement — in his case, he was swatted. The two had set out to create a “Black Seinfeld,” in Todd’s words, but the plot took a different course once they discussed this shared experience.
This new direction, which Knight believes shifts the show into the genre of dramedy, was clear in the two episodes that screened at aTVfest. Themes of mental health, gentrification and identity were woven between animation and one-liners from comedy heavy hitters like supporting cast members Sasher Zamata and Blake Anderson.
Morris is another well-known comedic actor, best known for his role as Winston in “New Girl.” Rather than a departure from the universe of his previous work, he sees this as picking up where he left off. He wrote an episode of “New Girl” called “Par 5,” for instance, where his character is forced to confront both sides of the debate on policing in the Black community as a Black police officer himself.
“The state of Black America has always been there. It takes a nation of millions to hold us back,” said Knight, “Racism is evergreen. Police brutality is evergreen. It’s always going on.”
He continued on to say that the creators of the show wanted to address this reality in a way that wasn’t traumatizing for their audience. “We see it so much in the real world, so we wanted to make sure that this would be funny,” said Knight.
Using comedy as a vehicle to discuss pressing issues in the Black community is nothing new.
“Black people laugh to keep from breaking down,” said Todd. They wanted their show talk about important topics, like the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer, in a way that was digestible and light. But they didn’t avoid any topics to do so.
The panelists agreed that they strove to create a show that they would like to see, and stressed the importance of telling your own story to the aspiring artists and creatives in the audience.
“Woke” has been renewed for a new season with another eight episodes, which will premiere on Hulu.
