DL Hughley: The Endangered List

When this comedy special opens with its fake auditions for a Public Service Announcement viewers must wonder: What do these celebrities with their serious demeanor and their heartfelt tones mean when they soberly inform us that “Extinction Isn’t An Option”? What do they want us to do when they ask us to be “BroLife”? Soon enough, we learn. Comedian DL Hughley wants to have “the black man” put on the endangered species list. What seems at first a preposterous notion becomes less so when the comedy is supported with numbers and interviews. One in three black men will go to prison during their lifetime. Black families lost 53% of their net wealth during the Great Recession. Young black men are murdered at 46 times the rate of young white men. On the other end of what is at times a hilarious spectrum, we learn that disturbing the habitat of the California Salamander makes one subject to a $50,000 fine and a year in jail. Punctuated with stand-up routines and filled with irony and exaggeration, Hughley’s special makes us think hard about his premise and the problems that truly concern him. With satire worthy of Jonathan Swift he convinces us that his cause may not be so outrageous as it first seemed, and for that DL Hughley: The Endangered List receives a Peabody Award.