New books by Damon Young and Dennard Dayle take different routes to humor

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

Today on the show, two new books take different routes to humor. First, writer Damon Young is out with an anthology of comedic essays called That's How They Get You. Young says he reached out to people who represent the expansiveness of Black humor and gave them one directive: Be funny. In today's episode, Young talks with NPR's Juana Summers about his essay on his relationship with Invisalign. Then, Dennard Dayle's fixation with the Civil War was the impetus for his satirical novel How to Dodge a Cannonball. The book follows a teenage Union flag twirler as he switches sides, steals uniforms, and claims to be an octoroon. In today's episode, Dayle chats with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about taking a comedic approach to history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. I genuinely think writing is one of the most
0:08.9	difficult forms of comedy. Because unlike other forms where you can control the tone and the
0:14.2	timing, all you have with writing is the words on the page. Today on the pod, we've got two
0:19.2	books taking very different roots to humor. Up ahead,
0:22.3	a satire about a Civil War flag twirler. But first, that's how they get you is an anthology
0:28.5	of comedic essays exploring black life in America today. The writer Damon Young put it together,
0:34.1	and he talked to NPR's Juana Summers about how, while the topics differ, they're about parenting and marriage and Invisaline, they all are, in part, about
0:43.4	shame. That's ahead.
0:46.7	What do you do if you hear from someone about a really difficult life moment, losing a mother,
0:52.1	a baby, facing completely unfair treatment at work.
0:55.9	What do you do with those stories? If you're Damon Young, you probably put them together in a
1:00.9	collection of comedic essays. This was me just trying to reach out the people who represent,
1:08.0	I guess, the expansiveness, you know, to virtuosity, the range of black humor.
1:13.3	To be clear, when he says black humor, he is not talking about heavy or taboo topics.
1:18.5	He means humor coming specifically from black American voices.
1:22.7	Damon Young is a columnist, culture blog founder and podcast host among many things.
1:27.1	And he tapped fellow
1:28.4	writers, including Roy Wood Jr., Clover Hope, Wyatt Sannack, and many, many more for a new
1:34.6	anthology called That's How They Get You.
1:36.9	My only directive for people was to be funny. And it wasn't necessarily like, okay, be funny.
1:42.9	Ha ha, ha, tell knock, knock jokes.
1:44.2	It's like, you know what, be yourself.
	...

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