On Trickster-ism

Here's a past post about the Trickster figure we talked about in class. "The Signifying Monkey" is a classic Trickster Figure:

The toast itself usually is a narrative about deception, hustling, or someone getting over on someone else. But one of the essential elements of this story is that the trickster/bandit/hustler is almost always in a position of lesser power than the victim. The classic example here is the Signifying Monkey.

Here's nice site that explains the concept of the Signifying Monkey a little bit more and provides examples. Let's do a little quoting from the site, yes?

. . . a trickster figure such as the Signifying Monkey enjoys stirring up trouble for its own sake. All trickster figures, however, are rather wise too. Perhaps they know that laughing at trouble (and even creating trouble just to laugh) has a special kind of transformative power. Tricksters can level the playing field in a flash and make it possible for burdened and uptight people to suddenly feel lighthearted and playful. Tricksters show up in the folklore and creation myths of a number of cultures worldwide, including African, Haitian, Native American (or American Indian) and African American.

Another way to think about the Signifying Monkey as it relates to the toast is in terms of social power. Signifying, then, is a way to not only speak truth to power without getting killed (court jester) but also to indirectly attack it not through force but through intelligence and manipulation. Check out this video of Doug Hammond reciting on of the Signifying Monkey toasts.

If all this sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because the toast is more than indirectly related to the beginnings of hip-hop in both form and theme. The hip-hop line is, for the most part, accentual--four beats a line. It follows a definite rhyme scheme. And good bit of the canon tells the stories of an anti-hero--the drug dealer. Like the toast, it is full of braggadocio, insult, and verbal ingenuity and dexterity (e.g. the first three Wu joints).

There is a book that is a wonderful, wonderful collection of toasts by Bruce Jackson, Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me.