Chuck Knipp Explained
Chuck Knipp (born 1961) is a Canadian comedian and nurse best known for his vocal characters. His best known character is Shirley Q. Liquor. Knipp also performed as spirituality seeker Betty Butterfield. Knipp's performance of the Liquor character were controversial, and garnered protests.
Knipp was known for his radio advertisements in Southeast Texas. He retired from live performances in 2010 and now is a volunteer registered nurse with the American Red Cross.
Reactions to Knipp's characters
Criticism
There have been a number of articles in the media that have taken issue with Knipp's performance of Shirley Q. Liquor - a white comedian voicing a Black female character.
- To Knipp's declaration that Liquor "was created in celebration of, not to downgrade, black women",[1] Jasmyne Cannick countered in her blog: "...it is not possible for Charles Knipp, a white man, to help heal years of mistreatment and racism at the hands of his people by putting on a wig, speaking Ebonics, and in blackface...There is nothing remotely uplifting about Knipp's act and I wish people would stop defending his character with the tired argument that he's trying to heal the nation. The only thing Knipp is trying to heal is the hole in his pocket by filling it with all of the money he makes off of degrading Black people."[2]
Knipp was profiled in an article https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/shirley-q-liquor-the-most-dangerous-comedian-in-america-188700/ by Rolling Stone magazine and dubbed "The Most Dangerous Comedian in America."
Support
- The entertainer RuPaul has long been a fan and supporter of Knipp. "Critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."[3] In his blog, RuPaul adds: "I am very sensitive to issues of racism, sexism and discrimination. I am a gay black man, who started my career as a professional transvestite in Georgia, twenty years ago."[4]
- The Boston Phoenix journalist Dan Kennedy awarded Boston government official Jerome Smith the dubious Muzzle Award for his part in the cancellation of Knipp's scheduled performance in Boston in 2004.[5]
- The writer David Holthouse, the anti-racist investigator for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, stated that "Knipp is in no way a white supremacist" and that Knipp "invites the audience to sympathize with a single Black mother". An in-depth article was printed in the June, 2007, edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
- The New York Blade criticized GLAAD for condemning Knipp, stating, "We commend GLAAD for condemning racism, but we question whether the organization's goal is best attained by joining this particular fight."[6]
- John Strausbaugh, the author of Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture, explores Liquor's act in his book.
- Syndicated radio host Michael Berry, a native of Orange, Texas, plays frequent clips and often live phone interviews with Knipp's characters.
- Louisville, KY radio and television personality Terry Meiners, a long time presence on the local airwaves, frequently features clips and recorded skits with Shirley Q. Liquor as she visits some of our local businesses with Terry's own character "Trouble Man" on iHeartRadio's local radio station WHAS AM.[7]
Knipp concedes that his performances should make people uncomfortable because "we all are used to treating African Americans as if their skin colour is a disease" and that black people are "more than intelligent enough to discern the nuance" of his performances. He has also said that "many people thought that Harriet Beecher-Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was and still is perceived as racist, despite being the probable artistic genesis of emotional support against slavery in the 19th century."
Notes and References
- http://southerndecadence.net/shirley-q-liquor.htm "Shirley Q. Liquor Does Southern Decadence"
- Cannick, Jasmyne. "Shirley Q. Liquor Update: A Response to the Blade Editorial "GLAAD's New Act" (blog entry), 23 February 2007
- http://www.southerndecadence.net/shirley-q-liquor.htm southerndecadence.net
- RuPaul. "These Folks Is Just Plain Ignunt!" (blog entry) 3 November 2002
- Kennedy, Dan. "The sixth annual Muzzle Awards", The Boston Phoenix, 10 July 2003
- http://nyblade.com/2007/2-23/viewpoint/editorials/gladd.cfm GLAAD’s New Act
- https://whas.iheart.com/featured/terry-meiners The Terry Meiners Show Website
