Native American comedian Charlie Hill was celebrated by Google doodle. He is the first native American comic to appear on Johnny Carson’s show. The comedian is well known for taking a stand against racial stereotypes and oppression.
Native American Comedian Charlie Hill Celebrated by Google Doodle
The Wednesday doodle by Google had a special moment as it celebrated the 71st birthday of Charlie hill who is a Native American actor and also a standup comedian that challenged racial stereotypes and then drew the attention of people to oppression while at the same time defending his identity of being a native.
Early Life of Charlie Hill
Charlie was born in 1951 in Detroit and then moved to the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin reservation, a place where the father grew on at the age of 11. The actor fell in love with comedy as a kid while watching TV shows and programs featuring Dick Gregory which is a black satirist that used his comedy as a medium to draw attention to social injustices.
The comedian Hill majored in speech and drama at the university of Wisconsin-madison. He later joined the New York theater scene and moved ultimately to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career in comedy and acting.
However, his big break came in 1997 with an appearance on the Richard Pryor show which is a short-lived sketch comedy TV show at the time and was hosted by the black satirist who made use of his comedy and humor to draw attention to social injustices at the time and break down racial barriers.
The time in his life proved to be an unpredictably pivotal moment for him. At the time when Pryor and his head writer came to Hill about making an appearance in one of the show’s sketches, he turned them down citing that the sketch was based on offensive demeaning stereotypes. And in response, Pryor offered hill the sketch’s time who said that he wanted to perform some of his stand-up content addressing the stereotypes surrounding native America, and he did.
Hills First Standup Experience
‘You know, a lot of you white people never seen an Indian do standup comedy before,’ the comedian Hill during an appearance on the show said. ‘Like, for so long you probably thought Indians never had a sense of humor. We never thought you were too funny either.’
Hill Became the First Native American Comedian to Make an Appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
And after that moment, Hill became the very first Native American comedian to make an appearance on the tonight show with Johnny Carson and he also made subsequent appearances on late-night talk TV. Hill would however continue to make several appearances on the tonight show with Jay Leno and then became a writer for TV shows such as Roseanne and Moesha.
Charlie Hill Honors and Death
He was honored in 2009 with the Ivy Bethune Tri-Union Diversity Award. The comedian died in Oneida, Wisconsin in 2013 aged 62 after a reported brief battle with lymphoma.
