SPICY WIT is a mockumentary-style television series, the spawn of a seed planted in 2009 around a Brown University dining hall table. At Brown, "spicy with" is the colloquialism employed for a chicken sandwich (plus cheese) served at a popular eatery. In life, SPICY WIT intends to get you fired up about social justice without letting you forget to use your head.
The pilot episode, which premiered in January 2013, redefines "black comedy": it is satiric, smart, and situated carefully between that place where you are laughing and simultaneously wondering if maybe you shouldn't be laughing. Think: the erraticism and non-sequiturs of "Family Guy," the mockumentary style of "The Office," the attitude of "Awkward Black Girl," and the absurdity of the nightly news.
When does higher education go wrong? When does the media coverage for Tupac's resurrection at Coachella overshadow the conversation about racially motivated violence? When does too much consciousness about race, class, age, sex, blah blah blah literally fracture your brain? This series attempts to capture that moment. And the cast and crew (including many of Brown University's most talented and socially conscious alums and current students) is more diverse than anything you're currently watching on television.
The pilot episode, which premiered in January 2013, redefines "black comedy": it is satiric, smart, and situated carefully between that place where you are laughing and simultaneously wondering if maybe you shouldn't be laughing. Think: the erraticism and non-sequiturs of "Family Guy," the mockumentary style of "The Office," the attitude of "Awkward Black Girl," and the absurdity of the nightly news.
When does higher education go wrong? When does the media coverage for Tupac's resurrection at Coachella overshadow the conversation about racially motivated violence? When does too much consciousness about race, class, age, sex, blah blah blah literally fracture your brain? This series attempts to capture that moment. And the cast and crew (including many of Brown University's most talented and socially conscious alums and current students) is more diverse than anything you're currently watching on television.
NICK WHITE
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"...with Spicy Wit, I’m throwing a dinner party. The show wants to know what happens when we all sit down to talk about race, so I’m inviting every birdbrain, spicy chicken, and witty wet hen. Everyone is to bring her bias, baggage, and token Black friend to the table. We’re gonna say all of the fucked up, inappropriate things one shouldn’t squawk out even when inappropriately fucked up. We’re gonna sit across from one another until we’ve learned to laugh in face of dangerous identity politics.
Conceptually, “spicy wit” has come to mean something different to each person it reaches. Practically, Spicy Wit wants to build community around the notion that a healthy dash of attic salt and sagacity can make even the most terrifying, absurd, and painful truths more palatable." -- Lauren Neal, from "A Battle of Wits," post- magazine, November 2012 
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LAUREN NEAL
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