The Wasp — August 16, 1879 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Royal Hottentots" - Satirical Analysis This is a burlesque play script mocking Victorian society by inverting racial hierarchies. The title character "Dudi" appears in the illustrations as a caricatured Black African figure, while the "White Hottentots" are European colonists portrayed as the "savage" or uncivilized ones. The satire works by swapping expected roles: enslaved and colonized peoples become nobility, while European characters display ignorance and poor behavior. References to "Hottentots" (a derogatory historical term for Khoisan peoples) and the slave trade context suggest the piece critiques European colonial racism and slavery by absurdly reversing who civilization deems "civilized." The humor relies on uncomfortable inversion—making white audiences the butt of the joke through exaggerated stereotypes typically applied to colonized peoples.