"From the Thurber Prize-winning author of 'What doesn't kill you makes you Blacker' comes a pioneering collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers at work today . . . With words that roast, ignite, and burn while connecting to and coalescing around a singular thesis, 'That's how they get you' emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing. This is a mixture of not just observational anxieties and stream-of-consciousness lucidities but also an acute political clarity about America"--Inside jacket flap

Introduction: Black humor is every brow / Damon Young -- No one makes "yo mama" jokes after the funeral / Hanif Abdurraqib -- The couple / Jill Louise Busby -- You gonna get these teeth / Damon Young -- The Karen Rights Act / Mateo Askaripour -- Unmurdered in Grandma's kitchen / Alexander Hardy -- Who cries in Waffle House? / Ashon Crawley -- The necessary changes have been made / Nafissa Thompson-Spires -- Dancing in the dark / Clover Hope -- Mulatto pride turbo boost / Angela Nissel -- A real actual text thread about real actual white presidents with names like real actual niggas / Saida Grundy, Panama Jackson, and Damon Young -- Tenderheaded / Brian Broome -- How to shit in West Virginia at night : but for niggas? / Kiese Laymon -- Drive me crazy / Shamira Ibrahim -- We don't make princesses in those colors / Nicola Yoon -- Opening ceremony; or, Selling passes to a wolf hunt is literally selling wolf tickets / Rion Amilcar Scott -- You ain't killing that shit until a Black woman say so / Mahogany L. Browne -- Baby wipes / D Watkins -- Crowd work / Roy Wood Jr. -- Can a bitch just have a miscarriage in peace? / Hillary Crosley Coker -- Love and water / Ladan Osman -- The gorilla / Joseph Earl Thomas -- The Jackie Robinson Society / Wyatt Cenac -- An oral history of the Holy Ghost / Michael Harriot -- An ode to cappin'-ass niggas / Damon Young -- Group chat / Deesha Philyaw