Children’s author Daniel Handler, better known by his pen name Lemony Snicket, decided to spice up the National Book Awards on Wednesday with a joke about black people and “watermelon.”
The man behind the bestselling set of novels “A Series of Unfortunate Events” laughed as he took the podium after black author Jacqueline Woodson won the award for young people’s literature, according to video of the event.
“I told Jackie she was going to win,” Handler said in the video, “and I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned about her this summer.”
“Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon,” he said. “Just let that sink in your mind.”
In case his punchline wasn’t clear enough, Handler went on to underline the joke: The author said that when Woodson told him he should put the factoid in a book, he responded with a follow up crack.
“I’m only writing a book about a black girl who’s allergic to watermelon if I get a blurb from you, Cornell West, Toni Morrison, and Barack Obama saying ‘This guy’s OK. This guy’s fine.'”
Some laughter was heard, but chatter and groaning continued to build in the crowd.
“Alright,” he said, appearing to want to move on, “we’ll talk about it later.”
Watch the clip on C-SPAN.
h/t Gawker
