December 11, 2005

The King is dead. Long live the King!

When I was but a tyke of 19 years, I purchased an LP — you guys know what that is, right? — of a comedian that would forever change my perspective on what was funny and what wasn't. That very album, That Nigger's Crazy, remains in my collection to this day. It is one of my most prized records.

No one I had ever heard on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson had prepared me for Pryor's comedy. Lenny Bruce was unknown to me at the time so I was unprepared when Pryor hit me over the head with his comedic 2 by 4. It was fast-paced, vulgar, profane, disrespectful, self-deprecating, full of explicit sexual references — and wickedly funny. No one, not even the great Red Foxx, ever used the word "fuck" quite like Pryor. Whether discussing his marriage to a white woman, or talking about winos and junkies, or when he was Mudbone, or the Black Preacher, Pryor never failed to get a laugh. But he was also a one-man Greek chorus on the Black experience in America. I learned more from him than from many other sources.

After Pryor, there have been very few comedians slash social commentators in his league. The late, great Sam Kinnison is one. But Pryor was a truly unique comedy talent for his time: he was an innovator, an iconoclast, and a revolutionary that changed comedy performance forever. No comic working today is worthy to lick his boots.

Richard Pryor, who had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for almost twenty years, died yesterday of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 65 years old. He has been, and will be, sorely missed.

Good night, sweet prince. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Posted by George Moneo at December 11, 2005 12:07 AM



Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/2646

Comments

Richard will be missed. His live at the sunset strip films are classics. He was so many years ahead of his time. I recently borrowed the entire box set of all his recordings and heard them in my car, all of them, for a week. It was some fantastic stuff. Richard could use all those 4-letter words but he would say something meaningful behind it. Not gratuitous like many of the comics today. Of today's guys, the one I like is Chris Rock, and you can see the influence Richard had on him. Richard's Mudbone skits were something else. Perhaps the most poignant skit he had was on when he visited Africa. He was the best. He's making the angels laugh now.

Posted by: mike pancier at December 11, 2005 12:42 AM

I never cared for him.

Posted by: A. Gonzales at December 11, 2005 01:11 AM

I remember one thing he said about his trip to Africa: "They f**k up your luggage just like everywhere else."

Posted by: Scott at December 11, 2005 07:45 AM

I thought he was dead already.

Posted by: DC at December 11, 2005 11:35 PM

I did not begin to like him until he started to tone his vulgarity down. The word "fuck" does not make a joke funny, there have been brilliant comedians like Mr. Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Lou Costello and others who did not curse up a storm in order to be funny. Mr. Pryor's comedy did not need vulgarity to succed as the man was talented on his own accord and cuss words were a crutch he did not need. He would have suffered less, lived longer and achieved greater fame and comical finnese if his central nervous system had not been ravaged by freebasing. What a waste!
A waste due to wrong choices made.

Posted by: cohetedude at December 12, 2005 12:21 AM