Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor: December 1940-December 2005
A photo from the shoot for his first album, "Richard Pryor" 1968
When you're a kid, your parents like to share some of their most favorite things with you. For my Dad, it was his comedy albums and the Number One man in the stack was Richard Pryor. From his early days when the material was clean all the way to today, he's been a defining force in comedy
The funniest film moment for the longest time came in 1976 (The year I was born) during the film, "Silver Streak" when Richard tries to teach Gene Wilder how to be Black.
"How come all you white guys got such tight asses?"
Richard Pryor made the film a success, but was never featured or mentioned in the trailer.
Ain't that a motherfucker?
Speaking of "motherfucker"...
Yeah... That was a word he used on stage a lot. He also worked to reclaim the word "nigger" in most of his stand-up. For the longest time, he took the Lenny Bruce approach to words; That words only have the power you give them.
After he visited Africa in 1979, he came to a slightly different understanding... That "Nigger" was only an American term. He would see Black people in Africa doing everything in a fully-functioning society and he said he heard a voice ask him, "Do you see any 'niggers' here?"
He stopped using the word on stage during his routine.
A lot of people nearly die doing drugs. If you O.D. then it's just part of the life.
Richard Pryor was one of the first motherfuckers to blow himself up.
Holding up a lit match, "What's this? It's Richard Pryor running down the street!"
No blog...
No review...
No movie (Especially since it should have been Eddie Griffin playing him) is a good enough tribute to a man whose work will ripple through society for generations to come.
"Ever noticed how nice white people get when there's a bunch of niggers around?"