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RICHARD PRYOR

Richard Pryor has died at 65. Don’t judge him by his movies, which were erratic; instead, get a DVD of his stage act.

Posted by Tim B. on 12/10/2005 at 10:51 PM
  1. It’s always a sad thing….to lose a funny man.

    RIP, Richard Pryor.

    Posted by rinardman on 2005 12 11 at 12:01 AM • permalink

  2. I remember listening to one of his comedy albums and almost falling out of my chair because I was laughing so hard. Rest in peace, big guy. You were the best.

    Posted by Spectre765 on 2005 12 11 at 12:06 AM • permalink

  3. Rent a DVD of “Blue Collar”, my personal favorite of his movies.

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 12 11 at 12:11 AM • permalink

  4. I only knew him through his movies—but I thought he was pretty good in those.

    Rest in peace.

    Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 12 11 at 12:19 AM • permalink

  5. Stir Crazy was friggin hilarious.  Alot of his other stuff was crap.

    Posted by murph on 2005 12 11 at 12:52 AM • permalink

  6. His live concert films rock.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 11 at 12:55 AM • permalink

  7. His “best” movie was one he didn’t appear in - he co-wrote “Blazing Saddles”.

    Posted by JayC on 2005 12 11 at 12:59 AM • permalink

  8. “Some people say cocaine is addictive. That’s bullshit. I’ve been taking cocaine every day for twenty years and I ain’t addicted!”

    —My vague recall of one of Richard Pryor’s Standup Acts

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2005 12 11 at 01:02 AM • permalink

  9. I loved how Pryor once explained how he set himself on fire (and I paraphrase):

    One time I was having milk and cookies. And then I put a cookie in the mlk. And then the fuckin’ cookie exploded!

    Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2005 12 11 at 01:42 AM • permalink

  10. Loved his “Wino dealin’ with Dracula” skit:

    Winos never get afraid a nothin’ but runnin’ outta wine. That’s the only thing that panics a wino. A wino could deal with Dracula: “Hey, man! Say nigga, you with the cape. What you doin’ peekin’ in them people’s windah? What’s your name, boy? Dracala? What kinda name izzat for a nigga? You wanna suck WHAT? You gonna suck your ass on away from here’s what your gonna do!”

    I loved Mudbone, too.

    Ah man…

    RIP, Rich.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 12 11 at 02:02 AM • permalink

  11. I also only know him from his movies with Gene Wilder, many of which were genuinely funny. But I did find very funny a censored line that SNL’s Michael O’Donoghue tried on Richard Pryor, that didn’t impress Pryor at all: “A man should not be judged by the colour of his skin, but by the width of his nostrils.”

    Posted by Jim Geones on 2005 12 11 at 02:27 AM • permalink

  12. Jim, you need to see his stage shows, Live on the Sunset Strip is a great place to start.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 12 11 at 02:40 AM • permalink

  13. His concert films were very, very funny.  Another bit that has stuck with me is Pryor playing word association with Chevy Chase on SNL.  After some preliminaries, Chase says “black”, and Pryor answers with “white.”  They descend from there into a string of racial slurs, with Chase playing the dispassionate therapist, and Pryor mugging his way from disbelief through spluttering rage to menace.  Thirty years later it’s still funny.

    Posted by Iron Dave on 2005 12 11 at 02:54 AM • permalink

  14. I’ll say this for Richard Pryor:  he managed to make everything funny.  I saw an interview where he talked about setting himself on fire during a bout of freebasing, and he made even that funny, but he also made it meaningful.  He said it actually saved him from dying of cocaine addiction, and that no one should be so addicted to something that they have to set themselves on fire in order to save themselves.

    I’ve also watched a generation of young black comedians try to emulate him, and mostly all they get right is the foul language.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2005 12 11 at 11:27 AM • permalink

  15. iron dave —  Chevy Chase played a hiring drone administering an aptitude test for workplace stress to Pryor. I believe the punch line of the sketch when something like this…

    Chase: Coon.
    Pryor: Honkie!
    Chase: Darkie.
    Pryor: Honkie-Honkie!
    Chase: N——r.
    Pryor: DEAD Honkie!
    Chase: Well, that concludes this interview, you seem very well suited for the position, please don’t hurt me…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 11 at 12:47 PM • permalink

  16. Rebecca,

    Before Pryor copped to the freebaseing conflagration he did a comedy act where he laughed it off saying it was bullshit. He dissed the police and made fun of their argument which, of course, turned out to be true.

    Also, I wanted to bring attention to something that Pryor said in the article Tim linked to, which is typical of many in the entertainment industry:

    He said in a statement that he was proud that, “like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people’s hatred.”

    This statement is utterly ludicrous, of course, and Twain would never have said anything so fatuous and so self-agrandizing. He was a realist and a cynic and probably would have found Pryor’s statement absurd, to say the least. I loved Pryor’s standup, some of the funniest ever done, but as a person he was classically self-deluded, self-involved, and blindered, as many celebrities are. If all these folks are really doing so much for peace and understanding, then why isn’t it working?

    Posted by ekw on 2005 12 12 at 12:46 AM • permalink

  17. #14 Face screwed up in disgust like a dad confronting a dirty diaper,Hotlips Le Lin Chen disposed of the late Richard Pryor…“FOUL MOUTHED COMEDIAN AND ACTOR Richard Prior died today..”
    He was worth a hundred of you,you growly,surly,mean little person..
    Richard Pryor made his audiences happy.He gave them their money’s worth.He had a drastically hard upbringing and life..
    What’s your excuse….

    Posted by crash on 2005 12 12 at 10:03 AM • permalink

  18. Another comedian passed away today, cut down by Bushitler’s nazi stormtrouper Ober fuhrer ShwarzenHimmler.
    A gentle man who only killed four people by mistake and became in the last days of his tragic life - the darling of the Hollywood “elite”.
    Thousands of enlightened White folk held candle light vigils during his last hours.
    What this execution will do to Shwartzenhimmlers european ratings is not known, but he is unlikely ever to collect the cannes palme d’or award.
    that is reserved for geniuses like Michael Moore and producers who divulge to the world the agonies of palestinian suicide bombers.
    The execution of “Tookie” (sounds like a cuddly koala no?) was an outrage which left many decent americans sobbing their hearts out for this gentle man nominated for a Nobel prize , a Black harold Pinter or perhaps a Black Arafat fighting for justice!
    It is now obvious to all that only serial killers can write heart rendering children’s books.
    And of course “Tookie” has paid back fully the family for the 120 bucks he stole from the man he shot dead.
    And another horror! The black community are said to be happy to see the end of him!
    well lets hope Richard keeps you laughimg all the way to heaven.
    No mercy from the white supremacist Conan the Barbarian could be expected.
    Makes you wander of Bushitler did’nt have Prior executed on the sly too!

    Posted by davo on 2005 12 14 at 04:32 AM • permalink

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