Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Pryor

By Toure Muhammad

Richard Pryor is comedy and tragedy. He wrote for Sanford and Son, The Carol Burnett Show, and helped write Blazing Saddles. He not only played a crack pipe, but also struggled with drug addiction and heart problems.

Richard Franklin Lenox Thomas Pryor, he was a prostitute’s child, grew up in a brother ran by his grandmother, and had the nerve to run off the stage in the middle of a gig in Las Vegas, strip naked, walk into the casino and hop on a table and yell, “Black jack!”

He was one half of the first successful interracial movie comedy act in Hollywood and loved him some white woman, a sentiment that often made it into his bits.

Richard’s humor was packed with all the tools at a comedian’s disposal: Delivery. Timing. Honesty. Writing. Poetry. Acting. Shock. Irony. Wit. Humor. Slapstick. Courage. Pain. Tragedy. Anger. Fear. Transparency. Disappointment.

Richard Pryor will forever be recognized as the single most all-encompassing comedian ever. Maybe someone will come along and do him one or two better, but I doubt that even my children will see it in their lifetime.

As I mentioned on Roland Martin’s show on WVON 1450 AM this past Monday, Richard was a teacher and reformer, not in the classical sense, but through humor he encourage me and I’m sure many others to learn about history.

Remember the bathroom scene in Silver Streak? Grover Muldoon, played by Richard and George Caldwell played by Gene Wilder were in the bathroom and they needed to pass gene off as white (I forget their character names) and Gene was protesting, saying it wasn’t going to work and Richard first says, “What, you afraid it won’t come off.” That’s great hard-hitting social commentary about race relations.

Then after applying even more of the black make up on Gene, Richard turns Gene to the mirror and says, “It’ll work because, “Al Jolsen made a million bucks looking like this.” That’s pure social commentary wrapped in humor genius. I laughed not even knowing who Al Jolsen was, but I get his point.

Richard sent me to the history books to learn about Al Jolsen and how comedy has been used as both a weapon for and against black people.

Pryor was a pro at using wit and hard-hitting social commentary, storytelling or just bringing to life characters rooted in the black community. (Bicentennial Nigger ’76, Live on the Sunset Strip ‘82, Here and Now ’83)

The man epitomized the matrix of pride, self-mockery, in your face reality checks, irony, satiric wit, assertive defiance, poetry, shock language, and verbal accuracy that reflects black American humor.

Richard spent his life exposing his fears and weaknesses about race, sex, and politics, and through doing that, he really expressed his hope for a better society.

Probably the greatest thing about him is that he embodied the black community in both life struggles and his performance. His humor touched everyone. He was sensitive enough to relate to the so-called bottom of society, but had the sardonic genius that could challenged the so-called intellectuals and powers that be.

Richard’s life from beginning to end was the perfect fodder for his humor. You see, all comedy is born of tragedy.