Pryor Is Dead
Long Live Pryor.
My memory of the man is from a room in the “Riot House” when I was 13, overlooking the Comedy Store driveway. Pryor drives in – I think it was a Corvette – and we yell. “Hey Richard!” And he yells back… two or three rounds of yelps up to us on the 8th floor. A good guy. And a walking legend.
Walking no more. But he should be remembered forever… for his film work, yes, but more so for being a breakthrough star for comedy in every way, including but not limited to being a Black comedian.
The great SNL sketch, “Racist Word Association” after the jump…
Interviewer: Alright, Mr. Wilson, you’ve done just fine on the Rorshact.. your papers are in good order.. your file’s fine.. no difficulties with your motor skills.. And I think you’re probably ready for this job. We’ve got one more psychological test we always do here. It’s just a Word Association. I’ll throw you out a few words – anything that comes to your mind, just throw back at me, okay? It’s kind of an arbitrary thing. Like, if I say “dog”, you’d say..?
Mr. Wilson: “Tree”.
Interviewer: “Tree”. [ nods head, prepares the test papers ] “Dog”.
Mr. Wilson: “Tree”.
Interviewer: “Fast”.
Mr. Wilson: “Slow”.
Interviewer: “Rain”.
Mr. Wilson: “Snow”.
Interviewer: “White”.
Mr. Wilson: “Black”.
Interviewer: “Bean”.
Mr. Wilson: “Pod”.
Interviewer: [ casually ] “Negro”.
Mr. Wilson: “Whitey”.
Interviewer: “Tarbaby”.
Mr. Wilson: [ silent, sure he didn’t hear what he thinks he heard ] What’d you say?
Interviewer: [ repeating ] “Tarbaby”.
Mr. Wilson: “Ofay”.
Interviewer: “Colored”.
Mr. Wilson: “Redneck”.
Interviewer: “Junglebunny”.
Mr. Wilson: [ starting to get angry ] “Peckerwood!”
Interviewer: “Burrhead”.
Mr. Wilson: [ defensive ] “Cracker!”
Interviewer: [ aggressive ] “Spearchucker”.
Mr. Wilson: “White trash!”
Interviewer: “Jungle Bunny!”
Mr. Wilson: [ upset ] “Honky!”
Interviewer: “Spade!
Mr. Wilson: [ really upset ] “Honky Honky!”
Interviewer: [ relentless ] “Nigger!”
Mr. Wilson: [ immediate ] “Dead honky!” [ face starts to flinch ]
Interviewer: [ quickly wraps the interview up ] Okay, Mr. Wilson, I think you’re qualified for this job. How about a starting salary of $5,000?
Mr. Wilson: Your momma!
Interviewer: [ fumbling ] Uh.. $7,500 a year?
Mr. Wilson: Your grandmomma!
Interviewer: [ desperate ] $15,000, Mr. Wilson. You’ll be the highest paid janitor in America. Just, don’t.. don’t hurt me, please..
Mr. Wilson: Okay.
Interviewer: [ relieved ] Okay.
Mr. Wilson: You want me to start now?
Interviewer: Oh, no, no.. that’s alright. I’ll clean all this up. Take a couple of weeks off, you look tired.
[ fade ]
My favorite Pryor movie? The Toy.
This is a sad, sad day for American comedy and American entertainment in general. When Pryor was at his best there was no one funnier, and the early films with Gene Wilder still hold up gloriously. But my personal favorite Pryor work is his co-writing the screenplay for “Blazing Saddles.” I love Cleavon Little in that film, but if Pryor could have starred in it as intended, that would have been something.
“Live in Concert” is one of the most important films of the ’70s. Rage, satire, fear, joy combined together in 80 side-splitting minutes. It should be on the Library of Congress list.
Kael’s review of Live on the Sunset Strip is one of the best pieces of analysis on the impact and greatness of Pryor. The ironic part of the review is that Kael didn’t like Live on the Sunset Strip. She is right to call Pryor’s performance in Live in Concert one of the greatest performances of all time.
Ironic that days after the anniversary of John Lennon’s death, another groundbreaking cultural hero dies.
Thanks for reprinting that dialogue, DP. It’s one of my favorite SNL sketches. I think it’s available on the Best of Chevy Chase; don’t even know if that ever made it to DVD. The moment where Pryor can’t think of another epithet for white people and resorts to “Honky honky!” is priceless, as is his increasingly flaring nostrils.
I think I’ll set myself on fire tonight in his honor. Or at least freebase.
RIP
A little part of my childhood died tonight with him. I remember when my family first got a VCR in the early eighties and Richard Pryor films (Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, Bustin’ Loose) were on constant rotation at my house. Even his uneven directorial debut JoJo Dancer: Your Life is Calling is worth seeing for his life through his own eyes.
His was a life full of much pain and I can only pray tonight that he now is in a much better place.
God Bless you, man.
Freebase jokes. Loooow.
One of the best comedy partnerships ever. Wilder and Pryor.
I think you could make a resonable argument that “Richard Pryor — Live in Concert” (1979) is the funniest movie ever made. And as Pryor says in that movie while imitating John Wayne: “Get the fuck out of here, Death!”
At his best Richard Pryor cut into the heart of this country with a wit and confidence that rivaled Mark Twain and Will Rogers.
Rest In Peace Motherfucker.
It’s funny you should mention Mark Twain. In 1998 the Kennedy Center established the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, which (theorically) honors the greatest living comedians and humorists.
Pryor was the first honoree.
I know what you’re saying, Emerson…
– Nipples on men
– 50 million dead in World War II
– John Kerry
I understand and accept them all.
But how could God allow the role of “Sheriff Bart” going to anyone but Richard Pryor?
Pryor’s racist word association was slightly before my time in that I was too young to actually “see” it wherever it was broadcast, but I do remember the older kids in the ‘hood thought it was hysterical and it did have a uniting effect on people as people were talking about Names and race in my Italian-African-Jewish ‘hood after that. I know that skit by heart even though I never saw it.
RIP Chief
It is sad most of the young generation has no idea who Pryor is. Because he hasn’t really worked in a long time and his comedy specials aren’t played on Comedy Central at all.