Good bye Mr. Pryor

Richard Pryor died of a heart attack just after 8AM Saturday December 10th 2005 in Los Angeles. Growing up I admired two famous black men. The first was Muhammad Ali the second was Richard Pryor. Both men had a reputation of being rebellious black men who said what was on their minds. Both men where trailblazers and pioneers in their own way. Richard taught me that a black man can say whatever the f*ck he wanted to say whenever he felt like it. I had never seen a black man so free. I often say that my mother is the one who taught me how to curse, but the truth is Richard was the one who taught me. My mother took me to see all of his movies and that’s actually how I learnt how to conjugate the verb, noun, and adverb and adjective we all collectively know as fuck.

When I first heard that Richard died I felt numb. I thought he had at least another five years left in him but the news didn’t shock me, for years Richard had been sick and there was no sign that he was getting better. Over the next few days a lot of people will be writing eulogies in honor of Mr. Pryor saying that he was a trailblazing comic who was an influence of a generation who had many demons, blah, blah, blah. This is all true but what people leave out is that his material was the blueprint for what most black comics are doing today.

Without fear Richard talked about things that black people would only say behind white people’s back, and put it on stage for the whole world to see. He was a social critic. He made you laugh and at the same time his material made you think. He wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable or angry. He used his demons to make us laugh with him. And he never stopped being funny. I cannot stress this point enough. It took a disease for him to stop working and even then he would show up randomly at some comedy clubs in LA.

Every comic working today owes a debt of gratitude to Richard Pryor. And every black comic working today owes that nigga a check, cause every time you hear a black comic do the bit about how white people do stuff differently from black people that's a page out of Pryor’s book. Every time a comic uses the word nigga Richard Pryor (and Paul Mooney) should get a check.

Saturday night I did my best to honor the memory of Richard Pryor. I snorted a line of cocaine, banged a couple white chicks then lit myself on fire. I suggest you all do the same, because Richard would want it that way. (Just kidding, I love you man. Rest in peace muthafucka)