Rest In Peace Richard
Scott
Rest in peace, Richard.
Richard Palmer
wrote:
>The funniest man that ever lived died last night.
>
>Rest in peace, Richard.
Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.
But thanks for the kind words.
Richard
Scott
"Richard Palmer" <r.pa...@virgin.net> wrote in message
news:9tomp11culre85j8a...@4ax.com...
Richard Palmer
wrote:
Does anybody here want to tell me what the big deal was with Richard
Pryor? I'd like to have a discussion about it because once again I'm
in the minority - I didn't find him funny.
Richard
David Darlock
Does anybody here want to tell me what the big deal was with Richard
Pryor? I'd like to have a discussion about it because once again I'm
in the minority - I didn't find him funny.
Richard
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You're kidding, right ?
Scott Bernard
but at last he was just another comedian
I didn't find him that funny
Richard Palmer
wrote:
>he had a few good jokes
>but at last he was just another comedian
>
>I didn't find him that funny
I completely understand his importance to black people. He was
highlighting some terrible iniquities in the system, and by extension
I guess you could say that he was important to white Americans too
because he showed them what they were doing wrong (if they didn't
already know it).
He was 'the Lenny Bruce of his day', as everyone is now quick to point
out, although in my view Lenny had already done all the hard work, and
if it hadn't have been for Lenny Bruce comedians like Richard Pryor
wouldn't have been allowed to stand up on stage in the first place,
and say what they were saying. But just as Bruce said "I'm not a
comedian, I'm Lenny Bruce", so Richard Pryor was known to say "I'm
aiming to make you laugh for ten minutes, although I'm planning on
being up here for an hour".
To me, in order to truly 'get' him and find him hilarious, you had to
be black, American, or preferably both. Here in the UK we simply never
had the kind of racism that was rife in the USA. I don't say we were
or are perfect, but essentially our racist problems were confined to
individual beliefs, and we never had the sort of ingrained
institutionalised trouble that America had. We didn't have to bus
black kids to white schools, and we never had the kind of system that
led to the Rosa Parks incident, where blacks were limited as to where
they could sit on public transport, or which hotels they could stay
in.
The "No blacks or Irish" notices that were put up in this country
were, as I said earlier, down to individuals, and were not policy.
So when Richard Pryor did this kind of routine I'm going to quote
(which I think was transcribed for a book, although I got it from the
'net), it didn't really speak to people like me.
#######
"Cops put a hurtin' on your ass, man, you know. They really
degrade you. White folks don't believe that shit, don't believe cops
degrade;--`Ah, come on, those beatings, those people were resisting
arrest. I'm tired of this harassment of police officers.' Cause the
police live in your neighborhood, see, and you be knowin' 'em as
Officer Timpson. `Hello Officer Timpson, going bowling tonight? Yes,
uh, nice Pinto you have, ha, ha, ha.' Niggers don't know 'em like
that. See, white folks get a ticket, they pull over, `Hey, Officer,
yes, glad to be of help, here you go.' A nigger got to be talkin'
'bout `I AM REACH-ING INTO MY POCK-ET FOR MY LICENSE--'cause I don't
wanna be no motherfuckin' accident!'
"Police degrade you. I don't know, you know, it's often you wonder
why a nigger don't go completely mad. No, you do. You get your shit
together, you work all week, right, then you get dressed--maybe say a
cat make $125 a week, get $80 if he lucky, right, and he go out, get
clean, be drivin' with his old lady, goin' out to a club, and the
police pull over, `Get outta the car, there was a robbery--nigger look
just like you. Alright, put your hands up, take your pants down,
spread your cheeks!' Now, what nigger feel like havin' fun after that?
`No, let's just go home, baby.' You go home and beat your kids and
shit--you gonna take that shit out on somebody."
from That Nigger's Crazy, 1974
#####
I can see where the humour is, or where it would be if it was
something that happened to you on a regular basis, but the way I see
it if you're white and you're laughing at that then you're either
laughing out of embarrassment, or else it's being patronising.
I've watched all his live concert videos - they get shown here
regularly by the Paramount channel - and so I'm not basing this
opinion on five minutes of extracts. Normally I'd watch ten minutes
and switch off if I didn't like it, but because I knew that he was
meant to be the funniest man in the world, I stuck them all to the
end. A good quarter of it I couldn't make it if I'm being honest. And
saying "...and shit" all the time gets old really quickly.
Plus, it's all very well breaking down taboos like that, but what is
there left now? Society needs taboos. You have to have something left
in reserve to shock people when they need a shock. I was reading the
paper this week and in the obituary for Pryor they were quoting him
verbatim. Every "motherfucker" and "pussy" comment was there, in the
middle of a serious newspaper. No asterisks, nothing. I don't know if
that's progress.
Richard