Richie Pryor
What more needs to be said?
What makes us laugh changes with the times, and that’s sometimes hard to fathom. Why does something crack me up, but not my kids? (And, of course, vice-versa?)
I love Monty Python, who, at least, my daughter appreciates, and Firesign Theatre who very few appreciate—(well, I guess you had to have been there, man.)
I see so much potential with Will Ferrell, but I just…..keep….waiting….for……him…..to…..be……funny.
Adam Sandler? Enough said.
Supposedly Richie Pryor wrote most of Blazing Saddles expecting to star in it, but he was too edgy. He was too edgy because he had the courage to strip naked the bias and discrimination piled upon blacks through humor. In Silver Streak, when Patrick McGoohan (playing the bad guy) calls him the “N-word” after Pryor spills something on him (a dodge for Richie to get into position), Pryor holds a gun to McGoohan and says, “You don’t know me well enough to call me nig***!”
What a genius. He got the message through. A real genius.
Maybe, that’s what we need to laugh today, a little more genius in our comedy.
And our elected officials.
And our schools.
And on television.
Richie! Come back! We need you!
