That Nigga Crazy

Over the weekend, we lost another great and genius mind from the hallowed halls of the African American community. Richard Pryor died at the age of 65 from a heart attack. I grew up looking at Mr. Pryor as being the funniest person ever. And I do mean ever. I can go back to the first time I saw him on Saturday Night Live in the Late 1970’s when he was seen choking a possessed women in a parody of the Exorcist. In the skit, he was scared until the possessed girl started to talk about his momma. I also remember when his comedy routine came on HBO. I had to see it at least a hundred times or more.

What made Mr. Pryor the best was that his comedy was based on the special and political environments of the 1960’s and 1970’s? He spoke about all that we as African American men felt as our world view. On his album “that Nigga’s crazy, he talks about two men who want to see who has the biggest penis. To conduct their contest they stand over a bridge. The first man says, man, this water is cold, the second said and it’s deep too. On his album “Is it something I said,” the two most memorable sections deal with race in America and drug use. In “There is a shortage of white people” he basically says that what people had stopped fuckin* and would move to the extreme of talking about how he set himself on fire smoking crack cocaine.

Richard was brilliant and I cannot say this enough. He also had a very successful movie career with box office hits including Toy, Stir Crazy, Harlem Nights, Jo-Jo Dancer, Which Way is Up, Silver Streak, Brewster Millions, and two of my all time favorite Greased Lighting and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings from 1976.

Yes, he was the first t openly curse with specific accent on Nigga and fuck, but he was also the greatest comedic mind since Charlie Chaplin in my eyes. I wonder who will be next. See Richard maintained his comedic influence eve through his movie career. Now days, it seems as if current comedians who become actor don’t. I am going to miss this main dearly.