65 seems so young, the older I get.
Didn’t he just have a birthday a few days ago? That is unusual, to go so close to your birthday. Can anyone confirm his birthdate?
I loved his opening monologue on one SNL. It was the first time I ever saw him and it completely cracked me up. About taking a hit of acid from some white guy. “You gonna be trippin man!”
The IMDB has his birthday as December 1, 1940.
I’m with you, skip the movies (mediocre, on the whole), play the standup. The man was a brilliant comic…lousy taste in movies.
You know, they’re saying he died of a heart attack but I’m hearing that isn’t true. It was actually a tragic mistake that cost him his life…he accidentally dunked a cookie into a glass that contained two different kinds of milk. True story.
Listening to That Nigger’s Crazy as a kid was a memorable experience. My brother and I still quote from it at times. “You wanna suck what? You ain’t suckin’ nothin’ here, Junior! Suck yo ass on away from here is what you betta do!”
I’ve been sad about the loss of Richard Pryor for years. A great man.
"Sometimes up close!!
eeenh eeenh eeenh eeenh EEEnh!!
Sometimes far away!!
eeenh eeenh eeenh eeenh EEEnh!!"
Goodbye, Mr. Pryor.
A friend of mine had That Nigger’s Crazy, and I may have bootlegged a copy of it. I don’t remember. But that line and others still come to mind very frequently. A great album.
I liked the submarine routine, where he parodied classic war films. ‘They always play enemy music.’ And: ‘Medic! Medic! The captain wants to know how much morphine we have!’ ‘It’s okay. Everything’s mellow…’ And the gag about one of the crewmen – I’ve forgotten what the deal was. But the punchline cam in a roundabout way. ‘Fire torpedo one!’ ‘Torpedo one, you’re fired!’ (Pryor makes the sound of a torpedo being fired.) ‘Where’s [Henderson]?’ ‘He was in torpedo tube one, sir.’
The Exorcist with a Black preacher: ‘Wouldn’t’ve been no movie if they had Black people in it. Movie would’ve been about seven minutes long. Soon as the Devil spoke. “Hellooooo…” “Good bye!” <snip> “Bitch! What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you get out of bed and wash your ass? Go downstairs and help your mother with dinner. We’re having company! And get the cross outcha pussy!”’
I laughed and laughed and laughed. I bought another album. I don’t recall the name, but the cover depicted Pryor and some other people shooting craps with a word balloon over Pryor that said ‘Bet I’ll six!’. Funny, but not as good as the other.
…and from the SNL sketch:
“The bed is on my foot!”
I associate that with the album Bicentennial Nigger.
Here’s a nice TMI memory of the influence Pryor had on my developing psyche:
On those (rare, honestly!) occassions where things on an unexpected hair-trigger, I usually hear Mr. Pryor’s falsetto in my head: “That’s okay, I’ll just lay here and use my vibrator.” And I have a hard time not giggling.
“I hope you get sickle cell.”
“I’m gonna go out and find me some more pussy!”
"If you’r dick was two inches bigger you could find some more pussy right here!
Go to any concert in which a woman is singing and yell, “Sing that song, you bitch!” and hope that everybody is a Pryor fan.
macho maaaaaan!!
First I knew of Richard Pryor was The Toy, one of my favorite movies as a kid.
When he felt I was old enough my dad handed me Live at the Sunset Strip, which had me ROTF. Over time I came to appreciate not only his genius, but just how important he was both to comedy and to black culture.
I can’t wait to sit down with some classic Pryor in the near future and laugh again.
Aww man…
Richard Pryor at the top of his game was my benchmark for all comedians.
RIP, you crazy MFer!
Some time ago, George Carlin on Richard Pryor:
Comedians are very competitive. Pryor had a heart attack, so I had a heart attack. Then Pryor set himself on fire, I said fuck that, I had another heart attack.
Pryor: You know, when you’re on fire, people get out of your way.
Farewell Richard, you sure were one crazy sob.
Heaven just got R rated now.
…and there hasn’t yet been a monologue to match it. He threw his hand away and everything. *Sniff.
RIP, Mr. Pryor.
My favorite line from one of his stand-up routines, after his woman catches him cheating.
“Who are you going to believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” 
Sometime during my teens (mid 70’s) I heard an album of Pryors, and one of the jokes was about two black men pissing off a bridge into a river.
“Man, that water’s cold,” says the first one.
“Yeah, and it’s deep, too,” says the other.
RIP Richard, you’re already missed.
Comedy Central is currently showing bits of his stand-up, along with commentary from several African-American comics, including Steve Harvey, Wanda Sykes, and George Wallace.
Brilliant. Richard himself couldn’t have done any better. Well done sir, well done.
I wonder if he will be cremated.