Everyone’s showing admirable restraint by not quoting from the first cut off …Is It Something I Said?
Just dusted it off, and it’s a real testament to the routine that it can still make you laugh today. “I told you about fuckin’ around, what was gonna happen.”
Perhaps you’re thinking of Cleavon Little, who also played opposite of Gene Wilder. He died in 1992. The movie in question is, of course, Blazing Saddles, where Pryor shared writing credits with Brooks.
Gonna fuckin’ miss ya, Rich. 
“Boy used to be a GENIUS! Booked the numbers, didn’t need paper or pencil!”
Rest in peace, Richard.
And if there’s a heaven for fictional characters, I hope Mudbone is even now sitting around the barbecue pit, spitting and telling stories.
Damn. I didn’t know he was that ill.
R.IP. Richard.
Nope, I know who Richard Pryor is and I know that he’s not Cleavon Little. I thought Richard Pryor was dead.
For years I’ve been waiting for the next Richard Pryor album (his last new album, Here and Now, was released in 1983 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor#Discography). No shit. I knew about the Parkinson’s, I just assumed he’d find a way to perform anyhow. Now it ain’t never gonna happen.
Whadda I know, I’m still waiting for Harlan Ellison to write some new SF. And for Robert Anton Wilson to finish his Historical Illuminatus Chronicles.
His life was so fascinating. Born in a brothel where his maternal grandmother was the madam, his mother was sometimes a prostitute and he and his father shared a girlfriend (he didn’t know if the kid he regarded as his oldest child, born when he was a teenager, was in fact his child or his half-sibling), it’s amazing how far he came and how he was able to turn all of that and his freebasing explosion and his disastrous marriages into “I can’t breathe I’m laughing so hard” humor. I even liked the much panned Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling strictly for the autobiographical humor.
Richard was one of the first people I ever heard a Christian right fundie loon attribute a violent act of God to. It was when he was burned not too long after appearing as Pharaoh in the dreadfully unfunny Wholly Moses, and a local minister said something to the effect of “I wasn’t at all surprised when the next thing I heard was that he’d been burned by a mysterious fire”. (It wasn’t mysterious at all, really.) I think Richard would have loved it.
One of the funniest moments on Johnny Carson, and one that I don’t remember ever making “best of” reels:
Pryor was Johnny’s first guest that night. After his stint, he scooted over and Johnny brought out his next guest - an obscure stuffy conservative television commentator from Cleveland named Dorothy Fuldheim. (Googling that name turns up zilch.) Mrs. Fuldhiem was pretty damned old even when I was a kid in Cleveland in the 60’s.
Anyway, during her interview, in response to some question about the olden days, Fuldhiem started carrying on about how much better times were back then:
“We all had our pretty dresses and white gloves, and everyone was polite, and…”
at this point Pryor interrupts her with “…and niggers were hanging…”
It’s still one of my favorite moments in TV.
RIP, Richard, you fucking tormented genius.
Dorothy Fuldheim Google search.
Turns up plenty for me.
There’s a eulogy for you.
“He faced the ultimate test: whether or not you can survive death. That’s the ultimate test for your ass, ain’t it? So far don’t nobody we know has PASSED the ultimate test- least of all this nigger laying here.”
Wha…?
I wish they’d release The Richard Pryor Show on DVD. I loved that show and still remember bits very clearly. In one of them he was interviewing an old lady and asked her who she’d like to see on the show. (necessary paraphrasing here) She said The Pips! He said Don’t you mean Gladys Knight and The Pips? and she said No no, I don’t like Gladys, I just want to see The Pips!
So Pryor had The Pips on as a musical guest!
They sang “Midnight Train To Georgia” except with no lead vocal. The music was exactly the same, but there’d be no vocal until their part came, then they sing “Leavin’, leavin’ on a midnight train” and “Whoo whoo” and “I know you will” exactly the way they sang their bits on the record. It was freaking HILARIOUS and to this day I can’t hear the song without grinning.
Not everything on the show worked, but I remember being very fond of it and sad when it was cancelled.
I loved most of his sexual humor. About the boastfulness of many guys, who claim to screw for hours: “I can go for 3, 4…minutes, then I need 8 hours of sleep!”
And, I can’t remember exactly how it went, but, regarding how orgasm often puts people to sleep, he said something like “If your woman wants to sit up and talk after sex, you have some more f*cking to do!”
RIP Richard. You’re cool.
A sad day.
If you’ve never heard it, run, don’t walk, and get That Nigger’s Crazy.
Didn’t mean to join this thread so late.
However, I thought I’d mention Jay Leno ended his Monday night monologue with a few minutes speaking about Richard Pryor.
Those on the West Coast can still catch it.
As some may know, like Mr Pryor, I too have multiple sclerosis - but nowhere near the severity that he had it.
I remember the Richard Pryor show too. Yes he had “The Pips” as a guest on his show. A weekly feature of that show was his playing the bartender in the “Star Wars Bar”.
I also remember his doing a parody of a “Spaghetti Western”. But it just wasn’t done on a studio stage. Oh no, it was exactly like a movie production and featured actor Jeff Corey (among others). That must have cost a bundle for a sketch that lasted a few minutes. I guess Richard Pryor just wanted to make people laugh and let the budget be damned.
Rest in peace Richard.
Yes, I heard Jay comments. He was a true legend.
Pryor famously explained his freebasing accident by comparing it to dunking a cookie into a glass with two different kinds of milk in it. It was in one of his concert films…and it was hilarious.