All comedy is Black
August 17, 2022 6:31 PM Subscribe
"theGrio's celebration of Black Comedy Month begins with the history of the Black artists who created modern comedy", and continues with "How Richard Pryor killed the white comedian"
from the last link:
"Redd Foxx was selling out the Apollo and had already sold 15 million records with his X-rated act when Lenny Bruce “innovated” the genre by using the same forbidden language that Black comedians had used for decades."
Pryor and Foxx did an album together. Suffice it to say, he was the best.
posted by clavdivs at 7:38 PM on August 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Redd Foxx was selling out the Apollo and had already sold 15 million records with his X-rated act when Lenny Bruce “innovated” the genre by using the same forbidden language that Black comedians had used for decades."
Pryor and Foxx did an album together. Suffice it to say, he was the best.
posted by clavdivs at 7:38 PM on August 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
A marginalised group innovates, white men take and promote it as their own, then gatekeep the originators out of the resulting success?
I feel like this is a recurring theme.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:57 AM on August 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I feel like this is a recurring theme.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:57 AM on August 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I get a bunch of Access Denied pages on the thegrio links. Probably because I'm in Europe ?
posted by Pendragon at 5:39 AM on August 18, 2022
posted by Pendragon at 5:39 AM on August 18, 2022
Redd Foxx sold records, Lenny Bruce got arrested.
Strange world.
posted by BWA at 6:06 AM on August 18, 2022
Strange world.
posted by BWA at 6:06 AM on August 18, 2022
Definitely time to pull out the Pryor tapes and vids to enjoy again.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:52 AM on August 18, 2022
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:52 AM on August 18, 2022
Richard Pryor was an unbelievably talented guy who also routinely beat his romantic partners, and it's a little creepy to see such a long article, which does touch on his personal life, allude to this only elliptically.
People roughly my age are the first people to experience comedy aimed at adults entirely in his shadow. My parents were too square for any such thing, but I still remember getting glimpses of performances at my best friend's house. That feeling of something wildly, enthusiastically transgressive just beyond your reach in the adult world--I associate that with Pryor.
posted by praemunire at 7:32 AM on August 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
People roughly my age are the first people to experience comedy aimed at adults entirely in his shadow. My parents were too square for any such thing, but I still remember getting glimpses of performances at my best friend's house. That feeling of something wildly, enthusiastically transgressive just beyond your reach in the adult world--I associate that with Pryor.
posted by praemunire at 7:32 AM on August 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's a little creepy to see such a long article, which does touch on his personal life, allude to this only elliptically.
YMMV, but I find Michael Harriot to be a frustrating writer—his work is bombastic, substantial, and targets really interesting subjects, and at the same time feels borderline propagandistic in a way that makes it hard for me to totally trust the things he's saying. I typically read whatever he writes, then immediately go searching for corroborating sources and alternative perspectives.
(The takeaway there is that I do read what he writes, and get that his style serves a purpose for which I'm probably not the intended audience. He seems like good people and an important voice. But: yeah, the elisions always stand out to me too.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 7:59 AM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
YMMV, but I find Michael Harriot to be a frustrating writer—his work is bombastic, substantial, and targets really interesting subjects, and at the same time feels borderline propagandistic in a way that makes it hard for me to totally trust the things he's saying. I typically read whatever he writes, then immediately go searching for corroborating sources and alternative perspectives.
(The takeaway there is that I do read what he writes, and get that his style serves a purpose for which I'm probably not the intended audience. He seems like good people and an important voice. But: yeah, the elisions always stand out to me too.)
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 7:59 AM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
This was really interesting, and a topic I love reading about (and I especially love both Redd Foxx's and Pryor's work). They were seminal to standup, period. But arguing that all comedy is Black and later stolen by white comics, without any reference to how deeply rooted [some] Vaudeville comedy was in Yiddish theater is simply erasure.
posted by Mchelly at 12:22 PM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 12:22 PM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
« Older Thwack! | “Oh God,” she said. “Did you grab it?” Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Etrigan at 6:34 PM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]