This is a sweet movie.
Posted on 12/12/2005 8:49:58 AM PST by .cnI redruM
Exactly! And Chris Farley...
That was one man's opinion, and a minority one at that. You can see as much on BET comedy as Prior ever did. Red Foxx and Moms Mabley were just as naughty for their time.
I usually like Stanley Crouch but this is not one of his better efforts. Not very many great comedians have ever been role models.
It's Kuleshov Effect.
Thanks for the clarification.
Richard Pryor made me laugh ~ a lot.
The self-appointed geniuses among us can spend the next month analyzing the man.
Screw them. Pryor was one very funny man and I'm hopeful things will improve world-wide as he becomes the court jester in Heaven, even lifting the Big Guy's spirits.
no problem... At least you spelled it right :)
I have heard Bill Cosby utter a profanity precisely once. He was talking about cocaine, and the assertion by fans of that drug that it enhanced and amplified the personality of the user. Cosby's response: "Yeah, but what if you're an @$$hole?"
I have a sort of germ of a cultural theory -- that for any cultural phenomenon, whether it's music or politics or literature, there is a relatively safe, palatable voice that tries to nudge the door open, and another more radical one that tries to kick it in.
The lovable mop-topped Beatles had the sneering, dangerous Stones. In the early '80s, Michael Jackson was the family-friendly act, while Prince was the overtly sexual bad boy (little did we know ...). Groups like the Paul Whiteman orchestra were a nice, safe alternative to the more complicated and raw bands like Ellington's.
Martin Luther King was seen as a wide-eyed radical in the Birmingham Jail, when black clergy encouraged him to slow down, but when Malcolm X came on the scene, King became the moderate choice. Now we have Ann Coulter out on the edge, making someone like Michelle Malkin look more middlish.
Bill Cosby entered the entertainment mainstream earlier than Pryor did, at a time when the mere presence of a black man was threatening to many people. He didn't need to make a passionate stand for social change; his mere presence was an important step. Then Pryor comes along and pushes the envelope further, speaking for the younger, more hot-blooded, more angry.
The more I think about it, the more apt the analogy of Cosby and Pryor to Martin and Malcolm seems to me (with the obvious caveat that entertainment ain't politics, and plays for lower stakes). Cosby and Martin were measured, thoughful and easier for the mainstream to trust. Pryor and Malcolm were offensive, shocking, hot-headed, and both said things they later had cause to regret and retract.
Neither of them could have made the inroads they did without the other on the scene. There's a yin-yang balance in play.
Excellent Entertainer...
No doubt. I am a huge fan of both Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor, and in my dusty vinyl collection, I think I have every recording either of them released in the 1970s and '80s.
The real culprits are the folks that paid good money to see their acts. They were/are the depraved.
The name he used for blacks that he thought acted too old time black was "Geechie"(spell).
This Crouch fellow just called Pryor a Geechie. What an ass.
Oh, he was political -- any comedian who weighs in on race relations is, by definition. What he wasn't is partisan. And he didn't think that being a celebrity made him an expert on foreign relations, budget policy or anything else. He spoke from personal experience.
This is a sweet movie.
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