Thursday, July 13, 2006
secret to pryor's success
I downloaded four full-length CDs of Richard Pryor's comedy. Why did Prior set the stadard for Black male comedians when others failed?
1) Pryor is damn funny. He is one clever motherfucker.
2) Pryor kinda sounds like a nerdy white guy. I'm serious--have you ever heard another Black man whose voice sounds like Pryor's? No. And this helped Pryor, because White people could easily understand him. Yeah, Pryor's vernacular was not White-friendly--but his "sound" was. Same with Cosby. The only other Black man who I've heard that sounds like Pryor is Cosby. And again, he reached both Black and White audiences...
In closing, we are a far more racist society than people often see on the surface. Our racism is more subtle and more equal opportunity (Whites fear Arabs more than Blacks)...but our Black comedians (Rock, Tucker, Murphy, Cosby, Pryor) who hit both White and Black audiences all have one thing in common--a weird voice. That's what does it for the Whiteys--if you don't "sound" Black, we can accept you.
1) Pryor is damn funny. He is one clever motherfucker.
2) Pryor kinda sounds like a nerdy white guy. I'm serious--have you ever heard another Black man whose voice sounds like Pryor's? No. And this helped Pryor, because White people could easily understand him. Yeah, Pryor's vernacular was not White-friendly--but his "sound" was. Same with Cosby. The only other Black man who I've heard that sounds like Pryor is Cosby. And again, he reached both Black and White audiences...
In closing, we are a far more racist society than people often see on the surface. Our racism is more subtle and more equal opportunity (Whites fear Arabs more than Blacks)...but our Black comedians (Rock, Tucker, Murphy, Cosby, Pryor) who hit both White and Black audiences all have one thing in common--a weird voice. That's what does it for the Whiteys--if you don't "sound" Black, we can accept you.
