That's the part younger comics always misunderstand when they try to ape Pryor. You see them saying outrageous things and then standing back waiting for the laugh and you realize they think it's about cursing... But it was never simply about the language, never about anything as cheap as shock value. It was about giving voice to those who'd never had voice before, about forcing the rest of us to recognize the humanity we shared with street hustlers, pool hall losers, winos, prostitutes, poor people, and a singular old man named Mudbone.
...Pryor's comedy was race and sex and politics and society and drugs and religion and life. His comedy was about what it meant to be human - flawed, screwed-up, imperfect, human. It was a revelation.
...It was, in the largest sense, a lesson in how to be. Honest enough to acknowledge how hard this life sometimes is. Brave enough to laugh anyway.
