richard pryor died this morning, apparently from a heart attack.

pryor was--in my opinion anyway--the funniest man of his generation and an extremely influential artist, one of the unholy trinity responsible for reviving stand-up comedy  and shaping it into what it is today.

so sadly, for about the past 15 years, pryor had been a prisoner of multiple sclerosis, unable to work and eventually unable to speak.  

there are three things richard did or said that deserve being recalled so i'll mention them and leave the rest of his biography to others.     

first, there is the funniest photo i've seen so far in my life.  it was published by 'rolling stone' along with an article/interview with richard.   the picture showed pryor with a nylon stocking pulled over his face (a once popular 'mask' used by thugs to conceal their identites) and he was seemingly trying to pick his nose thru the fabric.  (yeah, i guess you hadda see it.  unfortunately i can't find it online for ya.)

second: altho he was a true iconoclast who refused to tailor his language to comply with anyone's rules, after returning from africa in 1979, he told us he'd never again use a particularly egregious and all too common racial slur because noone deserved to be spoken of in that way.

last, but hardly least, when describing an earlier heart attack, pryor said: "I woke up in the ambulance, right? And there was nothin' but white people starin' at me. I say . . . I done died and wound up in the wrong heaven. Now I gotta listen to Lawrence Welk the rest of my days." Link

we've been missing you for a long time already, richard.  while it's horribly sad that you're no longer here, it would be equally horribly selfish of us to have derived any enjoyment for even an extra minute if doing so required you to endure another 60 seconds of your former captivity.