"I fell over a burnin' Richard Pryor..."


Posted On: Friday - May 10th 2019 4:09PM MST
In Topics:   Humor

From what I've just read, other comedians dub him one of the top stand-up comics of all time, but I'd never really liked Richard Pryor a whole lot. I came upon the video below, which reminded me of Mr. Pryor's setting himself on fire* right around 39 years ago. I apologize for just getting around to blogging about it, as I was in no position to do so in June of 1980. ;-}

A guy by that goes by the name of "Marty McFly" (yeah, I get it), who seems to live in or know the Northridge neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of southern California where Richard Pryor lived for a long while, wrote an interesting post about the background comedian and specifically the running-down-the-street-on-fire incident that lots of people like myself heard and laughed about.

Well, this version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire just cracked me up, after a commenter named Reg Caesar posted it in comments under a Steve Sailer article. I was going to go for a Monty Python embed, but that'll have to be tomorrow, along with more serious posts.

Now, who's funnier, the writer of this parody, or Richard Pryor? Sorry, Pryor fans, but I vote for this guy:




I'd completely forgotten that here was another fire incident with Michael Jackson and a Pepsi-Cola commercial (1984). Man, I hate to LOL at this one, because it was completely accidental (special effects explosions went off early) and the man got 2nd and 3rd degree burns. I'll just put it here anyway, due to a hell of a good crack about the both incidents.




This was a great opportunity for both men to give back to their people as they later came together to support the IGNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND.

Thank you, thank you ... I'll be here all week till the Peak ... try the stupidity ....






* We'd always heard accidentally via free-basing cocaine (I honestly don't know what that means, which is a good thing). However, from my reading just now, he WAS doing cocaine, but he wanted to end his life and purposefully poured 150-proof (75% alcohol) rum over himself like a drunk Buddhist monk - or this fool. I just remember hearing that his hair was on fire, as funny as that was (yeah, sometimes he was funny), but, no, his polyester suit, soaked with rum, burned him pretty badly. As I wrote in the self-immolation post linked-to just above, that's about the most painful thing there is.

*******************************
[UPDATED 5/13:] I just had to add a line from unz commenter "AceDuece" about a Michael Jackson hair-on-fire incident. LOL, Indeed!
*******************************

Comments:
Moderator
Saturday - May 11th 2019 10:32AM MST
PS: Just screwing around with a cigarette lighter, I'd set a friends hair on fire, but knocked it out with my hand a second later.

We do need more than LOL, as that doesn't really happen that often. I really did from listening to this song the 1st time.

Yeah, nobody seems to spell Alfred's surname consistently. This thing with the journalists, is that they have all the tools in the world now, compared to Alfred E. Newman, Neuman, whatever's time. Do you remember how hard it'd be to change a sentence in the middle of a typed up 40-page paper. Get the white-out, figure you how much longer the sentence will be, but out some word somewhere else. Being a typist for a guy who had a hard-core editor had to be a nightmare.
BernCar
Saturday - May 11th 2019 5:36AM MST
PS: Yeah, I had also thought the free-basing set Pryor ablaze. Never heard about inundating himself with rum and lighting himself up. I can personally bear witnness to the hazards of alcohol and fire, stemming from a beach incident with a bonfire and gin. Thankfully, I was wearing cutoff blue jeans and not a polyester leisure suit.
BernCar
Saturday - May 11th 2019 5:28AM MST
PS: I'm more of a shake-of-the-head-with-a-wry-grin kind of guy, but I actually LOL'd at that song. I recall LOL-ing uproariously at one of Pryor's HBO specials decades ago, but that was a case of 3 Dudes Drinking as I recall.

Regarding the Breitbart article Working Class pointed us to: I note, while SMH-ing with a wry grin that the author of the article, Charlie Spiering, quoted the Trump tweet wherein Trump spelled Neuman correctly, but then Spiering went on to refer to "Newman" throughout the rest of the article. What kind of journalists are we raising in this country? O tempora, o mores.
Moderator
Saturday - May 11th 2019 2:02AM MST
PS: What, butt-edging in again? Trump can be pretty funny (I wish he spent the effort on doing the job we elected him for, instead). However, I don't like Mad Mag's mascot being associated with that butt-plugger out of Transexual Pennsylvania ... errr, Indiana. Mr. Neuman was no BLT/Ger*.

I like that 2nd story too, WC. It's funny that someone figured write in ballots had Evan McMullen's name "mis-spelled". Nah, I don't think mis-spelled is the story - Egg McMuffin is, like, so obvious.

* Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato, with a side of Guac?
WorkingClass
Friday - May 10th 2019 9:44PM MST
PS And this. Alfred E. as write in candidate:

https://lititzrecord.com/entertainment/whats-name-local-presidential-write-ins-include-elmer-fudd-alfred-e-neuman/
WorkingClass
Friday - May 10th 2019 9:31PM MST
PS It's me again butting in on behalf of your mascot.

President Donald Trump ridiculed Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Friday, describing him as Alfred E. Neuman, the cartoon icon from Mad Magazine.

You gotta see the graphic.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/10/donald-trump-compares-pete-buttigieg-to-mad-magazine-cartoon-alfred-e-neuman/
WHAT SAY YOU? : (PLEASE NOTE: You must type capital PS as the 1st TWO characters in your comment body - for spam avoidance - or the comment will be lost!)
YOUR NAME
Comments