Is It Something He Said: The Mass Consumption of Richard Pryor's Culturally Intimate Humor

Abstract

With a “culturally intimate” style of humor that provocatively dissected working-class African-American culture, Richard Pryor was one of America's most popular comedians. This article outlines the different types of Black humor, discusses Pryor's career and comic works, and then examines audience reception of his humor. Despite Pryor's complex invocation of African-American stereotypes, Black and non-Black viewers generally viewed Pryor's comic representations of African-Americans through the lens of dominant stereotypes, especially when a working-class milieu was signified.