"Pre-Spinal Tap Mystical Hobbit Rockers? Check."
November 16, 2013 3:45 PM Subscribe
Richard Pryor is Black Death
i haven't seen this since it showed on tv - i tried describing it to some artsy friends who had missed it - they looked at me as if i was making it up, or insane for thinking this was a tremendously funny thing
i don't think people were quite ready for it
posted by pyramid termite at 3:57 PM on November 16, 2013
i don't think people were quite ready for it
posted by pyramid termite at 3:57 PM on November 16, 2013
And the segue to the commercial is a black midget dressed as Hitler giving the nazi salute? The wtf just keeps on building.
posted by 445supermag at 4:02 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by 445supermag at 4:02 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
"And the segue to the commercial is a black midget dressed as Hitler giving the nazi salute? The wtf just keeps on building."
With a laugh track.
This just by itself is maybe no more than an overwrought joke with a miniscule payoff.
What I might wish for is an entire season of this — nay, twenty seasons of this, precisely this, this sketch, over and over and over, with little black midget nazis to segue into the commercial breaks, where the only thing that really changes is the advertisements from one year to the next and Sandra Bernhard is caught forever in that moment of time, one perfect day when she was 22.
Richard Pryor, of course, will still age, and through a kind of unsympathetic magic, death metal will be mercifully averted while KISS's Ace Frehley takes the band into the wildly popular virgin territory of artfunkrock, which dominates the airwaves of the early eighties.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:19 PM on November 16, 2013 [3 favorites]
With a laugh track.
This just by itself is maybe no more than an overwrought joke with a miniscule payoff.
What I might wish for is an entire season of this — nay, twenty seasons of this, precisely this, this sketch, over and over and over, with little black midget nazis to segue into the commercial breaks, where the only thing that really changes is the advertisements from one year to the next and Sandra Bernhard is caught forever in that moment of time, one perfect day when she was 22.
Richard Pryor, of course, will still age, and through a kind of unsympathetic magic, death metal will be mercifully averted while KISS's Ace Frehley takes the band into the wildly popular virgin territory of artfunkrock, which dominates the airwaves of the early eighties.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:19 PM on November 16, 2013 [3 favorites]
a miniscule payoff.
I see what you did there.
posted by The otter lady at 4:28 PM on November 16, 2013
I see what you did there.
posted by The otter lady at 4:28 PM on November 16, 2013
I didn't know he could play guitar licks.
And I see what you did there.
Did that tonguing trick originate with Jimi Hendrix or were all the rock auteurs doing it back then?
Key & Peele did something sorta similar to this skit on their last episode, except they seemed to be aiming at the Parliament-Funkadelic/Sly & the Family Stone-type bands.
posted by fuse theorem at 4:43 PM on November 16, 2013
And I see what you did there.
Did that tonguing trick originate with Jimi Hendrix or were all the rock auteurs doing it back then?
Key & Peele did something sorta similar to this skit on their last episode, except they seemed to be aiming at the Parliament-Funkadelic/Sly & the Family Stone-type bands.
posted by fuse theorem at 4:43 PM on November 16, 2013
The pacing of that joke was something only a 1970s audience accustomed to bloated prog rock song running times would put up with. It was funny, but it went on much too long.
posted by dortmunder at 5:26 PM on November 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by dortmunder at 5:26 PM on November 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
Wow, haven't seen this since it aired. That's not quite how I remembered it-- I remember more closeups of Richard's face while gunning down the audience, him nodding with satisfaction as the band wound down, drumbeats accompanying bursts of gunfire, and finally silence as the camera draws back to show the piles of dead kids in front of the stage. Close, but not quite the same. I wonder if there were other takes or if this was it and I just edited it in my mind.
The whole black/white dynamic, with the black rock god handing out drugs and gunning down white kids while singing "I'm going to kill you", was really intense in 1977, especially for a network show in that time slot. My sister and I (17 and 18 at the time) fell over ourselves, finding it hysterical. My parents just sat in stunned silence. I enjoyed the show while it lasted, and was not at all surprised that it was canceled after only four episodes. I'm sure Richard was pretty difficult for the network to handle. He was an amazing comedian.
posted by dougfelt at 6:06 PM on November 16, 2013 [4 favorites]
The whole black/white dynamic, with the black rock god handing out drugs and gunning down white kids while singing "I'm going to kill you", was really intense in 1977, especially for a network show in that time slot. My sister and I (17 and 18 at the time) fell over ourselves, finding it hysterical. My parents just sat in stunned silence. I enjoyed the show while it lasted, and was not at all surprised that it was canceled after only four episodes. I'm sure Richard was pretty difficult for the network to handle. He was an amazing comedian.
posted by dougfelt at 6:06 PM on November 16, 2013 [4 favorites]
Did that tonguing trick originate with Jimi Hendrix or were all the rock auteurs doing it back then?
it goes a lot further back than jimi hendrix - t bone walker did it
posted by pyramid termite at 6:17 PM on November 16, 2013
it goes a lot further back than jimi hendrix - t bone walker did it
posted by pyramid termite at 6:17 PM on November 16, 2013
Key & Peele did something sorta similar to this skit on their last episode
It's mind-blowing how often they've tapped the zeitgeist lately. There's a Key & Peele sketch for everything.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:34 PM on November 16, 2013
It's mind-blowing how often they've tapped the zeitgeist lately. There's a Key & Peele sketch for everything.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:34 PM on November 16, 2013
Funny...that's not the Black Death I know...
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 7:54 PM on November 16, 2013
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 7:54 PM on November 16, 2013
I'm kind of currently falling for Key & Peele right now. The funk band sketch was pretty well done, but suffers from not actually out-weirding Funkadelic/Sly/Cameo. I dusted off the CD of Cameo 12" mixes last night and was like 'Hey, you win. OWWWWWWWW.'
posted by mintcake! at 8:17 PM on November 16, 2013
posted by mintcake! at 8:17 PM on November 16, 2013
Did that tonguing trick originate with Jimi Hendrix or were all the rock auteurs doing it back then?
it goes a lot further back than jimi hendrix - t bone walker did it
Howling Wolf was known to show a little tongue now and again as well.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:10 PM on November 16, 2013
it goes a lot further back than jimi hendrix - t bone walker did it
Howling Wolf was known to show a little tongue now and again as well.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:10 PM on November 16, 2013
I wanted to like this skit, but when all is said and done, Pryor was really just rather lazy here, wasn't he? I mean, his body language, his movements, they were so wishy-washy, so UN-rock god. Seems like he thought just putting on the suit was good enough, but he clearly didn't really put much thought into this, or much research into it.
The title Black Death, though, brings to mind the serious, non-posing, non-comic and very black Death. Predating this skit by about 4 years and rocking the fuck outta the rock, and, yeah, black and everything. I think I'll do an FPP on them now...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:18 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
The title Black Death, though, brings to mind the serious, non-posing, non-comic and very black Death. Predating this skit by about 4 years and rocking the fuck outta the rock, and, yeah, black and everything. I think I'll do an FPP on them now...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:18 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
Actually, no, I won't make an FPP, cause there was already an FPP on them back in 2008. And even though there are a LOT more links now to their music, it'd maybe still seem kinda double-y. But check 'em out: there's a lotta tunes on YouTube. The real Black Death.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:26 PM on November 16, 2013
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:26 PM on November 16, 2013
That really did remind me of Spinal Tap. I was waiting for one of the coffin lids to get stuck.
I wonder if this had any influence on Tap.
posted by MtDewd at 4:13 AM on November 17, 2013
I wonder if this had any influence on Tap.
posted by MtDewd at 4:13 AM on November 17, 2013
Amazing that this was a network TV show!
posted by cell divide at 9:41 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by cell divide at 9:41 AM on November 17, 2013
Is that Harry Shearer or Don Kirshner on the intro? I've always had trouble with those two. Karen Allen and Margot Kidder as well.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:50 AM on November 17, 2013
posted by humboldt32 at 10:50 AM on November 17, 2013
Amazing that this was a network TV show!
The 70s were like that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:57 AM on November 17, 2013
The 70s were like that.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:57 AM on November 17, 2013
I wanted to like this skit, but when all is said and done, Pryor was really just rather lazy here, wasn't he? I mean, his body language, his movements, they were so wishy-washy, so UN-rock god. Seems like he thought just putting on the suit was good enough, but he clearly didn't really put much thought into this, or much research into it.
Heh, I though that was totally spot on, and the best thing about the sketch!
I just assumed he was taking the mick out of the glam rock/metal/prog staple of burly, not-terribly-good-looking blokes piling on the slap, dressing up to the nines and doddering awkwardly about the stage - see, e.g., every member of Slade (especially poor old Dave Hill), Wizzard-era Roy Wood, Ozzy Osbourne, Eno twiddling knobs in a fun fur jerkin with Roxy Music, Gary Glitter, everyone in the Spiders from Mars except Bowie and Ronson, &c., &c.
Pryor throwing giant bags of drugs and pills into his all-white teenage audience? Check.
And finally, Richard Pryor taking a machine gun to his fans, killing every white teenager in the place? Double-check.
That description is a bit... peculiar, no? There are black people in pretty much every shot of the audience, and Black Death kills them all too.
posted by jack_mo at 4:33 AM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Heh, I though that was totally spot on, and the best thing about the sketch!
I just assumed he was taking the mick out of the glam rock/metal/prog staple of burly, not-terribly-good-looking blokes piling on the slap, dressing up to the nines and doddering awkwardly about the stage - see, e.g., every member of Slade (especially poor old Dave Hill), Wizzard-era Roy Wood, Ozzy Osbourne, Eno twiddling knobs in a fun fur jerkin with Roxy Music, Gary Glitter, everyone in the Spiders from Mars except Bowie and Ronson, &c., &c.
Pryor throwing giant bags of drugs and pills into his all-white teenage audience? Check.
And finally, Richard Pryor taking a machine gun to his fans, killing every white teenager in the place? Double-check.
That description is a bit... peculiar, no? There are black people in pretty much every shot of the audience, and Black Death kills them all too.
posted by jack_mo at 4:33 AM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
suffers from not actually out-weirding Funkadelic/Sly/Cameo
Yeah, P-Funk and The Tubes actual 1977 concerts were further out there than this parody -- 'cept for the mass murder bit, of course.
Funny...that's not the Black Death I know...
Hey yeah, Black Death (Cleveland)! (Not black-but-not-Black Death (Detroit).)
I used to work with Henry Marshall (day jobs) when he was in the band. Sometime in that period I sold him my walnut Les Paul when I needed the cash. (Love to have it back, Henry).
posted by Herodios at 9:26 AM on November 22, 2013
Yeah, P-Funk and The Tubes actual 1977 concerts were further out there than this parody -- 'cept for the mass murder bit, of course.
Funny...that's not the Black Death I know...
Hey yeah, Black Death (Cleveland)! (Not black-but-not-Black Death (Detroit).)
I used to work with Henry Marshall (day jobs) when he was in the band. Sometime in that period I sold him my walnut Les Paul when I needed the cash. (Love to have it back, Henry).
posted by Herodios at 9:26 AM on November 22, 2013
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