That ****** Was Crazy! And So Are We...

It was title of his seminal 1974 work which won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album that year. Get it now???

Jesus, we're all so afraid of our fucking shadows when it comes to issues of race, precisely what Pryor was deconstructing back in the 1970's. But we have not progressed one iota, in fact, we have gone backward. What would the presenter of Pryor's Grammy have said had he won it today?

"And the Grammy goes to... Richard Pryor for "That 'N word' Is Crazy!"

Pryor was no great civil rights icon. He was a comedian. An incredibly talented comedian who used the discomfiture between blacks and whites to great effect - by pointing out the absurdity of the whole goddamn situation. He influenced all comics after him, including Kid Various. How sad that in his lifetime he actually witnessed the deterioration of race relations to the point where innocent use of WORDS can create devastating controversy.

Everyone who knows Kid Various knows that he would never use nigger the "N" word as an insult or an as attempt to hurt anybody. But even if he did, Kid Various still categorically denies that there are any words or ideas so terrible, so beyond the pale of human intercourse, that they cannot be expressed.

Kid Various could go on about this for hours. However there's a war on, which will determine whether or not words and ideas can continue to be freely expressed in the future - or whether that paradigm will vanish.

Just try not to lose it on the home front until I get back.

Update: And you should all buy this disc by another great comedian, Carlos Mencia, where he implores "Take A Joke, America!"