The 10 Best Burns From the Unaired 1977 Roast of Richard Pryor
1977’s The Richard Pryor Show was a miserable experience for both the comic and NBC, full of clashes over sketches, language and the boundaries of good taste. Pryor wasn’t in great shape at the time, the ratings started terribly and only got worse from there, and just four episodes were produced.
The last episode featured a heavily edited roast that included insults from cast members like Robin Williams. According to the book Becoming Richard Pryor, the comedian brought his dark mood to the podium, and when it was his turn to speak, he took shots at everyone from Marsha Warfield (Pryor said the show adopted her from the zoo), to Tim Reid (“We wanted to give him a job because he had the shortest thing of any Black man in America, and we didn’t want white people to know”).
The full roast finally arrived on the Official Richard Pryor YouTube channel last year, giving us a chance to hear some of the harshest burns thrown Pryor’s way. Here are 10 of the sharpest…
Robin Williams
“This man is a genius. Who else can take all the forms of comedy — slapstick, satire, mime and stand-up — and turn it into something that'll offend everyone?”
Sandra Bernhard
“I have a little announcement to make. Immediately following the World Series, the reunion of Richard’s ex-wives will be held in Dodger Stadium.”
Marsha Warfield
“Richard Pryor is a real humanitarian. He’s raised a lot of money for young students. In fact, he’s paid half the girls at the local high school to keep their mouths shut.”
Paul Mooney
“From the first day that America recognized him as a stand-up comic, the critics knew he had something unique. Who else would have the nerve to do Bill Cosby’s entire routine?”
Tim Reid
“The ratings (for The Richard Pryor Show) weren’t too high. As a matter of fact, they were so low for this show we were beaten out by a documentary on PBS entitled, The Armadillo: Nature's Little Tank.”
Marsha Warfield
“I was amazed that he would date me. I couldn’t believe it at that time. I wasn’t his type at all. I wasn’t beautiful, I wasn’t sexy, I wasn’t white.”
Vic Dunlop
“Some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Richard was born with one in his nose.”
Paul Mooney
“He was born in Peoria, where half the kids in town call him a superstar these days. The other half call him Daddy.”
Tim Reid
“I personally don’t understand what the problem is about the remarks Richard made at the Hollywood Bowl. After all, he’s the same guy who used to hang around going, ‘Hey sailor, want to dance?’”
Marsha Warfield
“He learned about sex through trial and error. In fact, he was on trial for one of his errors.”
