(ThyBlackMan.com) The Richard Pryor Show ran for four episodes in late 1977 on NBC. Pryor is a comedian that many should know similar to Redd Foxx and Flip Wilson—Black comedians who popped in the 1970s or had sitcoms at the time.
I brought up this show for one reason. Pryor ran controversial skits on all four episodes with one of them being “Black Death.” Now, I’m not talking about heavy metal cult legends Black Death out of Cleveland, Ohio.
This was Pryor parodying hard rock and shock rock bands of the time. In the late 1970s, heavy metal hadn’t exploded like it would in the 1980s. It was rising rapidly as several bands became leaning towards the sound while others were being formed.
As a matter of fact, the only metal band that was a name in 1977 was Black Sabbath who were six albums and nine years into their run. While Sabbath used some theatrics, bands such as Alice Cooper and Kiss used them at a scale similar to what we see in Richard Pryor’s skit.
Richard Pryor With Black Death
The skit involves Pryor with full on face paint/make-up, a wild wig that had a mohawk, a winged cape, platform boots, spandex, and this mirror-plate shirt on. He went all the way with this get up, folks and it was timely for the period.
It was very glam rock which is the Kiss element here. Then you have the band members in robes and face paint. The focus wasn’t on them but Pryor who spent the first part of the skit dancing before yelling out random stuff.
The on-stage band went from rock to funk like midway through. I mean, I didn’t mind but it’s noticeable. Rock and funk would mix to make a new genre a decade later and some of funk legend George Clinton’s stuff full-on psychedelic rock.
That’s all technical, music stuff. The real star of the show is just the overall bit itself. Black Death’s gimmick here is that they kill the white fans at their shows. That’s the basis for skit and again, it’s a parody of popular rock music of the 1970s.
Towards the end of the skit when Pryor starts singing—it’s more like the spoken word part of some songs—he pulls three bags of powder or poison. Pryor then tosses it out to the crowd and kills some of the fans.
Then he pulls out a large atomizer and starts spraying the remaining fans with DDT. As the show continues the white fans in attendance start dropping like flies while others are still enjoying the show.
The skit ends with Pryor killing the rest with a machine gun and playing a guitar solo.
Controversy
For late 1970s NBC, this was just too much. Mind you, this four-episode show had a few controversial skits and all of it offended viewers of different backgrounds.
The “Black Death” skit probably would’ve skated under the radar if it wasn’t mentioned that the band kills all of its white fans. That’s a soft probably because violence and death were still featured and the FCC’s rules were likely stricter about specific things such as how many people can die in a single episode.
This is a skit that would’ve done well decades later. If Dave Chappelle had done it on Comedy Central, it would’ve been viewed as tame in the 2000s. Pryor was way ahead of his peers with this one.
It’s basically what older Black parents who didn’t listen to rock and weren’t flexible about listening to new stuff viewed heavy metal. Just madness, smoke, and death. There have been bands that were musically sound but used extreme stagecraft in a similar manner.
Just look a couple of Alice Cooper live shows from the 70s and 80s for a light case and GWAR from the 1980s until now for a more extreme version of what Pryor did here.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.