- you know what? that looks like fire! - comedy without black people would be like the nba without black players. (kevin screaming) - your biggest, biggest superstars in comedy have been black. (eddie yelling) - just genius and hilarious. - yeah, i said it. (audience cheering) - the chappelle show redefined sketch comedy. - i m rick james, bitch. (audience laughing) - in living color set up a platform for black comedians blowing up. - i don t think so. homie don t play that. (audience laughing) - arsenio hall was, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. it was groundbreaking. - [audience] woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. - you had a black man willing to fight the power. - nice being out of jail. (audience laughing) - laughter is healing, laughter purifies the air. actually i don t like to talk about the races, because i m white. - and we, as black people, have been doing it forever. - i am, this is a freckle. (audience laughing) - all black comedians discuss race. - it s harder being gay than i
- colored. - redneck. (audience laughing) - jungle bunny. - peckerwood. (audience laughing) - spade! - honkey! (audience laughing) - nigger. - dead honkey. (audience laughing) - richard s voice was so powerful, nbc gave him the richard pryor show. (upbeat jazzy music) - so the richard pryor show was ahead of its time. they were doing sketches about star wars. they were doing sketches about a black president. that sketch show was incredible. - yeah, what is it? - mr. president, you ve been courtin an awful lot of white women. will this continue? - mm. (audience laughing) as long as i can keep it up. (audience laughing) - for the kids that are coming up now, look to the dave chappelle show, and to me, richard was the chappelle show
(audience laughing) - spade! - honkey! (audience laughing) - nigger. - dead honkey. (audience laughing) - richard s voice was so powerful, nbc gave him the richard pryor show. (upbeat jazzy music) - so the richard pryor show was ahead of its time. they were doing sketches about star wars. they were doing sketches about a black president. that sketch show was incredible. - yeah, what is it? - mr. president, you ve been courtin an awful lot of white women. will this continue? - mm. (audience laughing) as long as i can keep it up. (audience laughing) - for the kids that are coming up now, look to the dave chappelle show, and to me, richard was the chappelle show before the chappelle show. and he knew how to take what was deemed taboo, what was deemed dangerous, and make it hilarious.
- you got to get down and say things like, excuse me. (audience laughing) would you move out of my way? and you walk like this, check this walk. (audience laughing) - what people don t know is that richard pryor insisted upon writing a lot of his own material for that show. so he didn t rely on the white writers to write his skits. he said, i m gonna do it myself. i m gonna bring paul mooney in to come in and help me write this. so they write these amazing sketches that are talking about what blackness is. - it s just a word association. i ll throw you out a few words, anything that comes to your mind, just throw back at me, okay? - and i say blackness because that s exactly what is was. it was about blackness. - colored. - redneck. (audience laughing) - jungle bunny. - peckerwood. (audience laughing) - spade! - honkey! (audience laughing) - nigger. - dead honkey. (audience laughing) - richard s voice was so powerful,
jungle bunny. honkey. honky, honky. nigger. dead honkey. should we be censoring things like that on television? or should we be talking about it more? it s an interesting thing. we talked about context earlier on in the conversation. and words have power. the n word has power. and if you don t understand how to use that power, if you don t know the history and the culture that goes into these words, then you will misuse them. and that s what we re seeing, you know, with paula deen, she s misusing the word and doesn t really understand how offensive it can be to people. the damage the damage. that s when the damage is done. that s why we shouldn t censor it, right? don, if you sit here right now