Eugene McCarthy & Richard Pryor

Richard Pryor and Eugene McCarthy died Saturday.

The passage we felt best identified Pryor was from Jeremiah Marquez's's Associated Press article entitled "Pioneering Comedian Richard Pryor Dies:"

While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's comedians, it was startling when first introduced. He never apologized for it.

We also enjoyed this article because the photo with it online shows Pryor with Chris Rock and Lily Tomlin, two comedians who work comedy similar to Pryor's. Other reports have bent over backwards to include numerous males (mainly white) as influences or inheritors of Pryor's mantle. Tomlin and Pryor's style meshed (and they worked well together) but the press has failed to note that in any coverage we've seen. (We haven't seen coverage from Rolling Stone yet.)

For the passage that we felt best summered up McCarthy, we'll go with his son's comment:

"He was thoughtful and he was principled and he was compassionate and he had a good sense of humor. ... I think he probably would consider his work in civil rights legislation in the 1960s ... his greatest contribution." -- Michael McCarthy, Eugene's son.

If there's a thread between the two men besides dying on the same day, it's that both attempted to tell their truth. (And both didn't bother to hide their opposition to the Vietnam conflict.)

Richard Pryor 1940-2005
Eugene McCarthy 1916-2005