ChumpDumper
11-30-2006, 07:56 PM
More fallout from the Richards meltdown.
Paul Mooney cites Michael Richards in n-word ban
ERIN TEXEIRA
Associated Press
For decades, Paul Mooney has left people howling with laughter and cringing at the same time. During a typical routine by the black comedian - mostly about the screwy state of race in America - the n-word could roll off his tongue dozens of times.
No longer.
This week, after white comic Michael Richards harangued comedy club hecklers with the n-word, Mooney surprisingly renounced the slur. He vowed never to use it in public again, and said he would campaign to get all blacks to stop using it.
Since the 1970s, Mooney has operated at the highest levels of black comedy - writing for artists such as Richard Pryor (who was largely responsible for mainstreaming the word) and Redd Foxx and television shows like "In Living Color" and "Good Times." He's performed countless standup routines, been in movies and on television, most recently Comedy Central's enormously popular but now-defunct "The Dave Chappelle Show," where he anchored sketches like Negrodamus (a black version of the psychic Nostradamus) and "Ask a Black Dude."
In a performance in Atlanta, he once said, "I'm a real ######. Bury me in a white Cadillac El Dorado and write '######' on the license plate." Amid a debate about whether black vernacular should be treated like its own language, Mooney joked: "As if I don't have enough to worry about, being a ######, now I gotta worry about being bilingual."
Even though the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where the Richards incident happened, now plans to fine comedians for using the slur onstage, it seems unlikely that black entertainers will stop using it entirely.
Mooney spoke by phone from Los Angeles with the Associated Press about his change of heart:
---
AP: You helped pioneer the use of the n-word in black comedy many years ago, didn't you?
Mooney: Oh yeah. I had a romance with the word. I worked with Richard Pryor using the word. It was so destructive - it was created by whites to hurt and destroy - and we were trying to defuse it, trying to desensitize people to it. We did it every chance we got, we would drive people crazy. We were very funny at it. But Richard backed off the word in the early 1980s. He went to Africa and came back and said he didn't see any n-people there. But I said, 'That's him, that's not me.' I was very much into it like an alcoholic was into (liquor).
AP: Any idea how many times you've used the word?
Money: Oh, honey, you can't count it! If I had a dollar for every time I used the n-word I'd be a billionaire.
AP: So, what happened last week? You heard about Richards at the Laugh Factory - he was caught on tape attacking black audience members.
Mooney: I have known Michael Richards for something like 20 years. We're friends. But I heard about the tape and I said, 'That doesn't sound like a comic routine. That sounds like a breakdown.' Then I saw the tape and I had an out of body experience. It was so ugly, so horrible. I hadn't heard (the n-word) like this - from someone I knew. Suddenly, I was directly connected. I was able to look at it not just through my eyes but through the eyes of the world. I had always thought it was endearing. It's NOT. It's not an equal opportunity word. I don't want everyone running around saying it.
AP: Being friends with Richards, did you ever have an inkling he could say those kinds of things?
Mooney: No, he never showed me that. Never. We had a private meeting and he told me he didn't know he had that ugliness in him. He said some white people had come up to him after the show and said, 'We agree with you. We're behind you.' He said it scared him. He didn't want to be the new Klansman.
AP: Will he be forgiven? Isn't this the ultimate taboo in America - a white person using racial slurs in public?
Mooney: The man is a human being. Everyone deserves a second chance. I've heard violent reactions from people, black and white - how could I be forgiving? Look, everyone's rap sheet is ugly, mine included. We've all got to straighten up about this race thing. We've got to make something positive out of all this.
AP: Do you think your comedy will suffer - can you be as edgy without the shock value of the word? I mean, you've used it constantly for so long.
Mooney: I'm an n-word alcoholic and I will not be drinking from the n-bar. I will say 'black' or I will say 'African American.'
AP: Can you tell me a joke that you've told in the past with the n-word and show me how you'll change it?
Mooney: There was a white lady baking a cake for her little white son. She turned her back and he took the chocolate icing and smeared it on his face and said, 'Mommy, look! I'm black!' She slaps him and says, 'Don't ever do that again. Now go tell your father what you did.' So the boy goes to his father and does the same thing and gets slapped again. The father sends him to his grandfather and he does it again and the grandfather slaps him, too. So the boy goes back to his mother and she says, 'Well, Timmy, what have you learned today?' He says, 'I learned I've only been black five minutes and I already hate white people.'
AP: Ha!
Mooney: Believe me, it will get just as big a laugh. Oh yeah, honey, it's a new Mooney. And another thing - I will not be using the b-word (to refer to women) anymore either.
AP: Oh?
Mooney: I'll say 'heifer' instead. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd be saying this, but it's a whole new world. A new time. I can't change the past, but one person can change the future - anything can happen. I'm taking my stand.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/gossip/16123925.htm
Paul Mooney cites Michael Richards in n-word ban
ERIN TEXEIRA
Associated Press
For decades, Paul Mooney has left people howling with laughter and cringing at the same time. During a typical routine by the black comedian - mostly about the screwy state of race in America - the n-word could roll off his tongue dozens of times.
No longer.
This week, after white comic Michael Richards harangued comedy club hecklers with the n-word, Mooney surprisingly renounced the slur. He vowed never to use it in public again, and said he would campaign to get all blacks to stop using it.
Since the 1970s, Mooney has operated at the highest levels of black comedy - writing for artists such as Richard Pryor (who was largely responsible for mainstreaming the word) and Redd Foxx and television shows like "In Living Color" and "Good Times." He's performed countless standup routines, been in movies and on television, most recently Comedy Central's enormously popular but now-defunct "The Dave Chappelle Show," where he anchored sketches like Negrodamus (a black version of the psychic Nostradamus) and "Ask a Black Dude."
In a performance in Atlanta, he once said, "I'm a real ######. Bury me in a white Cadillac El Dorado and write '######' on the license plate." Amid a debate about whether black vernacular should be treated like its own language, Mooney joked: "As if I don't have enough to worry about, being a ######, now I gotta worry about being bilingual."
Even though the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where the Richards incident happened, now plans to fine comedians for using the slur onstage, it seems unlikely that black entertainers will stop using it entirely.
Mooney spoke by phone from Los Angeles with the Associated Press about his change of heart:
---
AP: You helped pioneer the use of the n-word in black comedy many years ago, didn't you?
Mooney: Oh yeah. I had a romance with the word. I worked with Richard Pryor using the word. It was so destructive - it was created by whites to hurt and destroy - and we were trying to defuse it, trying to desensitize people to it. We did it every chance we got, we would drive people crazy. We were very funny at it. But Richard backed off the word in the early 1980s. He went to Africa and came back and said he didn't see any n-people there. But I said, 'That's him, that's not me.' I was very much into it like an alcoholic was into (liquor).
AP: Any idea how many times you've used the word?
Money: Oh, honey, you can't count it! If I had a dollar for every time I used the n-word I'd be a billionaire.
AP: So, what happened last week? You heard about Richards at the Laugh Factory - he was caught on tape attacking black audience members.
Mooney: I have known Michael Richards for something like 20 years. We're friends. But I heard about the tape and I said, 'That doesn't sound like a comic routine. That sounds like a breakdown.' Then I saw the tape and I had an out of body experience. It was so ugly, so horrible. I hadn't heard (the n-word) like this - from someone I knew. Suddenly, I was directly connected. I was able to look at it not just through my eyes but through the eyes of the world. I had always thought it was endearing. It's NOT. It's not an equal opportunity word. I don't want everyone running around saying it.
AP: Being friends with Richards, did you ever have an inkling he could say those kinds of things?
Mooney: No, he never showed me that. Never. We had a private meeting and he told me he didn't know he had that ugliness in him. He said some white people had come up to him after the show and said, 'We agree with you. We're behind you.' He said it scared him. He didn't want to be the new Klansman.
AP: Will he be forgiven? Isn't this the ultimate taboo in America - a white person using racial slurs in public?
Mooney: The man is a human being. Everyone deserves a second chance. I've heard violent reactions from people, black and white - how could I be forgiving? Look, everyone's rap sheet is ugly, mine included. We've all got to straighten up about this race thing. We've got to make something positive out of all this.
AP: Do you think your comedy will suffer - can you be as edgy without the shock value of the word? I mean, you've used it constantly for so long.
Mooney: I'm an n-word alcoholic and I will not be drinking from the n-bar. I will say 'black' or I will say 'African American.'
AP: Can you tell me a joke that you've told in the past with the n-word and show me how you'll change it?
Mooney: There was a white lady baking a cake for her little white son. She turned her back and he took the chocolate icing and smeared it on his face and said, 'Mommy, look! I'm black!' She slaps him and says, 'Don't ever do that again. Now go tell your father what you did.' So the boy goes to his father and does the same thing and gets slapped again. The father sends him to his grandfather and he does it again and the grandfather slaps him, too. So the boy goes back to his mother and she says, 'Well, Timmy, what have you learned today?' He says, 'I learned I've only been black five minutes and I already hate white people.'
AP: Ha!
Mooney: Believe me, it will get just as big a laugh. Oh yeah, honey, it's a new Mooney. And another thing - I will not be using the b-word (to refer to women) anymore either.
AP: Oh?
Mooney: I'll say 'heifer' instead. In my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd be saying this, but it's a whole new world. A new time. I can't change the past, but one person can change the future - anything can happen. I'm taking my stand.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/gossip/16123925.htm