LOL: Pioneering Black Comics

Finishing up our tribute to African-American culture, today's LOL celebrates three pioneering black comedians.




Bill Cosby as you might never have seen him; young, slim, sly. "After graduating high school, I went to college... The high school drop-outs already had all the jobs," is a funny line in any decade.



A very young Richard Pryor performing on the Kraft Music Hall Special, way back in 1964. Check the suit.



Redd Foxx is more than Fred Sanford. Foxx was a bawdy, ballsy comedian who became a professional performer at the depths of the Great Depression, moving to Chicago when he was thirteen. For years he toured the so-called "chitin circuit" of black theaters and recorded several albums. Moving to New York in the early 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth."

By the mid-1940s, Foxx was also recording albums and never stopped touring. But he didn't break through until the 1960s. After recording ever-dirtier material for MF and King records, Foxx signed to Loma, a division of Frank Sinatra's Reprise imprint, and had his first mainstream success. The clip is Redd in all his Sanford & Son-era glory, slamming his dear friend Sinatra at the Dean Martin Roast.