-This next guest, I don't need to read anything.
This man has worked with Richard Pryor.
To us, he's like a demigod.
When we go out to The Comedy Store, you hear about this man.
You can't wait to meet him.
Mr Paul Mooney, the man, the legend.
-Look, I don't want you to be offended by me
because I know I sound like I'm White.
I went to White schools, so be offended by that.
-Paul walked up to the line and crossed the line
about seven times [laughing].
-He's our vanguard.
He'd get up there and laugh at some stuff
that you would not say.
-Paul was who he was.
Blunt, hard, raw, real.
-I want everything to be Black
because I'm tired of everything being White.
-His comedy was about racism and the level that it goes to.
-I met a young comedian at the Improvisation.
We were the only two brothers there.
Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Keenen goes, "There's a comedian at The Comedy Store
that you got to see.
His name is Paul Mooney".
And, when he gets on, he says the most outrageous,
but true, stuff.
And he's talking about White folks.
He's talking about injustices of Black people
and he's unapologetically Black.
And what we didn't know
was that Paul Mooney was planting seeds in us
to be what would be "Hollywood Shuffle".
Speak up for yourself.
Say what's in your heart.
Say what's in your mind. Be true.
-We feel that Black actors should not have to accept these
stereotype roles, such as crying slaves, Tar-Babies.
-Tar-Babies? -Jungle bunnies.
-Jungle bunnies?
-And I say that, as long as Black actors play these roles,
they'll never play the Rambos
until they stop playing the Sambos.
-Everything starts at Richard Pryor.
-I met him, the first thing I noticed, he was very bright.
Two shades lighter than me.
-So he wrote for Richard Pryor.
When you watched, as a young comedian, how he crafted it,
it was funny, but it was also really smart.
And so, when you see Richard Pryor and you know
that Paul was behind the scenes,
writing, yes, Richard was brilliant,
but then, there were certain lines that you'd go like,
"Oh, that's on some next-level,"
and then, we'd go like, "Oh, that came from Paul".
Like when Richard did "Saturday Night Live"
and they do the famous sketch with Chevy Chase,
the word association, and Richard is playing
the janitor and Paul wrote that scene.
-We got one more kind of psychological test
we always do here, just a word association.
Bean. -Pod.
-Negro. -Whitey.
-Tar-Baby. -What'd you say?
-You know, where Richard put a little sugar in it,
Paul put no sugar.
Richard would go like, [as Pryor] "You ever notice
that White people sometimes, you know".
Where Paul would be like,
[as Mooney] "These White people"!
You know, and he'd come hard.
-They were doing stuff like "In Living Color" in '71.
Matter of fact, the framework for "In Living Color"
was set up by them.
-Once upon a time, Homey the Clown went to a fancy
White restaurant.
As always, Homey gets hassled by the man.
-He wrote on a lot of Black sitcoms, "Sanford and Son".
You know, he's worked with Eddie Murphy.
He's worked with, you know, some of the biggest names in comedy.
-Why do White people love Wayne Brady so much?
-White people love Wayne Brady
because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X.
-So, for what he was able to do, he should've been bigger.
And, even when he did what he did,
he wasn't paid the way his White counterparts were paid.
As a Black entertainer, you have to walk a certain line.
You have to behave a certain way.
And Paul wasn't that way. -9/11.
I'm worried about my White friends.
They ain't gonna make it through this.
They're not used to this.
I've lost two or three White friends.
They've cracked up. They can't handle this.
"They asked me for my ID at least five times, dude!
What the hell do they want from me"?
They can't handle this profiling.
I'm opening up a school:
How to be a [audio drop] in America and Survive.
-And, sometimes, it was not the most favorable opinion,
but, in the back of our minds, we would always say
stuff like that, but then, he was the one
who really said it and he would just,
[as Mooney] "I said it and, oh, I see you're leaving.
Oh, good".
-As Black people, you know, Paul didn't bother us at all.
That's us. He's us.
That's our culture.
He's our experience.
We live through his words.
But then, like I said, there are White people who could take it,
but most couldn't.
-And I mean this from my heart.
I'm serious.
If you don't like what I say, just defend my right to say it,
because I'm an American.
-If something came into his brain,
he just said it and I think so many comedians admired Paul
because he was that free.
I just remember so many beautiful nights,
me, Keenen, Arsenio, Eddie Murphy,
all at The Comedy Store, watching Paul
and we're just like kids, like, "Oh, my God!
Did he say that [audio drop] [gasp].
Oh!
Aah! Aah"!
-His shows are healing. Are healing.
You go to see him and the angst that you feel,
from this racist society, gets lifted off of you
because, man, he makes you laugh
at the exact stuff that you deal with 24/7!
I loved him, man.
He was honest.
That's rare.