Maybe we should consider some of the "Monica" joke writers for this award if being funny and popular is all that really matters. I do enjoy Pryor's comedy in some of this works, but not all. Still, I do not consider him anything like Mark Twain. But who is? Vern Crisler wrote: > > At 09:35 AM 10/28/98 -0500, Matthew Uzzle wrote: > >Why are there so many conservative, sanctimonious individuals out there? > > > >Of course you should rent the video so that you can judge for yourself the > >similarities between Pryor and Twain. Having seen many of Pryor videos and > >being very familiar with Twain, I fall short when trying to pinpoint > >similarities. Judged on each of their respective merits, both were genius > >in their day and both are quite funny. > > > > > > Well, "conservative" and "sanctimonious" are not necessarily synonymous, and > second, even if they were, the point you are making seems irrelevant to me > since the discussion was whether the kind of raunchy "humor" practised by > (say) Pryor is on the level with real humor, and moreover, even approaches > Twain's literary and comic genius. > > In short, it has nothing to do with daintiness, but rather with quality. > Being raunchy or dirty, or striking political attitudes in one's putative > humor, does not entail that one is funny, or even ever will be. > > I also think that conservativism and a certain degree of "sanctity" ended up > helping Twain's humor, so that he avoided for the most part writing too much > of that silly and sophomoric kind of *1601* comedy. > > Regarding your second point, it's nice to hear someone remark on the lack of > similarity between Twain's humor and Pryor's, and that each should be judged > on their respective merits. Which naturally leads to the question at issue > on this somewhat unresponsive list. Given the incongruity between Twain and > Pryor, why was Pryor given the MARK TWAIN prize? (A Rabelais prize would > seem more appropriate, for instance.) > > I'm with those who think a MARK TWAIN prize should be awarded to those > humorists who can span both the arena of stand-up comedy and also the arena > of literary comedy -- with emphasis on the latter. A prize geared more to > stand up comedy makes it look as though Twain were just a funny man, a > clown, a jester, a mere joker, and not a literary artist first and foremost. > > Sincerely, > > Vern > [log in to unmask] > www.geocities.com/athens/6208