Dick Gregory, cutting-edge satirist and uncompromising activist, dies at 84

The comedian Dick Gregory rose to national prominence in the early 1960s as a black satirist whose audacious style of humor was biting, subversive and topical, mostly centered on current events, politics and above all, racial tensions. His trademark was the searing punchline.

“A Southern liberal?” he once said. “That’s a guy that’ll lynch you from a low tree.” Another: “When I get drunk, I think I’m Polish. One night I got so drunk I moved out of my own neighborhood.” On segregation: “I know the South very well. I spent 20 years there one night.”

Mr. Gregory, 84, died Aug. 19 in Washington. His son, Christian Gregory, announced the death on Mr. Gregory’s official social media accounts. The cause was not reported.

His expert timing and bold humor — often pulled from the day’s headlines — inspired the careers of comedians such as Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

Mel Watkins, a journalist and scholar whose books include “On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy,” said that Mr. Gregory broke the mold among black comedians by employing political satire at a time when audiences expected black performers to do minstrel skits in baggy pants and outsize shoes and use slapstick humor.

“He was the comic that made white America aware of the fact that African American comedians were perfectly capable of satire,” Watkins said. “He was sharp. He was urbane. He smoked a cigarette on stage. He was very calm in demeanor but very outspoken in what he said. … He brought in current political and social issues into his comedy — which was astounding to most white Americans at that time. It was during a time when blacks were considered incapable of doing this.”

Mr. Gregory was hired at the country’s most prominent clubs — from the Blue Angel in New York to the hungry i in San Francisco. He was a guest on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar and “The Merv Griffin Show.” He made more than $12,000 a week at his peak.

Darryl Littleton, a comedian and author of “Black Comedians on Black Comedy,” said that Mr. Gregory was among the first black comics to gain recognition for incorporating political barbs into his routine.

Littleton said Mr. Gregory, along with white comics Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl, “were all chopping at the same tree and nobody was really doing social commentary and breaking down barriers like those guys. What a lot of guys do now echoes what those three guys did back then.”

Source: Dick Gregory, cutting-edge satirist and uncompromising activist, dies at 84 – The Washington Post