Richard Pryor's alphabet on Sesame Street

Richard Pryor teaches the alphabet on Sesame Street, March 2, 1976, episode 0862. SFW! Seriously! (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anonymous

In stark contrast with another tweaked out character:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTvhKZHAP8U
IWood

M is for milk. Do NOT mix skim milk with regular milk, kids. That shit’ll blow up in your face.
dross1260

And then Bicentennial Nigger a few months later. Both extremely educational.
Anonymous

I was a senior in high school at the time, but I used to watch with my eight year old developmentally disabled nephew. Richard Pryor was great on Sesame Street, and Rita Moreno did a brilliant Diana Ross impression on Electric Company. Great music on both shows.
- knoxblox
  
  I saw this when I was nine. Okay, I was bored and we didn’t have cable yet.
The Mudshark

The alphabet is nice and all, but there is only one letter children really need to learn about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw
DrOrbitalDeathRay

“Okay, Richard, we’ll flash the letters on the teleprompter and you just read’em out however you like. Keep it clean and try to stay under sixty seconds, if you can. And… GO!”

…

“Richard, you’re pretty high right now, aren’t you?”
robulus

Wow, it’s like there’s a silent “muthafucka” at the end of each letter.
BadIdeaSociety

If you think that is weird, check out Pryor’s mid-80s “Sid and Marty Kroft-produced” Saturday Morning Kids Show, “Prior’s Place.”
mellowknees

I remember watching this as a kid. I loved Richard Pryor! It took me a long time to figure out why my mom always said he was so filthy since my first exposure to him was along side Big Bird. :)
Wingo

Have you ever recited the alphabet… *ON WEED*??
- Michael
  
  Have you ever recited the alphabet… *ON WEED*??
  
  You will. And the company who’ll bring it to you is AT&T.
  
  (Sorry. All the old stuff just gets jumbled up into a big mess in my brain.)
Anonymous

Cocaine is a helluva drug.
querent

a directory of wonderful things, indeed.
PixelFish

Robert De Niro pretends to be a cabbage for Elmo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqHfser_9_s
License Farm

*spittake*

March 2, 1976 is the day I was born. Saw this bit all the time as a kid, but never knew that. All the more reason to cherish it.
cunningamphibian

I remember watching a sesame street episode with my smaller brother sometime in the 70′s (when German tv was still showing dubbed U.S. episodes) where two Nazi soldiers (I guess it was Schultz and another from Hogan’s Heroes) were doing the alphabet.

My reaction was along the line of wtf? wtf??!! (although I didn’t know that kind of language then).

I can’t find any reference or a youtube link for that on the net, though…
Anonymous

He looks surprised at what the N-word is.
Anonymous

Oh, Man. The freeze-frame on the video is at “n”. Was that intentional? Given his live act, I gotta wonder…