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50 free Richard Pryor trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Richard Pryor trivia quiz covers the stand-up comedian that Jerry Seinfeld called the Picasso of the profession. The easy questions are the ones any comedy fan knows: his Illinois hometown, his four films with Gene Wilder, the night he set himself on fire, and the disease that put him in a scooter. From there it moves into the career: the 1967 Las Vegas epiphany, the run of Grammy-winning albums, the Blazing Saddles writing credit he never got to act on, hosting Saturday Night Live in its first season, and the variety show cancelled after four episodes. The harder end is for people who own the box set: the record label he fought over That Nigger's Crazy, the singer who rocked him through stage fright at the Village Gate, the character Mudbone, the film he was replaced in by Gregory Hines, the $40 million Columbia deal, the children's show with Krofft puppets, the number of times he married, and the awards that came at the end, from the first Mark Twain Prize to the National Film Registry. It also touches on his difficult childhood and health honestly, without dwelling on it. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Pryor, his albums and his films before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our stand-up comedy, Gene Wilder and Saturday Night Live quizzes next.
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Q 01In which Illinois city was Richard Pryor born and raised?
Peoria
Richard Pryor was born in Peoria on 1 December 1940 and grew up there; the city unveiled a bronze statue of him downtown in 2015.
Q 02How many Grammy Awards did Pryor win during his career?
5
Pryor won 5 Grammys, all for Best Comedy Album, between 1975 and 1983; a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy followed in 2006.
Q 03Pryor was the first recipient of which award in 1998?
The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize
Pryor received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at its first presentation in October 1998, praised as a social critic in Twain's mould.
Q 04Which Mel Brooks comedy did Pryor help write?
Blazing Saddles
Pryor shared the Blazing Saddles (1974) writing credit with Brooks and three others, and hoped to play Sheriff Bart before Cleavon Little was cast.
Q 05With which actor did Pryor make four films, starting with Silver Streak in 1976?
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder and Pryor paired in Silver Streak (1976), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and two other comedies, the last being Another You (1991).
Q 06What business did Pryor's grandmother run, in which he grew up?
A brothel
Pryor grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother Marie, where his mother had worked as a prostitute; the grandmother raised him from about the age of ten.
Q 07At what age was Pryor expelled from school?
14
Pryor was expelled at 14 and drifted through odd jobs before enlisting in the Army in 1958.
Q 08Where did Pryor spend virtually his entire 1958-60 stint in the US Army?
In a military prison
Posted to West Germany, Pryor spent nearly the whole stint in a military prison after he and other Black soldiers beat a white soldier who mocked the film Imitation of Life.
Q 09Which singer rocked a terrified young Pryor 'like a baby' before he opened for her?
Nina Simone
Nina Simone recalled that Pryor, opening for her at the Village Gate, 'shook like he had malaria' and she rocked him in her arms night after night.
Q 10Which comedian was Pryor's initial model before he found his own controversial voice?
Bill Cosby
Pryor's early act was a clean, Bill Cosby-style routine that got him onto The Ed Sullivan Show and The Merv Griffin Show in the mid-1960s.
Q 11At which Las Vegas hotel did Pryor walk off stage in 1967 with Dean Martin watching?
The Aladdin
Pryor was playing the Aladdin in 1967 when, seeing Dean Martin in the audience, he asked aloud what he was doing there and walked off stage.
Q 12What was the title of the comedian's 1995 autobiography?
Pryor Convictions
Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences (1995), written with Todd Gold, is Pryor's own account; Kiss Me Like a Stranger is his frequent co-star's memoir.
Q 13To which Californian city did Pryor move in 1969 to immerse himself in the counterculture?
Berkeley
In Berkeley, Pryor fell in with Black Panther Huey P. Newton and novelist Ishmael Reed, and rebuilt his act around race and street life.
Q 21On his short-lived 1977 variety show, Pryor played which figure in a famous sketch?
The first Black President
In the first episode, Pryor played the first Black President at a press conference that ends with him lunging at a reporter who insults his mother.
Q 22After a 1979 trip to which country did Pryor swear off using a racial slur in his act?
Kenya
After a 1979 trip to Kenya, where he said he saw no one he could call by that word, Pryor dropped the slur, as he explained in Live on the Sunset Strip.
Q 23Which 1980 comedy, grossing over $100 million, was Pryor's biggest box-office hit?
Stir Crazy
Q 14For which comedian's 1973 TV special did Pryor share an Emmy as a writer?
Lily Tomlin
Pryor shared the 1974 Emmy for writing Lily Tomlin's 1973 CBS special Lily, having also written for Sanford and Son and The Flip Wilson Show.
Q 15Which label tried to block sales of Richard Pryor's That Nigger's Crazy in 1974?
Laff Records
Laff Records, which held Pryor's contract, sued to stop the album's release by a rival label; the settlement let Laff keep issuing older recordings, which it did into 1983.
Q 16Which Memphis soul label had Pryor signed with in 1973?
Stax
Pryor signed with Stax in 1973 and released That Nigger's Crazy on its Partee imprint in 1974; when Stax collapsed, he moved to Reprise, which reissued it.
Q 17Which documentary of a 1972 Los Angeles concert intercuts Pryor riffing on race?
Wattstax
Wattstax, released in 1973, intercuts the August 1972 Los Angeles Coliseum benefit concert with Pryor's monologues on race and the police.
Q 18Pryor was the first Black host of which show, in its debut 1975 season?
Saturday Night Live
Pryor hosted Saturday Night Live on 13 December 1975, in its first season, and NBC ran the show on a five-second delay in case he swore.
Q 19Which SNL cast member appeared with Pryor in the famous 'word association' sketch?
Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase played the interviewer trading racial slurs with Pryor's job applicant in the 'Word Association' sketch, written by Paul Mooney.
Q 20How many episodes of The Richard Pryor Show aired on NBC in 1977 before cancellation?
Four
He said they offered ten but he had said all he wanted to in four.
Stir Crazy, with Pryor and Wilder jailed for a bank robbery they didn't commit, took about $101 million in North America on a $10 million budget, third-best of 1980.
Q 24Who directed the 1980 prison comedy in which Pryor plays a framed innocent?
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier, by then a veteran director of comedies like Uptown Saturday Night, made the 1980 film in which the framed friends draw 125-year sentences; it grossed over $100 million.
Q 25On what date did Pryor set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine?
June 9, 1980
On June 9, 1980, at his Northridge home, Pryor doused himself in rum and set himself alight, then ran burning down Parthenia Street until police caught up with him.
Q 26In his 1982 concert film, Pryor joked that the fire was caused by dunking a cookie into what?
A glass of low-fat milk
In Live on the Sunset Strip he blamed a cookie dunked in a glass of low-fat milk that 'exploded', then waved a match: 'What's that? Richard Pryor running down the street.'
Q 27Who replaced Pryor at the last minute in Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part I after the fire?
Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing Broadway star, took over the role of the slave Josephus shortly before shooting began.
Q 28How much was Pryor's five-year deal with Columbia Pictures, signed in 1983?
$40 million
The 1983 Columbia deal was worth $40 million over five years and funded Pryor's Indigo Productions, run for a time by football star Jim Brown.
Q 29In which superhero sequel did Pryor play computer programmer Gus Gorman?
Superman III
Superman III (1983), directed by Richard Lester, cast Pryor as the hapless programmer Gus Gorman for a reported $4 million fee.
Q 30Which role, eventually played by a younger comedian, was Pryor originally considered for?
Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places
Pryor was the intended Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places (1983), with his usual partner as Winthorpe, before a younger comedian took the part in only his second film.