[The] problem with reviewing comedy records is eventually the problem with comedy records themselves. Just how many times can you hear the same punchline and laugh? After the second or third time around, you're just remembering past pleasure, and beyond that these records tend to become a rather grim experience.

But the ephemerality of comedy is something the "new" comedians are trying to eliminate by rendering their material more—if you'll pardon the expression—relevant. The new comedians—this category usually includes Pryor, Carlin, Lily Tomlin, and in his worst moments Robert Klein—are working towards something along the line of spoken literature heavily dosed with—again, pardon my sixties—social commentary. Unfortunately the new comedians are not the new literati and their social commentary quickly becomes predictable. And since they took the jokes away the whole thing is turning into an out-and-out drag.

Richard Pryor is an...