Even then, homosexuality was a fairly taboo subject, but some black comedians still managed to address it.

Like everything else about comedy, the treatment of homosexuality in the black community has been at times, amazingly progressive, and incredibly backwards, depending on the comedian.

Redd Foxx had a successful television series in Sanford & Son and was no longer restricted to the standup circuit where he, like most comedians, had honed his skills. Like most television stars, he aspired to try his hand at film. While he had a “there’s nothing wrong with being gay” routine in his standup (calling out Benjamin Franklin), in the 1976 film Norman...Is That You? he attempted to address homophobia in a humorous manner, playing a father who discovers that his son, played by Hill Street Blues’ Michael Warren, is gay.

While the film is no gut busting laugh fest (it’s basically an extended sitcom episode), it ends with father Foxx not only coming to terms with and accepting his son’s sexuality, but, after considering the estimated gay population, breaking the fourth wall and questioning how many people in the movie-going audience might be gay. It was a joke, but very few straight audiences were prepared to have their sexuality questioned by a character on screen. It wouldn't happen again!

Richard Pryor gained notoriety at the Hollywood Bowl in 1977 after an angry outburst directed at the gay organizers of an event. Part of his ire, in part, was what he perceived as racism directed at black participants in the event.

Still, his short-lived 1977 NBC television series The Richard Pryor Show had hints of gay humor, beginning with his first episode where a construction worker strips while singing “I’ve Got To Be Me” revealing himself to be a transvestite.

Given his mix of comedy with drama, however, his most daring skit wasn’t funny at all. Titled “New Talent,” the skit begins with Pryor imitating Little Richard at the piano. The scene is interrupted with static, and we watch what seems to be a private taping of a psychiatric patient discussing a sexual encounter with another woman. The account wavers from it being a mutually satisfying encounter, to her being the aggressor, to her being almost assaulted, to it all being a wish for closeness to this woman who is unattainable to her. You get the sense that she’s been institutionalized due to her confusion concerning her sexuality, and, suddenly, we get the static again, returning us to the Little Richard impersonation.

Angry, shocking and sad at the same time, network television has rarely attempted to do anything as challenging since.

Pryor had conflicts with NBC before the first show aired, resulting in a voluntary cancellation by both parties only four episodes into the initial 10 episode season. The final show included a roast of Pryor by the cast. When Pryor takes the podium, one of his retorts concerns a confession that he “fucked a fag.” Needless to say, this part of the roast never aired.

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