Richard Pryor is a diner who uses his food as foreplay; a caveman who discovers fire; the silent comedy character, Mr. Fixit; the drunken Dr. Shanahan, forced to treat a member of the Dalton gang; and Little Richard. In Ward 8 we meet a policeman, a man ordering fast food, a Black radical, a stewardess, a weatherman, an announcer, a woman giving an acceptance speech, a ghetto mother demanding money, a shady politician, a wigger and a violent-tempered football player. A woman in a rooming house gives a conflicting account of a lesbian encounter. Pryor gives an angry monologue that the NBC spokesman smooths over. Later, he talks about children, their way of talking and the way they curse; the time his father demanded to know why he had a reefer in his pocket; the way hillbillies give directions; and the difference between white and black funerals. The cast improvises scenes about a woman who is unhappy with her hairdresser; crying schoolchildren; a Martian hitchhiker; and a stick-up at the unemployment office.
—J. Spurlin