Richard Pryor did a great Uncle Tom voice. He was never a master of voices, didn’t have the versatility of someone like Robin Williams, a rapid-fire cartoon jukebox, but his voices could conjure an archetype: streetwise black hustler, dusty white hillbilly, nagging wife, fearsome Italian mafioso, nebbish middle-class WASP, mischievous child. He imbued each one of them with fresh, unexpected character in his comedic one-man stage plays, and any disciple of Pryor’s can call one up to showcase how well versed they are in the GOAT’s catalogue.

But Pryor’s Uncle Tom voice—not to be confused with a white voice, or a black-person-trying-to-sound-white voice, or a black-person-who-sounds-white-through-no-fault-of-their-own voice—has gone underappreciated.…