I don't know if Rock will be mentioned in the same breath with Pryor, Cosby, or even Murphy. Where Pryor was all about 'it's a black thing', looking from the inside out, and Cosby is about doing away with the artificial divisions of *color* and focusing on the rightness of *personal conduct*, Rock has found his own niche of effortless race humor, although he is perhaps most closely aligned with early Eddie.
By today's standards, even the tossed salad euphemism is tame. But the key is Rock does have talent at building comic architecture; there's a foundation for all the jokes, the first level follows the shape of the foundation, and so on up. And visually, he knows how lead the crowd by stalking from side to side when changing stances.
Pryor only had one note when acting for a movie, Cosby never really made great film headway, but Murphy blazed the film trail for any comics who dared to follow. Not sure if Rock has what it takes to make a real dent there.
Coincidentally, we watched this for the first time when mayor Nagin made his 'Chocolate City' comments that drew so much fire. Note Rock's skill with this notion, in contrast to a bumbling fool like the mayor of New Orleans.
