chappelle's show

i always thought this show was called "the chappelle show". apparently it's not, & that blew my mind a little bit.

it's sort of a sketch show, like in living color or SNL. but it's also part stand-up show, which explains why it's called "chappelle's show" & not "the chappelle show".

by now, we all know that i'm not the biggest comedy fan. so i probably won't give this show an "i would watch the whole season" or "i would watch disc two" rating. but don't get me wrong, i did like the chapp - look, there i go again - chappelle's show. i laughed a whole bunch of times, & in general was amused while watching this show. & i wasn't even multi-tasking while watching it!

my favourite sketch (& the most popular, naturally) of the first disc was the black blind white supremacist bit. that's good stuff right there. for the most part, i thought chappelle's skits were pretty intelligent & very satirical. but, as sham pointed out, it was a little hard to figure out which sketches were political/cultural satire & which were supposed to be just plain ol' funny. but either way, i laughed.

but apparently this show drove dave chappelle ever so slightly insane. right before production of the third season he reportedly disappeared & turned up in south africa. it's unclear if he had drug problems, needed therapy, or just wanted to get away. but he later reported that stress had driven him to seek space from his show. apparently his fame was getting to him, & he has been known to complain that chappelle's show took his time away from doing stand-up tours, which is what he really enjoyed doing.

the details seem a little fuzzy, but chappelle even seems to have stated that he thought some of his sketches were "socially irresponsible" & that he realized that some people were laughing at him in the wrong way (like, laughing at him, not with him). i don't think i've seen enough of the show to really comment on that. he definitely does play on racial stereotypes often, but in order to show people how idiotic these beliefs are rather than to perpetuate them.

either way, this show seemed to ruin dave chappelle a little bit. which is sad, because honestly, it's pretty good.