August 30, 2013

"All right, you guys. I like some of you. I hate some of you. Uhhhh."

"I forgive some of you. But I don't forgive all of you. You guys have totally ruined my chances of running for Congress or something. Thank you. Good night."

ADDED: "'Was any of it intentional? Like when Andy Kaufman read all of The Great Gatsby onstage, was part of this anti-comedy?' I don’t think so."

7 comments:

tim maguire said...

I can recognize Dave Shappelle as a rare comic genius while also having very little interest in watching most of his stuff. I just hope he's happy when nobody's around. He clearly isn't very happy the other times.

YoungHegelian said...

I'm always amazed at how the media buys Chappelle's story about how the white stage hand laughing "inappropriately" made him feel like something was seriously wrong with his life.

Right. Like comics really expect to "own" every audience reaction to their material......

When Chappelle's show was on, I watched every episode until in season 2 he started getting relentlessly nasty towards white people in his skits. Not nasty in a funny way. Just nasty.

I still think the first show's "Frontline: Clayton Bixby" sketch, about a blind white supremacist who doesn't know he's black, is one of the funniest skits ever. If you look up "transgressive" in the dictionary, it'll list that skit.

Bob Ellison said...

We wonder about people going crazy and shooting things up. Here's a guy going crazy for years now. He isn't right in the head. Needs help.

Wince said...

A man who off stage seemed to me "uncomfortable in his own skin" in the traditional sense of social anxiety, which may translate into racial anxiety because that former condition amplifies his unease with the potential reaction of some whites to his edgier material.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

There's no explanation in the link, just excuse making. Why don't they just ask Chapelle and see what he says?

Mark Trade said...

He is clearly race-obsessed and that is not a good thing. For some people it is not enough to simply call them racist. Their whole worldview is based on race. Inanimate objects, ideas, and places all have racial identities, along with words, behaviors--a laugh.

I don't know what word we have for them.

Anonymous said...

I had forgotten about Chappelle until last weekend. While visting inlaws in Houston, brother-in-law announces scoring tickets to the show in The Woodlands at a mega outdoor festival-type venue in the burbs. Quick research revealed the tour would hit similar venues. A review of the tour opener in Austin the night before stated he did 11 minutes of material over 45 minutes. Same in Houston. Chain smoked and was obvioulsy uncomfortable.

I cannot think of more inappriopriate venues for comedy acts, much less Chappelle's brand, whatever it is these days. My opinion: He has a purpose, and all is going as planned.