Dave Chappelle

[Jester]

Anybody see Dave Chappelle on SNL last night?  I haven't watched a full episode of SNL in years, but when I heard he was hosting   

He's like the Kevin Moore of comedy.  Left the scene when he was still on the rise, but comes back now and then and blows you away.  I've met so many famous people in my life that I don't even turn my head when they are near, but I'd probably be in awe if I ever met Chappelle.

Obviously his show had some great stuff, but for some reason I always remember this comedy routine
Baby on the Corner

[Stadler]

I'll watch it (I watch it every week, on tape) but he's one of those comedians that, well, I guess his message isn't meant for me, because I think he's mildly amusing most times but that's as far as it ever really goes. 

I did hear he weighed in on his opinions on Trump, which I know the entire world was waiting on with baited breath.   Glad to hear he delivered.  (Is that supposed to be in "GREEN"?)

[Adami]

I saw his opening bit, which I thought was actually really great.

Also, for SNL this past week, the cold open was great as was the election night skit. Didn't get to see the rest.

[ReaperKK]

Dave Chappelle is one of my favorite comedians, I haven't gotten to see the stand up yet but I"m going to check it out now.

[Jester]

What I like about Chappelle is he isn't one of those "my side" comedians.  He's not Larry the Cable guy talking about how all the non-rednecks are dumb.  Well, I'll have to assume that's his act because I haven't been able to watch more than 5 minute of it.  He's not just a Bill Maher that decides religion is his target, but finds nothing funny about atheists.  He's not a dude making fun of chicks.

He might make fun of women, like he did with the 55% women joke last night, but then he'll make fun of the dudes.  To me, he's just on comedy's side.  From the blind, black KKK grand wizard to the can't stop itching crackhead.  It's all *very offensive*, but unlike many comedians, he's in on his own joke.  He exaggerates, the best friend of comedy, but then doesn't begin to take his own exaggeration seriously.

[Nel]

It's telling that I could watch the Chapelle Show over and over, and even years later, the skits will make me laugh as hard now as they did then. Those Rick James and Prince skits are one of the only few things in this world that over-meme-saturation didn't suck the humor out of.

[Phoenix87x]

Dave Chapelle is a legend of comedy. I absolutely love his stuff

[Dublagent66]

Funny guy.   

[Jester]

Just realized that I can't find a Dave Chappelle concert album.  Everything is video.  That's fine, but over the weekend I realized I had no CD of his to listen to when I was doing some office work.  Am I missing something?

[hefdaddy42]

Chapelle was fantastic on SNL.

[cramx3]

Chapelle was fantastic on SNL.

My friend that was obsessed with the Chappelle show with me in college sent me the video of his Walking Dead skit from SNL.  Man that brought back so many good memories from his show.  Those two seasons were some of the best TV ever IMO.  Such comedic gold.

Also shoutout to Chappelle's first movie, Robin Hood Men in Tights.  One of my favorite childhood comedies.

[TAC]

I am not at all familiar with Chappelle's work, other than knowing he's a comedian.

I just watched his monologue and thought it was outstanding.

[King Postwhore]

I am not at all familiar with Chappelle's work, other than knowing he's a comedian.

I just watched his monologue and thought it was outstanding.

Tim, his stand up is phenomenal.  I know you'd love the 2 seasons of the Chappelle Show.

[Phoenix87x]

I am not at all familiar with Chappelle's work, other than knowing he's a comedian.

I just watched his monologue and thought it was outstanding.

Tim, his stand up is phenomenal.  I know you'd love the 2 seasons of the Chappelle Show.

And add on to that half baked. His work is hilarious

[splent]

The episode was awesome. And the. Chris Rock came in...

I remember a few years ago Chris Rock was talking about a standup tour with Dave Chappelle. I hope that's still a possibility....

Remember when he was in Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy

[TempusVox]

Very funny dude. My mother-in-law and Mrs. Vox have met him twice and my son and his ex girlfriend met him last summer. They all say he's incredibly nice and very welcoming. We all go occasionally for lunch or to peruse the shops in Yellow Springs, Ohio (tiny, very cool, laid back, hippy college town North of Cincinnati where he lives). I've gone with them about a dozen times and nadda. They've run into him twice. The last time he invited them to sit outside a cafe and chat with him for about twenty minutes. He was really cool to my mother-in-law. She's a professor in New Mexico and his dad was/ is a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, so they talked about that.

My son and his girlfriend met him and his family on the sidewalk in town. My son told him in passing, "Mr Chappele, I loved your show." And Dave stopped and thanked him. And asked him what we're his favorite sketches and chatted with him for a few minutes. As they started to move on he told them, "I'd take a picture with you two but I'm with my family. But next time for sure." My son says he wasn't even going to ask because a small crowd of passersby had gathered and were taking pictures. Plus I know and am friends with a number of people in the entertainment industry and my son has gotten to meet, know, and befriend many of them as well. So he knows about boundaries. But he said that he was genuinely very nice and engaging; which is despite what you might think, very rare for some legitimate and some not so legitimate reasons among celebrities. Whether you know them or not.

[Jester]

from Netflix:
News: 3 new Dave Chappelle comedy specials, coming soon.

I'm really wondering if they truly mean NEW or just new to them.  This weekend's SNL only confirms Chappelle is just on another comedic plane.  SNL literally had an R. Kelly video joke.  I hear next week they are going to have a President Ray Gun skit.  Gawd SNL blows.

[hefdaddy42]

from Netflix:
News: 3 new Dave Chappelle comedy specials, coming soon.

I'm really wondering if they truly mean NEW or just new to them.  This weekend's SNL only confirms Chappelle is just on another comedic plane.  SNL literally had an R. Kelly video joke.  I hear next week they are going to have a President Ray Gun skit.  Gawd SNL blows.

From what I read, one will be a brand new comedy special, while the other two are ones that had previously been recorded in the past few years, but never released anywhere.

So, one brand new, and two almost-brand new.

Win win win

[ReaperKK]

Can't wait to see those. His comedy specials are hilarious.

[Jester]

 
Decided to put the old Dave Chappelle show on in the background as I worked on the computer and the closing credit reminded me of a Chappelle related work event.

If you are a show fan, you know it always ends with "I'm Rich Bitch!!!"

Well, at one of my old jobs, the main application used the FoxPro Database.  It had quite a few ways to create reports, but it wasn't as flexible as simply creating a direct ODBC connection and bringing stuff together using other programs.  I got so familiar with their core program that I was able to change the main menu item "Accounts Receivable" to "I'm Rich Bitch".

[KevShmev]

What does everything think of the current "controversy" regarding Chappelle?

[ReaperKK]

I don't know much about it, I haven't watched the new special yet. *googles*

He made fun of trans people again and people are upset? I'm not so sure why this would be a scandal for someone like Dave Chappelle. He always makes inflammatory comments about groups of people. I think it's another instance of "He's funny until he makes fun of me and my demographic".

Bill Burr had a great clip a while ago about a stand-up he did where a woman came and confronted him about a joke he made about shelter dogs, meanwhile the same person laughed the whole night threw when he was roasting everything else under the sun.

[Skeever]

What does everything think of the current "controversy" regarding Chappelle?

Do we just do politics anywhere now, since the mods don't seem to have looked at the PR Access Request thread in over a month?

I'll just say that Dave Chappelle tells jokes that are often incendiary and off-color. I can acknowledge it while also admitting that the man is hilarious.
Like a number of comedians, I'm sure he's already made several millions off of being "cancelled". The employees of Netflix who have a problem with his views are right to try and discourage their company from doing something that they feel is outside of what they think Netflix should and should not promote. After all, companies want points for things like "diversity" and employee engagement... you can't invite this from your employees and then stiff arm them when the conversation goes somewhere you don't like.

Regardless of what Netflix do, Dave Chappelle will land on his feet. Even if it's not Netflix, there will be some platform that will be willing to take him. Because he makes money, a lot of it.

[Chino]

I haven't heard the joke/bit, but I'm fine with whatever he said.

[hefdaddy42]

What does everything think of the current "controversy" regarding Chappelle?

Honestly, I haven't seen the new special.  I would rather see the jokes in context before making judgement.

But I will say that he is a standup comedian, and pushing the envelope is part of that, so just the idea that he's done this (in any direction) is not inherently problematic.  Context matters.  It's possible to push the envelope too far, and he may in fact have done so, but I just need to see it first.

[Stadler]

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

I think we forget, in this age of dire seriousness, that it's still art.  And art is, foremost, about expression.  This notion that there can never be criticism of anything other than white, straight men (and sometimes women) is destined for failure; it's only going to bring about the same resentments and elitism that we're fighting against, just pointed in a different direction.  (And if you think about it, we're already there; globally, white straight males are a minority, yet the tolerance paradigms have not shifted accordingly).

[Chino]

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

What's your favorite Rock set? I've been on an old comics binge lately and haven't gotten to him yet.

[cramx3]

Actually watched this last night with my gf.  I didn't really care for his other netflix specials but with all the controversy I figured I should check this out.  (wow look at how the publicy sold this because I may not have otherwise watched!)

It wasn't anything special.  Some solid laughs for sure, but it actually got pretty serious about the trans thing.  I didn't even know he had a long history of being hated by the trans community.  Some of the jokes, sure were a bit rough, but that's stand up comedy! I'm really not sure he did anything wrong here.  In fact, I think he made a great point about "punching down".  He kind of actually exposed the trans community a bit for not being open to other groups of people (in his instance, comedians).  I think that's likely why they are more upset about this than the actual jokes.  The truth behind those jokes hits a bit hard if he's talking about you in this case and the story about his trans friend is really sad.  The whole thing started as being funny and then went sad real quick.

For a stand up comedy special, it was a bit too serious for me to really enjoy it if I'm being honest though.  At the end, slight spoiler:
He said he is done making trans jokes so having said that, I'm not really sure I understand the outrage.  In many ways, I feel like he buried the hatchet.

[Stadler]

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

What's your favorite Rock set? I've been on an old comics binge lately and haven't gotten to him yet.

It's the obvious choice, but Bring The Pain is solid. 

[hefdaddy42]

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

What's your favorite Rock set? I've been on an old comics binge lately and haven't gotten to him yet.

It's the obvious choice, but Bring The Pain is solid.

That's my favorite.

Did you ever have his CD Roll With The New?  It combined bits from Bring The Pain with recorded sketches.  It's fantastic.

[KevShmev]

Do we just do politics anywhere now, since the mods don't seem to have looked at the PR Access Request thread in over a month?

Not sure I consider this a political discussion per se.  Even though I do not post in P/R anymore (my rights to post there were removed at my own request), this is not me trying to skirt it and get chatter about politics in GD.

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

I think we forget, in this age of dire seriousness, that it's still art.  And art is, foremost, about expression.  This notion that there can never be criticism of anything other than white, straight men (and sometimes women) is destined for failure; it's only going to bring about the same resentments and elitism that we're fighting against, just pointed in a different direction.  (And if you think about it, we're already there; globally, white straight males are a minority, yet the tolerance paradigms have not shifted accordingly).

By and large, I agree.  I do think some comedians use the comedy cover as an excuse to say whatever they want (Kathy Griffin for one, although calling her someone as unfunny as her a comedian seems odd), but for the most part the job of a comedian is to get people to laugh, and that usually entails making fun or anything or anyone that will get people to laugh.

[Mladen]

What does everything think of the current "controversy" regarding Chappelle?

Honestly, I haven't seen the new special.  I would rather see the jokes in context before making judgement.

But I will say that he is a standup comedian, and pushing the envelope is part of that, so just the idea that he's done this (in any direction) is not inherently problematic.  Context matters. It's possible to push the envelope too far, and he may in fact have done so, but I just need to see it first.

I bolded the part that I agree with the most.

I am not the biggest fan of Dave Chappelle. I've only started getting into him after his SNL performance last year, which was really cool. And even though he isn't one of my very favorites, I've seen a couple of specials, including the new one. Not only was it funny, but it was also approaching the line dangerously close and yet managed not to cross it, in my opinion. If you watch the special until the very end, it should be apparent that any accussation that Dave is insensitive towards a certain group of people if off base. I agree with cramx3's take on it.

That being said, given the nature of stand up comedy, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish jokes and performance from the person's actual opinion. If he is in fact misinformed about gender / sex / the concept of being trans, there is room for improvement in his perception. However, implementing the tools of cancel culture might not be the way to go with it.

If Dave bounces back from this and does not get cancelled, we might be the witnesses of the first instance of someone not succumbing to cancel culture. That might also mark a change in the tide towards something open to more dialogue and understanding. As Neil Peart perfectly put it, "the spaces in between leave room for you and I to grow."

[Stadler]

Do we just do politics anywhere now, since the mods don't seem to have looked at the PR Access Request thread in over a month?

Not sure I consider this a political discussion per se.  Even though I do not post in P/R anymore (my rights to post there were removed at my own request), this is not me trying to skirt it and get chatter about politics in GD.

These discussions are getting tired.  Not here at DTF, I mean in the real world.  It just seems as if they always settle to the same two poles, and nothing gets resolved.  There's no insight, there's no growth, there's no revelation.   I read this and the woman tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, then settles into the established pattern.  Now, I think Chappelle is funny, but not the GOAT; he's not even top three if you ask me (that's Carlin, Rock, Burr for me).

I think we forget, in this age of dire seriousness, that it's still art.  And art is, foremost, about expression.  This notion that there can never be criticism of anything other than white, straight men (and sometimes women) is destined for failure; it's only going to bring about the same resentments and elitism that we're fighting against, just pointed in a different direction.  (And if you think about it, we're already there; globally, white straight males are a minority, yet the tolerance paradigms have not shifted accordingly).

By and large, I agree.  I do think some comedians use the comedy cover as an excuse to say whatever they want (Kathy Griffin for one, although calling her someone as unfunny as her a comedian seems odd), but for the most part the job of a comedian is to get people to laugh, and that usually entails making fun or anything or anyone that will get people to laugh.

Kathy Griffin is a professional celebrity; I don't consider her a comedian, any more than I consider, say, Paris Hilton a musician.

I think we've defaulted too quickly to "anger" as a reaction, and "hate" as a motivator.   I think there's wisdom to be gleaned from looking at WHY certain jokes are funny, why they land, and having an intellectual mind to a) not react to those jokes with the default of "anger" and b) not assuming that the jokes are rooted in "hate".   There's a disconnect; me being "offended" by something you say doesn't have anything to do with your motivations in saying it.

We also need to decide - not the right word - what the science says about messaging.   We know, now, that lyrics don't cause suicide, we know, now, that video games don't cause violence, but we're still sort of stuck on this notion that other things that "offend" somehow have a causal effect - a negative causal effect - on our society.   It's anecdotal, and a little facetious, but it never ceases to fascinate me how one trans joke is supposed to be a trigger for violence against trans people, but thousands of jokes, songs, movies, memes, tweets, etc. about love and peace and tolerance don't seem to carry any weight.   We are at the height of identity politics awareness, and yet we live in some of the most divisive times in decades at least.  Someone is going to have to answer to that at some point.

[Ben_Jamin]

Comedy bridges the fine line from seriousness to fun.

What I find hilarious is how Native American form of comedy is about roasting, not just for laughs, but also as a means to correct the wrong by presenting it and showcasing it for all the people to see, by re-enacting the act in front of all the community to witness, there's a story of this couple who did the nasty when they weren't supposed to and the "comedians" made them do it in front of everyone. The lessen is, if you don't want to be made fun of, then don't do these things that will get you made fun of.


This "hate speech" rhetoric is detrimental to the fun/serious dynamic that comedy deals with. For one, this depends on the person who is being dealt the "hate speech". I know people who do not care at all what someone thinks about them, so the "hate speech" does not affect them.

I read in history class about the virginian eye-gouging and hair pulling and how these men would boast and call each other names that is essentially "hate speech".

Theres also a fine line of "hate speech" and criticism. And comedians walk this tight rope, and the best ones can walk the fine line, such as Carlin.

There's also, Shock Comedians who use shock humor, such as Daniel Tosh, which also walk the fine line of "hate speech" and criticism.

[Stadler]

I like your post a lot.  But I'm confused by this part in particular:

That being said, given the nature of stand up comedy, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish jokes and performance from the person's actual opinion. If he is in fact misinformed about gender / sex / the concept of being trans, there is room for improvement in his perception. However, implementing the tools of cancel culture might not be the way to go with it.

Is there a connector between your first sentence and your second, or are they simply unrelated thoughts?  I don't know that it matters whether a joke is or is not from the person's actual opinion, does it?   Songs don't.  Art is about expression, and artists can sometimes use that platform as a soapbox, and sometimes they can role play.  I think "stand up" lends itself to "this is my opinion", since it's literally a person talking into a microphone at an audience.   But I don't think it's a gimme that the jokes are rooted in personal opinion. 

And whether one can make that joke or not isn't really tied to "misinformation"; too often in today's society, "informed" is confused with "is in agreement with".   Sure, we want to make sure that people are armed with as many documentable facts as can be, but we're allowed to assemble those facts in new, or contrary ways, up until we start to contradict those facts.