Bad Chappelle Bits

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7773670/site/newsweek/

"hit laffer?" awful, awful, awful.

(chapelle not being right, that's awful too.)

Way late on this, but I saw the Pixies sketch for the first time last night (it was airing on syndication on like TBS or something which is kinda telling about the difference 5 years can make). Anyway, very funny but I totally got why Chappelle was horrified by the bit and maybe about how he had this new perspective on all his work. Certainly if you're coming to the work with a little distance, and some irony, the sketches aren't necessarily racist (the idea that everyone has insecurities about their own racial stereotypes is a fine observation and can lead to a really funny sketch), but I can totally see how a lot of his work is almost nihilistically using racial caricatures + themes for the lulz -- and I can totally get Chappelle freaking out as he imagines that a huge amount of his fanbase is being titillated by the guy singing in blackface, and not by the observation that accompanies the depiction. (Or, as someone pointed out to me that I thought was a great point -- images are really powerful and they're hard to pin down. Something that might not carry any of this baggage in stand-up can start to drag a lot of baggage behind it when the image is right there in front of you.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EipXbCV3hhA

i meant to post something about Wu-Tang torture. It seems so weird to me for like the most popular sketch show on earth to be expecting everyone in their audience to know what happens in an A NON-SINGLE ALBUM TRACK on an an album that only went one-time platinum. It would be like doing a skit about a deep cut on Pearl Jam's No Code

A) The sketch makes no sense unless you're intimately familiar with the Wu track

B) If you ARE intimately familiar with the Wu track, you know every single line of dialogue before it comes. So I have no idea why the audience keeps laughing like he's surprising them with jokes.

because that's how comedy works? even if you know what's coming, the anticipation + payoff is what's funny

but otherwise i agree

comedy is about defying people's expectations iirc.

otherwise it's just sharing an in-joke?

Sometimes the expected can be unexpected.

A) if you don't know the sketch you've got Dave Chappelle describing crazy ass scenarios involving rappers in a ridiculous voice B) if you know the sketch you may lol at hearing it described as an actual event (which, i, for one, did)

by "sketch" i mean "skit" obv

A) That's not a joke, though
B) I guess. But then it's really a funny PREMISE with no real payoff, but that's just me

of all people to complain about a sketch show celebrating one of the more memorable skits in rap history I wouldn't expect it to be you, Whiney

also between "comedy is about defying expectations" and "that's not a joke" I think you may have more rules about what's allowed to make you laugh than some

tbh if i had a sketch comedy show on comedy central that was as well loved as his show, i might devote one minute of my airtime to a sketch about a rap in joke

it wasn't like he had a two hour special about rap skits

it's about the recontextualization imo.

im not saying it's genius but ya sometimes just reciting something like that matter-of-factly is funny

that's what's unexpected about it

the fact that it is being reported on a news show

Right, I def agree the idea/premise is funny! But its like one joke with a 90 second punchline. And everyone in the audience is laughing like it's 7 or 8 jokes!

well... you know that laughter on tv comedy shows isn't necc totally spontaneous right

and also

i kinda laughed a few times

throughout the skit

as the lines kept coming

s1ock, do u smoke the pot?

i mean, when you first saw it, did you just give one loud bark-like laugh when the premise registered and then sit stone-faced through the rest of the skit?

ahahaha, that's essentially what happened

hahahaha

At least the most recent time i saw it, that's the gist of my emotional range during the sketch, yes

the news dude character in that sketch is really frightening looking. like there is some chilling uncanny going on with Chappelle's whitefacing in that sketch.

It's probably just unconscious associations with Powder

I've been devouring Chappelle stuff for the last coupla months, it's like an addiction. I've scoured torrent sites for illegal mobile phone footage. What's happening to me? Some things I've noticed:

- Mid-to-late 90s he was unrecognizable as the comedian we know now. He was dressing in smart jackets, clean-shaven, and doing a stylized patter with almost vaudeville timing - it was very fast-paced, and very detailed in its mugging and physicality. The guy was seriously close to Jim Carrey at times, physically speaking (and I mean that as a compliment)

- Something changed. From what I've read, his dad died around 1998 or so. Maybe that was it. But something changed. He relaxed. He just became "real". Maybe he discovered weed, I don't know.

- He used to lean on a lot of bits. Some bits he kept for years. ("I don't call the cops. My place is too nice. It's not THAT nice, but it's too nice for me. They'd come in, be like 'the ni**er's still here!'" .. or "I was suspended from school 23 times. In February.")

- He seems now to have reached the point where he can say literally almost anything and people will just die. Which must be a weird feeling as a comedian. I mean it must be a NICE feeling, but you kind of have to wonder if you're getting the right feedback. (Steve Martin at his peak was like this)

- Feels like it's time for a new HBO special

gah wrong thread. Whatever.

As far as the Chappelle show went, I agree that a half hour was too short. There was always something a little rushed feeling about it. He's intro a sketch and just about the point when you thought the jokes were going to come in, he'd point at the screen and the tape would roll. Still, an hour sketch show of that quality would be almost impossible to do. Maybe have a second musical number? A guest? I dunno.

Anyway, Louis C.K. and Chappelle are both guys who can put their standup thoughts into little films. Nobody else I can think of is very good at it. They should form a supergroup. Maybe remake Pootie Tang.

asking one guy to carry a half-hour show and co-write and star in almost every sketch is a lot of work, saying it should've been an hour long is kinda crazy. the host intro stuff did tend to be a bit perfunctory but it's not like it was the only good sketch show that had weak bumpers/framing devices.

No, I agree completely! That's why I said "an hour sketch show of that quality would be almost impossible to do."

I was just throwin shit out there.. like, one more sketch plus another musical number and an interview might carry it through. But it's all fantasy bullshit, the show is not coming back. I'd just like Chappelle to do another big standup special, maybe. All these mobile phone bootlegs suck

it'll be interesting to see what his next 'major project' is, since Block Party was shot while the show was still on the air and since then he's pretty much just done stand-up...like will he do an HBO special, or write a movie, or do another sketch show or a narrative show, cable or network, etc. seems like he's got a lot of options and maybe he's just taking his time and weighing them.

IMO Chappelle's stand up is incredible, funnier for me than the show was. I'm not sure if I liked the show so much because the premises or the writing was funny or if it was because the acting was done so well. Chappelle/Chalie Murphy/Ashy Larry were great in nearly every sketch. One thing I noticed though is that there are an awful lot of references to 2003/04 pop culture which really date the show more than I would like (compare say, mid-90's Simpsons to The Critic)

weed selling baby bit is still one of my favorite things ever

I kinda don't expect him to do anything major ever again tbh

xp

He's crazy now, isn't he?

I have def always liked his stand up better than the show although it too had its good points

how is he crazy?

He's crazy now, isn't he?

or the opposite, just a normal dude living life and thinking about things

so there's this chappelle twitter that thousands of ppl follow & i see it RT'd every so often but it's such a bad impersonation that i don't even know how it exists, it bothers me so much

yea, the "Soy Rick James, puta!" was a dead giveaway....

so there's this chappelle twitter that thousands of ppl follow & i see it RT'd every so often but it's such a bad impersonation that i don't even know how it exists, it bothers me so much

― J0rdan S., Monday, February 7, 2011 4:54 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark

the one hilarious thing about that is when Katt Williams fell for it and had twitter beef with the fake Chappelle