Medicines for Real Men!!!
I was thinking about Dave Chappelle's freakout today.
Since he's come back, whenever somebody interviews him, he gets the kid gloves. And he's coming across a little weird. Still funny, but damaged somehow.
And in every interview he hints that he felt controlled at Comedy Central, that that was one of the main reasons for his departure. Seems fishy -- I can't recall another television show ever that was allowed to push limits quite the way his was.
The main thing I get from every interview is that he's not telling us the whole story, if he's even aware of what the story is.
But I have a theory: Dave Chappelle had an industrial-sized Dave Chappelle moment, the kind we all have from time to time, and it overwhelmed him.
What's a Dave Chappelle moment? It's when you are enjoying some fine Dave Chappelle race-based comedy, laughing out loud and wondering, how the hell does he come up with this stuff? It's so original, so funny, so dangerous. And then all of a sudden you realize, maybe I'm laughing at the wrong thing. What's so funny here, the clever way he's tapping into our own biases and exploiting them to show us how ridiculous they are? Or am I laughing at the actual racist caricatures themselves, in all their stupid glory? And am I justifying my laughter at these stereotypes because they are delivered by a black man? Does that make it any better?
And I think that Dave got fed up of white dudes coming up to him on the street and saying, "I'm Rick James, bitch" and "I want to pee on you" and "OKAAAAAAY" which are really all jokes at the expense of famous black men. Funny in the hands of David Chappelle, not so funny in the hands of Chadwick Huffington III. And aside from the energy he must have expended resisting the urge to punch all these well-meaning honky douchebags, I wonder if Dave also started to wonder if he was making things better or worse.
And all of a sudden he was just like, "ahhhh, fuggitall, get me out of here." Who hasn't had that feeling?
We have another episode of "Knicks 101" loaded up in the Magic Box and waiting to be reviewed. We should have that for you tomorrow. Tease: I believe it's Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.
Whodat (10)?
Lastly, I have a general rule about the merit of drinking stories. If you were there, it's a laugh riot. If you at least know some of the players, they can still be fun. But listening to somebody's crap about Jimmy and Ricky and blah blah and you don't know anybody involved...well, it better actually be a good story if it's gonna keep your interest. I've tried to tell a good story in the latest installment of Trayline, but I'm not sure if I'm succeeding. So I am breaking it into two (long) parts. The first one is mostly setup so forgive me if it goes on and on. The second one is where all the action is, and we'll get to that as soon as we can.
Since he's come back, whenever somebody interviews him, he gets the kid gloves. And he's coming across a little weird. Still funny, but damaged somehow.
And in every interview he hints that he felt controlled at Comedy Central, that that was one of the main reasons for his departure. Seems fishy -- I can't recall another television show ever that was allowed to push limits quite the way his was.
The main thing I get from every interview is that he's not telling us the whole story, if he's even aware of what the story is.
But I have a theory: Dave Chappelle had an industrial-sized Dave Chappelle moment, the kind we all have from time to time, and it overwhelmed him.
What's a Dave Chappelle moment? It's when you are enjoying some fine Dave Chappelle race-based comedy, laughing out loud and wondering, how the hell does he come up with this stuff? It's so original, so funny, so dangerous. And then all of a sudden you realize, maybe I'm laughing at the wrong thing. What's so funny here, the clever way he's tapping into our own biases and exploiting them to show us how ridiculous they are? Or am I laughing at the actual racist caricatures themselves, in all their stupid glory? And am I justifying my laughter at these stereotypes because they are delivered by a black man? Does that make it any better?
And I think that Dave got fed up of white dudes coming up to him on the street and saying, "I'm Rick James, bitch" and "I want to pee on you" and "OKAAAAAAY" which are really all jokes at the expense of famous black men. Funny in the hands of David Chappelle, not so funny in the hands of Chadwick Huffington III. And aside from the energy he must have expended resisting the urge to punch all these well-meaning honky douchebags, I wonder if Dave also started to wonder if he was making things better or worse.
And all of a sudden he was just like, "ahhhh, fuggitall, get me out of here." Who hasn't had that feeling?
We have another episode of "Knicks 101" loaded up in the Magic Box and waiting to be reviewed. We should have that for you tomorrow. Tease: I believe it's Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.
Whodat (10)?
Lastly, I have a general rule about the merit of drinking stories. If you were there, it's a laugh riot. If you at least know some of the players, they can still be fun. But listening to somebody's crap about Jimmy and Ricky and blah blah and you don't know anybody involved...well, it better actually be a good story if it's gonna keep your interest. I've tried to tell a good story in the latest installment of Trayline, but I'm not sure if I'm succeeding. So I am breaking it into two (long) parts. The first one is mostly setup so forgive me if it goes on and on. The second one is where all the action is, and we'll get to that as soon as we can.
posted by hans q. bungle at 00:07
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