If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Posted on 06/18/2004 10:06:42 PM PDT by Pikamax
Chappelle lets rude crowd have it
By JIM CARNES, Sacramento Bee
(June 17, 9:04 am PDT) - Dave Chappelle got so angry with the crowd Tuesday night at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium that the stand-up comic walked off the stage for nearly two minutes. Upon his return, he told the audience, "You people are stupid."
What got the comic so riled up? According to Chappelle, it was audience members who wouldn't "shut up and listen - like you're supposed to."
Chappelle is the creator and star of the No. 1-rated show on Comedy Central. It's that fame that helped the comic sell out the nearly 4,000-seat Memorial Auditorium weeks in advance of the show. And that popularity also caused the frustration for the performer, as audience members continually shouted a character's catchphrase from "Chappelle's Show" - it starts, "I'm Rick James ..." and ends with the b-word.
"The show is ruining my life," Chappelle told the crowd. Besides requiring him to work "20 hours a day," he said, it has made him a "star," which has resulted in the inability of fans to treat him as an individual.
"This (stand-up) is the most important thing I do, and because I'm on TV, you make it hard for me to do it," he said.
"People can't distinguish between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show. You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking."
Shouts continued to interrupt Chappelle's routine until he stopped to give a lecture on "how comedy usually works: I say something. You mull it over and decide whether you want to laugh or not, and then you do or not. Then I say something else, and you think about that.
"It's worked well all across the country, but you people ..."
Performing in Sacramento, the comic said, might turn out "to be a bad idea - like chocolate-covered fish."
Chappelle told the crowd he knew why they liked his sketch-comedy show: "Because it's good. You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you're not smart enough to get what I'm doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong.
"You people are stupid."
Much of Chappelle's act - with its jokes about genitals,and sex talk, tales of strip-club escapades and frequent use of the n-word - is unprintable in a family newspaper. But that's not the best part, anyway. Chappelle is most effective when he ventures into social commentary - race, poverty, the cult of personality.
One of his better rants had to do with children and at what age they might be responsible for their own lives. Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old Utah girl who was kidnapped from her home, figured prominently in the commentary. He contrasted her case - she was discovered about nine months after her abduction only a few miles from her home - with that of 7-year-old Erica Pratt, who gnawed through her duct tape bindings to free herself from kidnappers in Philadelphia and was responsible for the arrest of the two men who had taken her. Pratt is African American, and her story received much less attention than did Smart's.
Then Chappelle placed Smart's case in opposition to that of Lionel Tate of Florida, who was convicted of murder in the death of a 6-year-old neighbor. Smart, at 15, was considered a child. But at 14, two years after the crime, Tate was sentenced as an adult to life in prison without parole. (A previously rejected plea bargain was later accepted, and he is now free.)
"When is a 15-year-old a kid and a 12-year-old an adult?" he asked, indicating it might be because one was white and one was not.
Chappelle said race relations are at such a low point in America that, "You can't say anything real when it comes to race. That's why Bill Cosby's in such trouble for saying black folks have got to take responsibility for their own lives.
"I spoke at my high school last week," he said, "and I told them, 'You've got to focus. Stop blaming white people for your problems.' "
He then added, sarcastically, " 'Learn to play basketball, tell jokes or sell crack. That's the only way I've seen people get out.' "
Chappelle's harshest words were addressed to those audience members who worship entertainers and athletes.
"Stop listening to celebrities," he said. "They do what they do for money - that's all. I don't even know why you're listening to me. I've done commercials for both Coke and Pepsi. Truth is, I can't even taste the difference, but Pepsi paid me last, so there it is."
Celebrity worship harms the object of affection as well, Chappelle said. "One day people love you more than they've ever loved anything in the world. And the next, you're in front of a courthouse dancing on top of a car."
In case the audience didn't get the reference to Michael Jackson, he said, "You know why Michael Jackson's had so many surgeries? He wanted you to like him more."
Chappelle, obviously, will not pander to his fans. "You guys are the worst listeners in the country," he told the Sacramento audience. "It's like 'The Silence of the Lambs.' Without the silence."
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
The truth does hurt sometimes but I still want to hear it. Mr. Chappelle does have a point. For instance, the media couldn't get enough of Jessica Lynch but while Shoshanna Johnson was still being held as a POW you didn't see as much press about her and her family. She was in the same unit as Jessica, she even has a young daughter and a wonderful family. Yet all I saw was Jessica Lynch 24/7. It's no wonder that some black people complain about bias. It is there. I know I will catch hell for posting this so bring it on.
Personally I think Chapelle plays the race card far too much in his comedy... sort of a on note piano.
One of my most favorite comics to this day is Bill Cosby, rarely swears, and intelligent yet comical insights into the day to day lives.
His stuff from the 60s and 70s is as funny as anything out there today... His routines in particular about him and his brother Russel sharing a bedroom and the stuff they used to pull and do is timeless! Anyone who ever shared a room with a sibling will split their sides.
Pratt wasn't lulled into "loving" her captors. Pratt embodied the spirit of human freedom from domination better than Smart.
Hence, Pratt's story is worthy of more publicity.
That's hysterical
I look at it as constructive criticism rather than gratuitous insults.
THREE the hard way.
But it worked so well for the Marx Brothers.
Chris Rock has always made humor at the expense of black people. For example, did you not see on his HBO show when Je$$e Jack$on was on for an interview? After a minute, all Jack$on could do wss playfully punch Rock and have a stupid grin on his face. Chris was letting him have it about behaviors of the black underclass for which JJ was making excuses.
THREE the hard way.
He's crossing all race, sex, and demographics with his show. I know folks who have no clue about pop culture just rave about him. I wonder if he knows that.
Chris Rock is funnier.
No you won't. It's the truth. The media is all about the money and they decided that Jessica would be more marketable than Shoshana.
I wish he was my congressman instead of Carolyn "never met a gun I didn't hate" McCarthy.
It goes across the spectrum - you can't see a play, go to a restaurant, see an opera, etc. without everyone talking or letting their phones ring, etc. People are just rude.
"Shouts continued to interrupt Chappelle's routine until he stopped to give a lecture on "how comedy usually works: I say something. You mull it over and decide whether you want to laugh or not, and then you do or not. Then I say something else, and you think about that."
More proof of the doped up and dumbed down in America.
The left likes them that way.
No you won't. It's the truth. The media is all about the money and they decided that Jessica would be more marketable than Shoshana.
Thanks. I was ready for a full assault. While I believe that the racial issue is sometime overdone(Jesse Jackson)this is one case where I see that the media was biased in it's reporting of 2 equally special women who went through similar circumstances yet one was the darling of the media and the other was an afterthought. It just really pissed me off.
"I spoke at my high school last week," he said, "and I told them, 'You've got to focus. Stop blaming white people for your problems.' "
But but but, then that would mean "they" would have to be "independent free" thinkers and doers! Goodness forbid(smirk) It's so much easier to point fingers, blame then extend palm of hand for hand outs.
"Yeah, real smart move there Chappelle. Insult your fans, you know, the people who made you into what you are today."
Yeah real smart, the alternative is to pander to stupidity like yourself for the easy cash flow ... talk about censorship.
Johnson spoke at my old college. She was invited to be the keynote speaker to open black history month at Nassau Community College. I wish I was there when a student got up and asked her how she felt about participating in an illegal war. She said she'd do all over again and she loved the Army! *LOL* She also was at the Times Square NYE celebration so she gets around. I like that she doesn't showboat or get baited by particular questions. Personally I liked Lynch too. I don't think race was the only factor in play with why the media obsessed about her. She was from West Virginia, and for some reason the media likes to fixate on horror stories from WV.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.