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."
I think Dave Chappelle is hilarious. BEEAATCH!! I loved the sketch about the all-black "Real World". ROFL
I had forgotten about that one- I am sitting here laughing out loud just thinking about it. ROFL!!
That's his impression of Lil' John the rapper- my husband goes around saying WHAT!! Okay!! YEEEESSSSS And then when he broke out with babara walters interview and started talking seriously- that was hilarious.
And I love Tyrone the crackhead too- the Fear Factor skit is da bomb!
I think Tyrone is really Eddie Murphy's Brother.
Did you read what he prefaced it with--he's making a joke, somewhat at his audience's expense.
Some aren't as fond of his humor, but in some of his better moments(outrageous or no) I see bits of myself in him. He's not a stupid guy and is much quicker and brighter than a Martin Lawrence or many other comedians, black or white.
He has a sick sense of humor, which I actually like, because who else would play himself playing video game basketball with a cancer-ridden child and talking trash?!
"Aw, Billy I shoulda left you dead, baby! 'cuz THAT, THAT one was a killer!"
I'm still laughing at that one...and I don't know why!
Tyree from the "real world: Hoboken" is Charlie Murphy who IS Eddie's brother.
Tyrone the crackhead is played, very clearly, by Dave Chappelle.
Well Charlie is a Damm Funny Guy!
He is, I loved the look on his face when he talks about how Prince served he and his friends pancakes. Which is another great skit that people don't talk about as much. Chappelle's imitation of Prince, his intonation, even the way he blinks was pretty funny.
Chappelle grew up in D.C. His father is a music professor at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, OH)...yes, the same Antioch where a guy has to ask for permission to get to first base and beyond. Chappelle owns a farm not far from Antioch and lives there most of the time.
Here are my top 3 Chappelle skits...
1) "The Niggars"...this skit should qualify for an Emmy!
2) The game show about how well do you know blacks
3) Chappelle playing the prospective juror for the respective trials of OJ, R. Kelly, Baretta and Michael Jackson...absolutely classic! The part where he shows R. Kelly "hypothetically" pissing on the young girl, with his grandmother as the witness, is classic. "That's my Robert...always pissin' on somebody." That piss was digital!
The Rick James skit is way overrated...Charlie Murphy is classic...he cracks me up just looking at him. How about when Chappelle visits the internet? mmm-mmm, bitch! I'm broke, ni**er, I'm broke! Oprah? Do you mind if I get a happy ending? What is a loosey? What is a chicken-head? The black delegation will accept the white delegation's selection of Eminem as long as they also take Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell.
I'm afraid this might be Chappelle's last season on Comedy Central. I'm Wayne Brady, bitch!
I probably shouldn't even give the title of the sketch here, but the piece Chappelle did involving a creative use of a popcorn container in a movie theater had me rolling on the floor.
Also, the little girl who was murdered by the "kid" deserves justice. Was she white or black? Why do blacks think it's so cool to stick up for black criminals, but not their black victims?
Elizabeth Smart is now old news... but she gets re-reported frequently. The media is always doing special news stories on anniversaries of the favorite "cause" or ratings crimes .. like Matthew Shepard's murder. The A G prisoner "abuse" scandal is old news. It keeps on going and going and going..... They are selective about their reporting, and the duration of the stories. It is not a stretch to presume race played a part in the media decisions when comparing coverage of the two kidnapping incidents. You have no point.
Rare and hard to find is it?
In this case, I don't think Chappelle was "sticking up" for Tate as much as saying that if a 12 year old is an "adult" then certainly an "adult" Smart at 14 had enough sense to go up to an adult for help once she was allowed to go out with those nutballs.
So dad is a college professor and Chappelle says
'Learn to play basketball, tell jokes or sell crack. That's the only way I've seen people get out.'
Aw, isn't that cute.
If you ask me, the Charlie Murphy true hollywood stories are the funniest bits on the show.
For those of you haven't seen it, the bit is Charlie Murphy telling stories from his days in the 80's and 90's partying in LA, with Dave Chapelle playing the celebrities that Charlie ran into, like Rick James or Prince.
"We just gave him some help." lol
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.