David Chappelle is one of those
comedians who has never had the spotlight. He has played
mainly supporting roles in movies like Half Baked and
The Nutty Professor, along with appearances on “The
Howard Stern Show” and “Crank Yankers.”
Like his predecessor in getting his own show, Cedric
the Entertainer, he went down the variety show path.
Unlike Cedric, he is not playing it safe at all. With
the semi-safety of being on Comedy Central, Chappelle
can do many things that FOX would never allow Cedric
to do.
“Chappelle’s Show”
has a basic setup. Chappelle comes out to a live audience
and introduces (or sometimes warns) them about the upcoming
skit. In between, he does a little stand-up, usually
pertaining to the topic of the skit. The skits are very
risk-taking too. In what could have been a huge water-cooler
skit had this show been on a bigger network involved
Chappelle portraying a KKK leader who has been blind
from birth. His character has no idea that he is black,
but he is so important to the cause that his associates
don’t tell him that fact. It’s not until
he takes off his hood at a Klan rally that he is outed.
One could see this skit as distasteful (especially with
the liberal use of the n-word throughout it), but it
ends up being very funny because of the sheer absurdity
of it all.
That KKK skit was just in the first
episode. Other memorable skits in the first episode
alone included: making fun of that car commercial with
that weird pop-locking white girl that uses Dirty Vegas’
“Days Gone By” in it, a commercial for a
24-hour stenographer intended to settle arguments, and
more.
The second episode continued the
hilarity. Its main skit was about a crack addict trying
to preach to a class about the evils of drug abuse when
clearly he hadn’t gotten over his own addiction.
The third episode contained even
more great stuff. One skit involved the “out takes”
of the original “Roots” mini-series. Another
one involved a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life,
but it had nothing to do with Christmas. A woman wishes
she had never been born with large breasts, and Chappelle
plays a “guardian angel” that shows her
how bad the world would be without them.
“Chappelle’s Show”
has a perfect home with Comedy Central, the network
that has taken risks with shows like “South Park”
and “That’s My Bush!” It is going
to offend some people, but anyone who would be offended
by the show most likely isn’t ever watching Comedy
Central (or shouldn’t be.) If you like smart,
no-holds-barred sketch comedy, check this show out.
