Chapelle On Oprah

Speaking of doing other stuff while you're supposed to be working, I was so busy today that I couldn't watch Oprah. Not that I usually watch Oprah -- cuz I don't -- but she had Dave Chapelle on the show today in his first real interview since going awol. What good is TIVO if you don't use it?

Anyway, I caught the gist of what happened. As first put out there by his friend Aaron McGruder of Boondocks fame (another blog for another time), Chapelle was apparently uncomfortable with the caucasion reaction to the racial subject matter of his work. Essentially he felt that they weren't necessarily laughing at the deeper meaning of the joke, just at the caricatures he was putting forth. If that's the case, he gets mad props, because that's a hell of a $50 million stand to take.

I have one of his Comedy Central DVDs, and like to listen to the segments with he and another writer's commentary in the background. When they were talking about the famous skit in which he played Clayton Bigsby, the blind guy who was in the Ku Klux Klan and didn't realize he was actually black, he spoke about an experience with a buddy of his who he previewed the show for. His friend did all of the art for the classic Def Jam albums, like the plane on Licensed To Ill, so he's a pretty sharp brother. Anyway, dude's reaction to the skit was that Chapelle would set back black progress about 10 years with that skit, so that's pretty indicative of the type of pressure Chappelle was getting, just among his own peeps. I thought it was pretty funny.

Regardless, I think he still had the forum and the opportunity to do his own thing without quitting the show altogether. If the old methods made him uncomfortable, there's a lot of different ways to go about being funny, edgy and thought-provoking without flushing it all down the toilet. Sure ... easier said than done.

Discuss: Chapelle, political correctness, black social pressure