The Sketch That Made Chappelle Say 'Enough'

The problem is this is who Chappelle the comedian is. This is the type of comedy he's always done, and he's very good at it. To me it's compared to Howard Stern having Daniel Carver from the KKK on his show, while he throws around the N word. Stern and crew make fun of him, but you know there is a certain % that agrees with Carver's anticts.

This doesn't make the comedy wrong. The fact is this guy in the audience that affected Dave cannot be influenced in any way, especially by a comedian... he's made his mind up and what he believes in.

To me I've always believed in the Stern motto.. I don't care of the content, the question is "is it funny" ?

I really don't believe Chappelle after all of these years of doing this type of comedy, didn't get that some people out there believe the stereotypes, until this audience member laughed too loud.

Respectable? No laugh is worth 50 million dollars.

What I find almost jaw-droppingly amazing, is that Chappelle actually never believed he was reinforcing stereotypes with his humor before that "Enlightening Moment" when a white guy (who happens to laugh with that condescending type of laugh at everything, according to people who know him) laughs a bit too loud or long.

I have ALWAYS thought Chappelle's humor reinforced stereotypes. PARTICULARLY those regarding blacks, as no white person, and very few hispanics will use the 'N' word. You can't even type it on the Internet anymore, without putting yourself at all types of risk, but it's not only allowable for people like Chappelle to say it dozens of times in his shows, he's even allowed to rub that fact in, as he did with his "parody" 50's style TV show, "The Niggahs," an "Ozzie and Harriet" type send up.

The fact that he made so many millions doing this on a regular basis has given rise to "Mind of Mencia," just the next phase in Minority Stereotype Humor. It's okay to make rude stereotype jokes of your own race, and if you're a minority, you can really say some rude things and get away with it. A sub-category of this would be the "Redneck Humor" of Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.

Dave Chappelle did no favors to black people with his show. He reinforced the opinion that blacks are so "inferior" to whites that they don't even realize how they fit the 'N' word term by their free usage of it. I don't miss him a bit.

I don't find it the slightest bit funny, but it does seem in line with Dave Chappelle's humor (I voted to air it).

One funny thing - I saw Dave Chappelle doing standup at a little comedy club in NYC over 10 years ago (I remembered his name when he hit it big because I knew someone in high school named "Chappelle"). I thought he was HYSTERICAL then - truly rolling on the floor funny. I was pretty disappointed when I first saw him on television. He wasn't the same comic I'd seen doing standup, and I don't find him funny at all.

I've always wondered if he finally made it big because he changed his act...did he see a gap in the market for this type of humor? Would he have become so big if he'd kept the same style of humor I saw and loved back then? I kinda get the feeling he wouldn't have.

when are jokes like this acceptable and when are they not?

They're acceptable when they're funny.

People in America are sooooo afraid to talk about race. Dave Chappelle did it brilliantly. The skit with the blind leader of a white power group who happens to be black was a brilliant send up of the stupidity of racial hatred. I saw the nuanced, ironic deconstruction of stereotypes on Chappelle's Show as the polar opposite of "The Mind of Mencia"'s moronic "hey I'm a Mexican" jokes.

I like the show, I didn't think these sketches were funny, I didn't "get" them. I don't really mind them, I think that aslong as it's not meant to promote hate or superioty I don't see the harm. I was amazed by the audience. Black people like chicken and certain body parts are bigger, Hispanic people like tacky stuff and are crack addicts, and White people are insecure dorks with anoying laughs, superioty complexes and flat asses according to the show. I wasn't even sure what the Asian sketch was trying to say.

I don't like the wording of the poll choices. Is "It was not funny but should air" supposed to mean that 'I just didn't find it funny.', or 'I didn't find it funny because it's racist.'? That's a big difference, to me.

I saw the sketch, and it was sort of funny, and I didn't think it was glaringly racist. I've heard people use Chappelle's sketches as a reinforcement of a racial stereotype - missing the whole point. I really can't see what's that different with this one. The actual episode has the replacements hosts (What's-his-face and Beverly Hills Cop's brother - oh my memory..) conducting a round-table discussion on the sketch with the audience. Apart from the Tom Cruise look-alike, I found that waste of time (I presume they ran out of sketches to air) rather trite.

And finally, it's his show, right? Why couldn't he can the episode and move onto something he felt better about? Why run away to Africa and hide from the entire situation? I'm not Chappelle's biggest fan, by a long shot, but he had his moments. I did like the 2Pac skit at the end of the first of the lost episodes.

I found this skit pretty funny - especially the "white pixie" singing Duran Duran. What made Chapelle's Show brilliant is how he boiled the different races down into their hyperbolic stereotypical essence and then put them in hilarious situations. Honestly a lot of the stuff about "white people" I found true, but also funny because of the exaggeration put on it. This is the biggest difference, for me at least, between his show and Mencia's. Mencia seeks not to exaggerate, be witty with or examine the truth that lurks in some stereotypes, but just to offend with those stereotypes - and because of this he fails miserably at being funny. These are just my opinions, but I can tell you I will sorely miss his show.

The only reason those kinds of shows air is because they all cover controversial topics in a satirical way. I, for one, am a big fan of Family Guy, but when I was recently talking about it, my friend said that he found it more insulting than funny. I found myself agreeing with him, but I realized that whether or not it's funny depends on the spirit you take the joke in.

I loved Dave Chapelle because I let the jokes bounce off me without creating any lasting impact. Other people take him more seriously, and that's what determines whether or not it's funny.

I remember I was in or near high school when "Schindler's List" came out in theaters. There were stories on the front page of the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald about teenagers laughing during the movie. Some people went so far as to suggest that people under 18 and school groups should not be allowed into the movie out of respect for Holocaust victims.

Some of the kids later said they didn't know what else to do.

So what do laughing teens viewing "Schindler's List" have to do with Chapelle, Mencia and racially themed humor?

I firmly believe that laugher is part of the human emotional defense system. We tend to make jokes about that which we don't understand or don't appreciate. Think about the hell you doled out to the fat kid in third grade. Think about the number of jocks you made fun of. Think about something malicious or hurtful you did to someone in the hope that you (or even better, your peers) would get a laugh out of it. We make light of things we don't understand. That doesn't make it ok.

The above kinds of jokes seem less hurtful and less malicious to those who originate them as a true form of hate speak. It seems less bad to make a joke about Asian kids being smart than to call out the more directly offensive slurs. It's easier to label one as being a racist for shouting out something like "Hey gook" than telling a joke about math, violins and people of Asian heritage.

In the case of Chapelle and Mencia, I'm sure they have a subset of people that watch the show religiously for the joy of shouting "damn right" every time Mencia makes a joke about lazy Latinos. I bet it's a pretty small subset of their viewership though.

I think (and hope) that what Chapelle and Mencia are doing is poking fun at the way people of different ehtnicities interact with eachother and making light of the racist stereotypes that one existed in far greater strength=of=belief than they do today.

I think they are poking fun at the stereotypes knowing that is the first level of acceptance of differences. Besides, the people that are laughing at racially themed jokes (at least the likes of which are 'safe' enough for TV) are laughing because they find them funny, not because they think them true.

The shows might not be for everyone, but I certainly don't think they're propagating stereotypes.

I praise Chapelle for having his limits and sticking to his guns for what he believes in, especially in the face of tens of millions of dollars.

I do find Chapelle quite funny and there is a biting keen edge to his sketches which partly make them so funny and I never received an underlying mean-spirited message. if you have seen some of his comedy specials you will know that he has a thoughtful sense of observation which is a benchmark for intelligence and empathy.

I can say that you cannot underestimate ignorance and if you were to write a short blurb about each of his sketches then they would sound like superficial stereotype exploitation. To go with the "white people can't dance" stereotype would be beyond cliche but he took it in a new direction and a new light. Dave recruited John Mayer and took a deeper look at the why, or the how, and compared it to the other races. This sketch had me rolling on the floor. Pretty much all of his sketches had a thoughtful resonance that said he went beyond the cliche jokes and searched for the truth behind stereotypes and the not so truth. And then of course employed a liberal amount of exaggeration.

The use of the word N***** by a black man is their right to do so period. I find that some people have argued that it is hypocritical that black people can use the word but other races cannot. Well I can make fun of my mother but I will hit you if you say the same thing about her. The difference is that I love my mother and the humor is born out of love and understanding. Now, until the NAACP starts handing out badges that say "liberal white who can use the word only under the most discretionary circumstances with true humor and understanding" then I am sorry, pigmentation is the best way to determine appropriate use. Having said that, abuse of a privilege is ugly no matter what is being discussed. I found that Dave used it when his character's called for it or to set the tone of either black angst or comraderie.

As far as contemporary racial humor we do tend to have some pretty short memories. Would anybody accuse Richard Pryor of selling out? If you were to look at some of his film credits you would notice a fair amount of feel good family humor vs. his raw standup comedy style. I mean here is a man who had a very public ousting of his drug habits and he was still doing feel good family movies. Today that would be death to a career, they pull endorsement deals for less these days! Go and watch "Blazing Saddles" some of the humor would make anyone under the age of twenty visibly flinch ( I say this because times change and when I tried to explain to my niece that when I was a kid in the seventies when you were done with your McDonalds you just threw the trash out the car window and she looked at me with absolute horror) Chris Rock in the mid-nineties REALLY said some things that put him on the controversial map ie. "when I go to the ATM at night I am not looking over my shoulder for white people". Soon after he went from bit comedian to starring roles. Eddie Murphy brought a few wilting glances from some of his sketches on Saturday Night Live and that was just the vehicle that brought him attention as so many SNL alumni before him. Controversy is nothing new to the precarious stigma of the black comedian, I mean how large of a gulf is there between what they really want to say vs. what they actually say before they start to piss off the white majority. How do you balance that line between artistic expression and career suicide?

In the end I trust Chapelle to bring light on these delicate subjects with his specific brand of humor of which I am already a fan. I applaud his self-deprecating reality check but I want to tell him that he is thinking too much. Let the naysayers go screw themselves, they fall into one of three categories:

1. Some that do not think he is funny and will simply not watch anything he has done but will most likely have the most scathing opinions even though they have watched only two of his shows and maybe one of his movies. 2. Those that do not like him because he is black, skinny, male, whatever. Reasons that have nothing to do with his comedic prowess and should be disregarded in any case. 3. Those that have never even heard of him. (you would be surprised when you ask your grandmother about contemporary celebrities and they have no idea what you are talking about)

Sadly these are the very people that Chapelle should not care a wit about what they think and they are probably the people who's comments have weighed the most heavily on his mind. He has proven to me through his comedic observations ("to know me is to love me") that he will hit you with a jab and then make sure nothing was broken.

This is a story of a black man making a fortune off of stereotypical comedy, running out of ideas, and then going to Africa to supposedly "redeem his blackness". This will all be blamed somehow on the evil white man. How does this comedy make me feel? I live around black people who are stereotypes. I have a black man selling drugs across the street. My wife is harassed going to the store because she is attractive and Asian, so many ignorant people here assume she is looking for a black male just walking down the street. I watch cars and trucks with "spinners" drive down the streets.If I were to joke about a black man jumping in the car with my wife , an employee at an oil change place refusing to get out of the car unless he gets a phone number,(real event) or any of the stereotypical events going on around me I'd be called a racist. Many black people (not all)commit violent crimes every day , do many things that are negative to society, yet when a black man jokes about negative things in his culture and makes money off of it he considered a victim. And the white man is always the villain in this story. Think about this, no matter how "funny" a sketch is, the underlying theme is the stereotypes are created by ignorant whites and we should all laugh at the stereotype as being a product of ignorant white folks. Chapelle is just trying to get his "street cred" back with black people and now can comfortably sit back with his money and perpetuate black hatred and blame of white people. I have trouble laughing at racial comedy,yes even "redneck" or Hispanic" comedy, because it always ends up serving one purpose .To justify a separatist attitude of that particular race and continue the victim role. Chapelle's comedy served it's purpose, to make money and make white people feel guilty about how bad they treat black folks. We will never be united unless we point out that cultures are different and yes there are negative aspects of EVERY culture that help to divide us as humans. It seems now days only white males are considered the source of all negative things in this world. Chapelle can now say it was the "white man's money" that made him do it, and bleeding hearts will sit back and cry for this millionaire. I'm sure I'll be called "racist" for my attitude, but I live in negative stereotypes daily. I'm Italian /Jewish and my daughter is also half black. Here is a real story from my neighborhood. My daughter and I are in the grocery store line, and a woman with a food stamp card is yelling at the clerk because they won't ring her Boone's Farm wine up with her food stamps. She ends up having to use her government "cash allotment" called "families first" of her food stamp card to buy her alcohol. She lives three doors down from my house and drives an 06 Lexus. I pay with my hard earned cash. Because I don't get into an argument with the cashier, my black daughter asks me "why is that man being mean to that lady? Because she's black?" As I explain the situation best I can, I realize even me as a loving father can be made into a racist for taking the cashier's side. I tried to tell my daughter that the woman, who owns a hair salon, is doing wrong by cheating the government by lying about the money she has. Maybe I should make a comedy show where a white guy cannot do anything that can't be made out as a racial hate crime. Tell Chapelle I got a whole lot of new material for him.

I think everyone needs to relax and stop being such cry babies...i thought the sketch was hilarious and I think Carlos Mencia is hilarious. I myself am 1/2 mexican and 1/2 white and i take part very much in both sides of my family, and personally i think stereotype jokes are just plain funny...wheather they be about beaners or darkies or towel heads or gooks. As long as this earth inhabits more then one race of people there will alwayz be stereotypes so just get over it already.

oh yeah....or crackers

we're not the ones crying , chapelle is. Chapelle is taking jokes and turning them into another "blacks as victims" political statement. Racial jokes are great for everyone else because every race is allowed to tell them without being called "racists" because they themselves are a minority. When a Mexican tells Mexican jokes, or a black tells black jokes it's funny. But let someone use those stereotypes as negative they're racist. But let a white comedian talk about "rednecks" or "white trash" it's used to further the negative image of whites. No telling how many times I've heard black or Asian or Mexicans use the word "redneck" in a derogatory sense because of white racial comedy. Just let a white guy use a black comedy reference using the "N" word and see how well that goes over.

In britain, there was a series called "Till death us do part" (and a number of other series under different names, with the same charactors that preceeded it), it centred around a particularly nasty racist called "Alf Garnet".

One of the most interesting things the actor who played Alf was this:

"A young skinhead boy came up to me one day and said 'I agree with everything you say', to which I replied 'then you are the joke', the young man walked off, he didn't get it".

I do wonder if Chappelle might want to reconsider his walking out.

Well, if Dave Chappelle did not get a clue that some people watching were laughing for all the wrong reasons until that one guy laughed, then maybe he was crazy and needed to leave the show. And if I am not mistaken doesn't Dave write this stuff or at least have control over what he does in the show. Quitting your own show over something you wrote and performed seems a little crazy to me. You could just have said I don't want to do it and then not do it. Simple enough.
The Chappelle show was hysterically funny in my opinion because it was brilliant. The writing was adept and the play on stereotypes and bigotry were excellent. The show where the white people were named the Niggah's was so hilariously written because he threw everything in their about stereotypes and twisted them around on themselves. It was funny, not because he furthering those stereotypes, but throwing them out there and allowing people to laugh at something that should be funny in itself. If you are not aware of yourself, then you can't help yourself. FYI, Carlos Mencia is about the non funniest thing I have ever watched on television.

If you don't think it's funny, then change the channel! Nobody is forcing you to watch it, A-holes!

I know chappelle crying starting this whole thing but still chappelle and everyone else that got offended (image that a comedian got offended from the way someone reacted to his comedy) needs to realize that stereotypes and different outlooks on races will always be here and theres nothing anyone can do about it. If dave c. feels he needs to quit because of that then so be it thats his decision. And it doesn't even stop with race because a blonde woman could get mad cause u tell a blonde joke and say blonds are stupid or the owner of a pitbull or rottweiler could get mad cause u say his dog is dangerous and has a bad personality or attitude cause those are stereotypes that are often brought up like race. Like i said earlier as long as earth inhabits more then one race of people there will always be someone saying something negative about someone or something whether they mean it as a joke to make people laugh and earn a buck or they really feel that way about it. So lets all just brush it off and have a few laughs cause life is to short to always be getting mad and offended.

comedy i s what it is. Theres always gonna be jokes out there that will make some people fill uncomfortable......specially jokes dealing with racism or sterotypes. But in general i think jokes like that are funny and is also a way for people to actually laugh about topics that would usually make people nervous to talk about with poeple with other races. I watch Chappelle with othe friends who are of different races and we like him the most cause he talks and makes fun of stuff we always think about, but kinda scared to talk about.

I have read the opinions here, I usually watch the Chapelle show, for the most part I like it, I haven't seen the show that is the discussion here, I tried but can't seem to get the link, I'll watch it on t.v. if it aires, the only reason I'm posting here is, out of all the post's here so far, in my opinion, .......avgrieco......hits it all squarely on the head, He is telling the absolute truth, most of the rest here as far as I'm concerned are theorizing, I can tell he has much first hand experince in what he speaks, what he says , is the way it is, exactly. It's hypocritical to be comfortable with your millions, that , you made, by what is all of a sudden now offensive to you.

And as far as Carlos Mencia, what hooked me and my wife on him was a stand up routine we viewed on t.v., before he was mind of Mencia, we both laughed pretty much the entire show with tears coming down our cheeks, now, he is not funny anymore, why do these guys feel that they have to graduate to foul? The fouler the funnier? Absolutely not, there is no imagination to it, gutter languange is not all that funny to me, I use it all the time, it doesn't make me laugh to just sit there and watch somebody cuss, I want my funny bone tickled, I want imagination, I can hear all the cussing I want at any time, and at anyplace, as far as I'm concerned he's fumbling theball.

Carlos Mencia, or whatever his name is, is now hackneyed, he's too damn predictable, and that's not funny.

I understand that this is the type of "comedy" that Dave Chapelle has perfected. And don't get me wrong, I think that Chapelle has done some groundbreaking comedic sketches. However, I find it absurd that he got all in a huff because of the WAY a person was laughing and the RACE of the person that was laughing.

"Chappelle thought the sketch was funny, the kind of thing his friends would laugh at. But at the taping, one spectator, a white man, laughed particularly loud and long. His laughter struck Chappelle as wrong...."

So let me get this straight. Dave Chapelle thought that this sketch, which points out and re-enforces stereotypes, was acceptable only until a white man laughed at it the wrong way. As in, he found it inappropriate and unsettling when this man laughed because he realized that some people were laughing the wrong way.

Now, here's what I don't understand. It's ok for Dave Chapelle--as a black man--to produce sketches that prey on stereotypical food favoring, dance style, car decor, and linguistic inabilities of all types of races (black, asian, white, hispanic), but when someone that is NOT black laughs at the 'black' pixie, it's all of a sudden not ok?

Furthermore, the tone of the article strongly suggests that Dave's friends are also black. (If you disagree with this then go back and read the article. It would be redundant to point out the race of the laughing man if it wasn't assumed that his 'friends' were black) Again, its ok for a bunch of black people to laugh at other cultures (and low blows are the jokes at that), but not ok for anyone who isn't black to laugh?

I'm not offended by the content of this sketch at all. I don't necessarily think that it's funny, but it doesn't offend me either. I'm way more offended at Chapelle's taken offense to the reaction of the laugh of a white man. I think its hypocritical and irresponsible.

Judging by the tone of his strong reaction ("...my head almost exploded"), I think that Chapelle thought that he was producing a show that was BY black people FOR black people, and once he realized that this might not be, he freaked.

And the TONE of the laugh? C'mon. Chapelle's a comedian and knows that a laugh is a laugh. What kind of jovial laughs is he aiming for in the first place? He was looking for the chuckle that says "I get that you are pointing out the absurdity of racial stereotypes and trying to eradicate them and open people's eyes" but instead he got a laugh that relays a message of hatred and bigotry, in turn furthering the installation of said stereotypes?

There was obviously a huge gap between what he was trying to say and how a white man took it, and apparently he could gather all of that from one laugh? I think it's bull@!$%#. I think it was obviously in the back of his mind that maybe this kind of sketch is inappropriate and reckless and the audible, apparently "condescending" laugh from a WHITE man only tipped him of the edge. How can he even gauge what kind of laughter his show IS receiving in the first place? It's a taped show for Christ's sake.

I think it's hypocritical.

But at least he could sense that too.

$50 million dollars

I personally Believe that ALL jokes should be acceptable because they are in the very sense a joke nobody should take them too seriously or feel offended the idea behind a joke is to make people laugh but at the same time if you are going to make a joke you should either be able to say the joke with the person its about no matter the Race, Color,Ethnic group or gender because if you cant do it to there face then don't do it at all people make racist jokes and gay jokes and sexist jokes and they stereo type that's how we as human beings are but to make a joke and not be able to say it in front of the person its about is just plain cowardice and stupidity I make all kinds of joke about all kinds of people and if they're there when i say then i hope they think its funny because I'm not gonna stop because i feel its just a joke and i know I'm not racist or sexist or bias I'm just a person who's try-in to lighten the mood with something funny if people cant handle it then they are thick headed and to stuck in their own idea's and baliefs.