+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

  1. #1
    and your little dog too
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    1,756

    Default Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

    I normally hate television, but I think Dave Chappelle is smart and funny and subversive. The Sacramento Bee has a great article about a recent stand-up show he did in their town.


    Chappelle lets rude crowd have it
    By JIM CARNES, Sacramento Bee

    Dave Chappelle's irreverent sketch show airs on Comedy Central.
    AP Photo/Danielle Levitt, The Sacramento Bee

    http://www.sacticket.com/24hour/ente...-8798481c.html

    (MN) - 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."

  2. #2
    Hula Hoop Supervisor
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    4,244

    Default Re: Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

    All valid and great points...thanks for posting this since I would of missed it. Though he did make a mistake of going on the road as it where. His show is too "hot" right now...so every asshole is gonna shout out the one liners and want him to be the "Comedy Central Dave". A real shame too cause his stand up is better than his show.

    Though WTF was he doing in Sacramento? The people up there ARE stupid.*


    *Unless compared to Salt Lake City.

  3. #3
    gonesavage's Avatar That Crazy Chinese Woman
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    born in canada, grew up in rochester, NY (the sticks)
    Posts
    436

    Default Re: Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

    This article made me smile in the fact that Chapelle apparently has no trouble saying what's on his mind, even to an audience that paid to see him. I've seen several of his shows & stand-ups & I must admit I love his confrontational, sarcastic attitude about social issues. Thanks for the article.

  4. #4
    Amelia G's Avatar chick in charge
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Born in London. Lived everywhere.
    Posts
    7,181

    Default Re: Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

    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."

    Wow, that is really heartwrenching and probably true. Thanks for posting this.

    So, Tequila Zaire, are people extra stupid in Utah?

  5. #5
    Jasperino's Avatar Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Outlands of Arizona
    Posts
    258

    Default Re: Dave Chappelle on celebrity worship, race relations, and Sacramento people are stupid

    I'm rick james bitch!

+ Reply to Thread

Similar Threads

  1. yay for stupid people
    By LoraLie in forum Blue Blood Boards
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 08-18-2006, 02:32 PM
  2. Replies: 39
    Last Post: 06-16-2006, 09:48 AM
  3. How stupid can people be?
    By Nightingale in forum Blue Blood Boards
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 11-13-2004, 04:23 PM
  4. How should I kill stupid people
    By -=Asmodeus=- in forum Blue Blood Boards
    Replies: 26
    Last Post: 07-24-2004, 01:36 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
Blue Blood
Trappings | Personalities | Galleries | Entertainment | Art | Books | Music | Popcorn | Sex | Happenings | Oddities | Trade/Business | Manifesto | Media | Community
Blue Blood | Contact Us | Advertise | Submissions | About Blue Blood | Links | $Webmasters$
Interested in being a Blue Blood model, writer, illustrator, or photographer? Get in touch