Dave Chappelle. I had barely heard about the Rick James skit, which with the Prince one are the first videos of Dave I saw in the early 2000s. I started watching the Chappelle Show in ‘09 when it had been over for a while but boy, did I cry my ass off. Just so good, terribly immature sometimes but so hilariously honest and funny. Dave introduced me to Paul Mooney.
I got all the videos, audios, books I could about Paul. Paul’s the shit. I did the same with Dave.
Watching his Inside the Actor’s Studio thing, I realized how much pressure Dave had gone through. I realized how bad he felt with the Rick James thing where he kind of, not intentionally at least just for fun, used him. Now Rick’s dead and hecklers can’t shut the fuck up. With the weight of a segregated country that has such a twisted approach to black entertainers, there’s enough to get sick as a dog. Reading Paul’s journey with Richard Pryor also showed me that it was nothing new.
I remember his ‘04 For What It’s Worth stand up where he jokes about how “they’re locking our (black) stars up!” but the more I think about it the more I feel that it’s actually happening, in some way. Negative stuff happening are branded on black people. We can’t get away with anything. Dave Chappelle walks off stage? IT’S A FUCKING MELTDOWN. Bill Burr (that I love too) shreds the crowd for 12 minutes hoping that they all fucking die and the video is called PHILADELPHIA INCIDENT? Dave will have to live the rest of the year reading about his supposed meltdown while no one gives a shit about what Bill did.
Fuck that, people.
I just miss Dave, man. I miss his delivery, his different voices and tones, I miss his wit, I miss how many hilarious comments or skits he could have done for the almost past ten years since his last big special. When I see Black Bush and the Mars part popping out on Tumblr or Reddit, I miss him even harder. I know he’s one of the sharpest ever and I wish I could have seen his talent evolve, I wish he had had some specials on the internet like Louis CK did.
Instead I just get gossips and badmouthing here and there with people dropping the “he’s crazy anyway”. Suck a dick, you guys.
And Dave if you read this, walk off stage as many times as you need to until the crowd gets its shit together and please, release some specials on the intertubes. It’s where’s it’s at son come on now.