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6/30/13

There is more than meets the eye with actor/comedian Dave Chappelle.  I have been a huge fan of Chappelle since I first saw his stand up in the late 90’s/early 00’s.  Chappelle’s standup routines are some of the funniest I have ever seen.  He not only has hilarious content throughout his set, but his general character and demeanor are equally funny.  He is also in several movies, starring in his very own “Half Baked”.  While this movie and many of his other feature film roles are amusing, they pale in comparison to his TV show “Chappelle’s Show”.  In the same vein as “Saturday Night Live” or “In Living Color”, Chappelle’s Show features skit comedy in ½ hour timeslot episodes.  During the Chappelle’s Show run, most of America was very familiar with the show.  His impersonations of Rick James and Prince became staples of pop culture.  Chappelle also very actively attacked and mocked racism through his show.  Instead of doing it in the traditional comedy format of “White people do X, Black people do Y”, Chappelle went for much more cutting and absurd takes on racism.  The first skit of Chappelle’s Show has Dave portraying a blind black man who was raised in the south by white supremacists always believing he was white himself.  In this skit Chappelle goes onto be a strong proponent of white supremacist ideals, despite being black (though unaware) himself.  This demonstrates the ridiculousness of racism and bigotry perhaps better than any other piece of comedy I have ever come across.  Dave Chappelle was later featured on an episode of a TV show called “Inside the Actor’s Studio”.  A much more serious Chappelle was on display for the audience that evening.  While he still joked throughout the program, Chappelle shared details of his upbringing and background.  He later talks about his feelings of the state of show business, talking about how little control an artist or performer can sometimes have over his or her own work.  I highly recommend to any and everybody to check out any and everything that Dave Chappelle is involved with.  He is not only hilarious, but also insightful and highly intelligent.