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Dave Chappelle lets rude crowd have it, sticks up for Cosby's comment.
Sacramento Bee ^ | 06/17/04 | JIM CARNES

Posted on 06/18/2004 10:06:42 PM PDT by Pikamax

Chappelle lets rude crowd have it

By JIM CARNES, Sacramento Bee

(June 17, 9:04 am PDT) - 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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 06/18/2004 10:06:44 PM PDT by Pikamax
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To: Pikamax

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.

*** He's right about that. The only place I saw it mentioned was in FR!


2 posted on 06/18/2004 10:11:27 PM PDT by cyborg
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To: Pikamax
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."

That's a great line. I'd use it for a tagline, but it's too long.

3 posted on 06/18/2004 10:11:51 PM PDT by NYCVirago
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To: wardaddy

I know you like unPC comedians :)


4 posted on 06/18/2004 10:12:38 PM PDT by cyborg
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To: Pikamax
Yeah, real smart move there Chappelle. Insult your fans, you know, the people who made you into what you are today.
5 posted on 06/18/2004 10:16:15 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Extremer than any Extremist!!!)
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To: Pikamax
Good article, but something jumped out at me. I just found this juxtaposition kind of odd....

"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.

...

"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.' "

6 posted on 06/18/2004 10:16:52 PM PDT by mwyounce
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To: cyborg

Oh, Maddox from "The Best Page in the Universe" went on a tirade over it......


http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=elizabeth_smart


7 posted on 06/18/2004 10:17:51 PM PDT by Strategerist
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To: mwyounce

He's pointing out facts about a case. That's not blaming white people.


8 posted on 06/18/2004 10:18:01 PM PDT by cyborg
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To: Pikamax

Man, I'm starting to really like this guy.


9 posted on 06/18/2004 10:18:44 PM PDT by Porterville (Fight Communism, vote Republican- and piss on france)
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To: cyborg

Chappelle's sketch about the black, blind Ku Klux Klan leader is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV.


10 posted on 06/18/2004 10:18:52 PM PDT by Chunga
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To: Pikamax

...when keeping it real- goes bad.


11 posted on 06/18/2004 10:19:07 PM PDT by Sofa King (MY rights are not subject to YOUR approval http://www.angelfire.com/art2/sofaking/index.html)
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To: Strategerist

wow


12 posted on 06/18/2004 10:19:45 PM PDT by cyborg
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To: Chunga

That was the one show I watched and yeah it was funny.


13 posted on 06/18/2004 10:20:08 PM PDT by cyborg
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To: cyborg
Agreed, but this is a stipid statement:

"When is a 15-year-old a kid and a 12-year-old an adult?"

How about it has nothing to do with race? It has everything to do with the 15 year old female being a kidnapping victim and the 12 year old male being a vicious murderer. What an idiotic comparison.

14 posted on 06/18/2004 10:21:11 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (crime would drop like a sprung trapdoor if we brought back good old-fashioned hangings)
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To: Pikamax

Bravo!!!

Although some stuff quoted won't be palatable for most Freepers, I must admit Dave Chappelle is right-on with his assessments.

This guy can be sometimes very raw and can lift many eyebrows, but you can't question his talent and the accuracy of his sketches, when it comes to racial stereotypes. His line of work is racial humor, and even he admits it.

But, unlike Chris Rock, he won't make humor only at the expense of white people. He's also very unforgiving and even cruel to his fellow blacks.

That's my $2/100.

P.S: I'm the proud owner of Chappelle Show's Season 1 DVD set. Buy it if you can!!!


15 posted on 06/18/2004 10:21:13 PM PDT by El Conservador ("No blood for oil!"... Then don't drive, you moron!!!)
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To: Chunga

my personal all-time favorite was the race draft, and then there is always the Player Hater's Ball


16 posted on 06/18/2004 10:21:34 PM PDT by bigghurtt (Ich bin ein konservatives...dieses Mittel, die ich immer Recht.)
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To: Pikamax

Aha! I always knew Dave Chappelle had at least some sense in his head even if he does vote rat.

Personally I think his "Black White Supremacist" skit was way more funny than the entire Rick James episode.


17 posted on 06/18/2004 10:21:43 PM PDT by nhoward14 (John Kerry - Best Cure for Insomnia)
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To: Vigilanteman
How about it has nothing to do with race? It has everything to do with the 15 year old female being a kidnapping victim and the 12 year old male being a vicious murderer. What an idiotic comparison.

You're right how can you compare a 12 year old to a fifteen year old? I mean one is in the sixth grade and the other would be a sophomore in high school... I mean clearly the 12 year old is a child and the 15 year old is much more able to comprehend the world.... so I agree, there is no comparison.... unless you know absolutely NOTHING about the brain's development.

18 posted on 06/18/2004 10:24:30 PM PDT by Porterville (Fight Communism, vote Republican- and piss on france)
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To: bigghurtt

The Wayne Brady skit is my favorite, just for the shock of seeing clean cut Wayne acting street.


19 posted on 06/18/2004 10:25:46 PM PDT by Pikamax
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To: Vigilanteman

Yeah reading it a second time, it's a weird comparison. There are plenty of other things he can say, like when does single motherhood become fashionable when you're a rich white actress/singer. I've heard some personalities say that one before.


20 posted on 06/18/2004 10:26:30 PM PDT by cyborg
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