LAUGHING IN THE CHAPPELLE
The most biting satirist of a generation has re-entered a world which has changed drastically since he fell from view 12 years ago, writes
It’s the sort-of-but-not-quite JD Salinger story of the comedy world — a lanky, buck-toothed, slightly vampire-eared goofy young man from a middle-class black American family who started doing standup at the age of 14 rises to become within a decade the most biting satirist in a generation. Lauded by fellow comedians, beloved by audiences and given the opportunity by Comedy Central to produce a skit show that dissects the racial politics of America so raucously and irreverently that it makes even the most liberal of the African-American cultural establishment uncomfortable and becomes a touchstone of television in the early days of the millennium, going on to become the biggest-selling TV series on DVD for years.
But that success scares off the lanky young comedian who, to the amazement of fans and colleagues, walks away from a $50-million dollar offer to produce a fourth season of his show and disappears, resurfacing for a few weeks in Durban, holing up on his farm in Ohio, refusing interviews and doing his best not to have to answer the increasing swirl of rumours surrounding him which include murmurs of crack addiction, mental breakdown and general lack of confidence.
For 12 years while the world rapidly changed around him and a “woker” generation arose with its trigger warnings and hashtags and outrage against the racism of the police and the rising fanaticism of Middle America — the public heard little or nothing from Dave Chappelle.
EASIER TO OUTRAGE
Over the past few years Chappelle has returned to the stage, clawing back his audience, his reputation and reminding Americans of his status as one of the true originals who claims his place in a line of uncomfortable truth tellers that stretches from Lenny Bruce to Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor and George Carlin. It’s a status that Netflix has been only too keen to help the comedian cement thanks to a recent $60million deal that has seen the release of four specials on the streaming service since March last year.
While the older Chappelle is a little heavier in the face, more inclined to buy into his own mythology than he was back in 2004 and more prone to indulge in philosophical tangents, he’s still the chain-smoking, risktasking unapologetic keen observer of the uncomfortable contradictions that remain at the heart of the country he loves.
The question is whether Chappelle’s brand of liberal tough love has a place within the woker, more easily outraged world he’s returned to. The answer, based in particular on his two most recent shows — Equanimity and The Bird Revelation — is more complicated than detractors would like to believe. Certainly his attempts to address the protests of the transgender community against jokes he made in his earlier shows reveal an unwillingness to admit that in spite of his assertion that he never feels bad about anything he says on stage, jokes about people who have struggled to have their voices heard may have real consequences for both those people and the attitudes of others towards them. For Chappelle to simply write off those struggles as the product of white privilege and insignificant in comparison to the centuries-old struggle of black Americans is a little too easy and trite.
Likewise his analysis of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the MeToo campaign falls too easily into the trap of victim blaming. We also probably only need to be reminded so many times that he’s the creator of Chappelle’s Show, that he walked away from a ton of money but is still doing very well financially, that he’s married to a Filipino woman and that he believes Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key have received way too much credit for their sketch show, which he sees as a diluted version of his own.
However, while the new specials have been quickly criticised by enlightened liberal commentators and unfortunately praised by knee-jerk conservatives for their seeming lack of sensitivity, the truth is that paradoxically the emergence of the triggerwarning wary millennial generation owes
SERIES
more to Chappelle than it would like to admit.
SQUIRMING UNCOMFORTABLY
Go back and watch Chappelle’s underappreciated at the time but now much lauded 2000 special Killing Them Softly, it’s 2004 follow-up For What it’s Worth and the still ahead-of-its-time and dazzlingly clever Chappelle’s Show and understand that he’s always been the clever kid in the back of the class who stood up and said what people were always too scared to. His recent work may be faulted for some of its approach but it fits quite comfortably into the comedian’s project of igniting uncomfortable but necessary debates and there’s little doubt that he’s still a one-of-a-kind performer who loves both his audience and his messy, contradictory, ever-evolving country.
Chappelle may have helped to change social attitudes but his aim has always been simply to make people laugh at the absurdity of their preconceptions and in that he continues to push and prod and make us squirm with uncomfortable but necessary recognition.
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LDave Chappelle’s specials The Age of Spin, Deep in the Heart of Texas, Equanimity and The Bird Revelation are all available on Netflix. Hirsch is the award-winning US director of the documentaries Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony and Bully. I had a couple of seasons on DVD — throughout the presidency of George W Bush I turned to the show as a refuge from the daily news. Goes without saying I am going through the seasons again thanks to Trump. What got me hooked was the writing and the cast and that I am a political junkie. I loved seeing these super-smart idealists, in power, struggling to get shit done. I absolutely loved season one of Stranger Things and I am holding off on Game of Thrones till I have some time to really go for it. I am really bad at getting super into
something and then trying to save the end for later — like keeping a good bottle
of wine for the perfect moment. I have two episodes left of Mad Men. I try to watch premiers from trusted producers and see if I want to invest my time.
His analysis of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the MeToo campaign falls too easily into the trap of victim blaming