Last Thursday, comedian Dave Chappelle came out of a self-imposed exile in South Africa when he sat down with Oprah Winfrey. Chappelle, who turned down a whopping $50 million dollar contract with the Comedy Channel, talked about the pressures of fame and fortune, and the toll it took on him. Many had speculated that Chappelle had lost his mind or was hooked on drugs. Chappelle claims he was “extremely stressed out” and “needed to get away.”
I respect Chappelle for turning down the money. Chappelle said that he felt that the staff of Comedy Central, as well as many of his white fans, were laughing “at” him and not “with” him. In other words, he felt like he was “getting in touch with his inner koon.” He also felt that many of his sketches were “socially irresponsible.” He said all the emotions came to a head when he was taping a sketch in which he appeared in “black face.” Chappelle said he looked across the room and saw one of the white employees laughing just a little too vigorously . . . He also questioned why every black male comedian seems to end up in a dress at some point in his career.
TheStateOf…black comedy. There is a difference between a black comic with black fans and a black comic with white fans. When Chappelle first started the show, his fan base was black. As he got bigger and bigger, his audience got whiter and whiter. That inevitably changes the dynamic, as white audiences seize on different aspects of the comedy–usually the ones they interpret as degrading blacks.
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