Dave Chappelle - "Killin' 'Em Softly"

laughter is the best medicine

^ otm

would photoshop* a prescription for Chappelle but i don't do that anymore

*edit in powerpoint

new netflix is not funny and just lazy tbh

dunno if I want to hear another comedian claim that we should go easy on Louie CK cuz what he did "wasn't all that bad"

yeah lasted about 10 minutes

as time goes by it gets weirder and weirder for me to remember that he got super famous from doing a sketch comedy show where he wore wacky wigs and shit

When I saw him a couple of years ago it felt more like hanging out with someone that sometimes says funny things than it did seeing standup. There was no real rhythm to the delivery.

this one is front-loaded with a bunch of obnoxious shit. The most glaring one to me wasn't the Michael Jackson or LGBT-car-trip jokes - it was the "what if I said I was a Chinese person that was trapped in a black man's body" bit (which he later says his own Asian wife finds offensive!) I don't think his comic chops have diminished at all, even the MJ shit is basically just a set-up for a p funny McAuley Culkin joke, but it's sad that he feels compelled to return to "controversial" topics on which he doesn't have anything insightful to say. I mean, the Culkin joke is funny, but it's also super-lazy. I think he's better with the more personal sort of long-form shaggy-dog-type stories that turn out to be really carefully constructed but in this special that stuff is undercut by his compulsion to "push the envelope" or whatever.

It's also sad to a comedian (or any public figure really) complaining about audience feedback in terms of "cancellation culture"/#metoo/pick yr "online movement". Cuz those complaints all boil down to "I liked it better when I didn't have to listen to other people". Social media has lowered the bar to the effort required for an audience to provide feedback, so now it's out there. Get over it.

sad to SEE

xp

I turned this off in anger the other night, about the same time as ums

take the opposite view tbh xp

topics and views expressed are whatever, the shit isnt funny or clever

did a rapping Irishman just son Dave CHappelle in an online beef

if thats what the discourse dictates happened i cant fight that

you otm tho

for a guy who leans so hard into the whole above it all macho-comedian-as-philosopher-truthteller persona he really seems to get mad abt twitter stuff a lot

macho? that doesn't seem right

So if we, the Netflix viewers, don't like what he says on Netflix, that's our fault ("you clicked on my face"). But he, a HBO viewer didn't like what HBO said about Michael Jackson, and that HBO's fault? Like, "I felt like HBO was sticking baby dicks in my ear for four hours straight", and "I don't want to know all these things". So, audience feedback is only valid if the audience member is also a performer?

I should point out that that's not really a serious question, but yeah, like a lot of others, I made it about 15 minutes into this and couldn't stomach any more. I'm sure Chapelle is really upset to have lost my custom.

otm it's always such a bad faith argument

macho? that doesn't seem right

really? so much of his thing now is complaining about how women & gay ppl should stfu while wearing weird military-style jumpsuits, definitely a lot of weird macho energy in his persona imo

macho is surely understood as a mode of delivery

crank, sure

...he weightlifts and almost never acts goofy, which had been big part of his comedic schtick

def hes gone more "dad of teenagers", tbh ive not seen him with his top off

...he weightlifts and almost never acts goofy, which had been big part of his comedic schtick

he'd be funnier if he changed his physical form in a way that I find more appealing

how long into this does he get into having a go at those damn "trannies"?

It's also sad to a comedian (or any public figure really) complaining about audience feedback in terms of "cancellation culture"/#metoo/pick yr "online movement". Cuz those complaints all boil down to "I liked it better when I didn't have to listen to other people". Social media has lowered the bar to the effort required for an audience to provide feedback, so now it's out there. Get over it.

This is the crucial point, really.

I get how this can all work under the guise of the comedy of discomfort, but if you're already preempting objection, you're reinforcing the notion that ties it in explicitly with "not having a sense of humor." Which is a really closed-off position to work from in stand-up.

Yeah, I mean, from a strictly political/ethical standpoint the "celebrities are under attack" stance is dumb, the MJ truther stuff is irresponsible, the focus on trans people is getting to be a weird compulsion. He went from being a truthteller to a shock comic and it certainly lessens the impact of "Dave Chappelle, Cultural Icon"

That all said, like 80% of the special is laugh out loud hilarious and I think it's insane that people are trying to use "Dave's not funny anymore" as an actual argument

how long into this does he get into having a go at those damn "trannies"?

about 30 minutes

xp

Whiney otm altho I'd put the hit-rate percentage a little lower personally (more like 60%, and mostly in the back half of the set)

like, all the stuff about guns/gun culture is v good

Dave's not at all insightful or even really speaking truth-to-power as much, but there's very few people on earth that can make me laugh as hard.

there was two laughs as far as i got into it (mentioned jussie smollett) and i forget both of them

v telling that if you search his name on Twitter (I do this to myself, I know), the ratio of people who actually want to "cancel" him (i.e. air any objections) to people who are like, "Dave has DESTROYED PC/cancel culture!!!"/"Dave doesn't give a fuuuuck!" is like 1:20 so it's just a bunch of people puffing out their chests at each other

also, the comedian who walked away from $$$$$ because he thought that white people were laughing at, not with him, to becoming this edgelord prick is incredibly fucking depressing, whether he's still funny or not

By the time the Q&A plays at the end of the special, Chappelle has already shown his unapologetic approach to courting controversy. His answers put that into even starker view. He says that a white woman left one of his practice sets for the special at The Punchline comedy club in San Francisco, telling him, "I'm sorry, I was raped." Chappelle says he replied with "It's not your fault you were raped. But it's not my fault either. Ta-ta, bitch," to which the audience laughs raucously, as though that were a real punchline.

Very cool! Good job, Dave.

lso, the comedian who walked away from $$$$$ because he thought that white people were laughing at, not with him, to becoming this edgelord prick is incredibly fucking depressing, whether he's still funny or not

so OTM, this is on my mind whenever he comes up

this shit sucked, a lot of funny moments but on the whole it just left a bad taste in my mouth

same

Part of me just thinks he was trying to be as annoying as possible during this special as a fuck you to netflix and anyone giving him money for that shit.

also, i love 'cancel culture' but not the stupid term. who has time for all these assholes.

Ok watched the all the way through
Just terrible honestly not one funny thing

ums, if you don't find the gun riff funny please tell me what stand-up specials in the last 5 years are actually funny

yeah the junkie break-in/gun story is def funny

I laughed when he kept talking about this french actor, Juicy Smollé. The second half was far better than the first half.

I found a lot of the problematic stuff technically "funny" even though I agree that it's problematic/punching down/ethically bad.

stuff like the LGBT car trip I was just like... c'mon Dave, why do you feel this is necessary?

oh man, that was definitely not even a little funny.

I'm guessing he feels it was "necessary" because of the negative criticism his past jokes about LGBT received. He's not gonna let the PC twitter mob stifle is comedic freedom!!

its really sad how the PC police have shut down comedians like Dave Chappelle, you barely hear about them anymore