I had never heard of this Comedy Central series, nor had I even heard of comedian Dave Chappelle, until after the first two seasons that were completed had aired, and probably after Chappelle had walked out of the third season. I was introduced to the show on The Comedy Network in Canada, where I started seeing ads for it, and eventually started watching reruns. Obviously, it didn't take long for me to see that it was a crude, very politically incorrect show, but I had seen and enjoyed that type of comedy before, and found this show pretty funny overall. It was basically the same when I recently decided to watch episodes on DVD after not seeing any in a while.
Each episode in seasons 1 & 2 begin with Dave Chappelle coming out in front of a live audience. As the host of the show, he does some brief stand-up comedy and presents a series of sketches. Each episode features a number of sketches, often involving racial stereotypes, and sometimes also involving drug addiction, sex, toilet humour, political satire, movie spoofs, celebrity spoofs, etc. These sketches feature characters played by Chappelle, and characters played by others, sometimes recurring ones in both cases. Some of the episodes have a performance from a hip hop artist to close it off. Season 3 contains only three episodes (the "Lost Episodes"), each featuring sketches filmed before Chappelle quit, with Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings (two cast members of the show) as the hosts in front of the live audience.
As I stated above, the sketches often involve racial stereotypes, so there's lots of controversial content. Stereotypes of different races, such as Black, White, Asian, and Hispanic, are included, so you can't say it's one-sided, but it still has offended. Personally, I think some of the sketches are uncomfortable, such as the one where a white guy moves in with a bunch of black roommates, and they torture him in different ways and kill his father. Fortunately, however, it doesn't usually get this rough. For the most part, I have gotten a good amount of laughs out of the show, and have sometimes found hilarity in it. Highlights for me include Tyrone Biggums, the recurring crack addict character (didn't care much for the first sketch with him, where he talks in front of a class, but his second sketch, where he comes to what he thinks is a free crack giveaway, I think I could call hilarious), the clever sketch suggesting what the Internet would be like if it were a real place, the "Deep Impact" parody, Lil' Jon (another recurring character who shouts, "Yeah!", "What?", and "Okay!" repeatedly, which I find funny, though some could find it annoying), and the R. Kelly spoof (even though it's pretty juvenile).
Apparently, Dave Chappelle quit the show during the making of Season 3 for a variety of reasons, including stress, an uncomfortable work environment, and loss of creative control. Later, he was considering the possibility of returning to finish the third season, but not if Comedy Central aired the material without him, which he said would be a "bully move". Unfortunately, that's just what they did in 2006 (though I have to say some of these sketches are highlights, such as the one where he gets revenge on his ex-girlfriend), and I guess that made it official, it was over. Too bad Chappelle had to go through so much trouble, leading to a tragic end for the show, but fortunately, some very funny stuff was made for the show while it lasted, and it can be remembered as the bold, edgy show it was (or is). While the show may overdo it with the controversial subject matter (or just not do it very well), toilet humour, etc. at times, and I'm definitely not as big a fan as many others, I have to give it credit for making me laugh, and probably for pushing boundaries as well. As a comedian who tends to use shock value, Chappelle is much better than, let's say, Tom Green, that's for sure.
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