Dave Chappelle will have his Oprah sitdown

Thad Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 06:54 PM EST

Said he wasn't crazy, but clearly sounded like it.

pat Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 03:16 PM EST

Chappelle's Show was among the greatest sketch shows ever produced. Like all sketch shows (the first season of Mr. Show, anyone?), it had its mediocre moments, but the great bits shined with pure comedic genius. To call his show "hit-and-miss" is ridiculous, as that is the nature of all sketch comedy.

MJ Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 03:04 PM EST

If I hadn't seen it advertised on a billboard, I wouldn't have known about Chappelle's appearance on Oprah until it was too late. I cannot STAND Oprah but tape will be rolling this afternoon.

Frowny McBeard Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 02:08 PM EST

*Sigh*

You're really making a comparison between Seinfeld's success and Chappelle's? Besides the fact that their entirely different people (Uptight ob-com vs. ex-pothead family man) their styles of humor were completely different.

Seinfeld's humor wasn't nearly as culturally sensitive. (Beyond the "Not that there's anything wrong with that" thing.) The closest comparison to be made to Dave's show is In Living Color, in that it was a sketch show about (for the most part) race relations in America between blacks and whites that made fun of everyone equally. (I still crack up at the whole Sharpton/Farrakhan comedy hour: "Jew's on first, whitey's on second, and conspiracy is on third.") And they slowly descended into mediocrity. It's not the easiest thing to keep funny and balanced without getting either preachy, excessively offensive or lame. Maybe Dave was just afraid of the inevitable slide into crap.

jon Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 12:51 PM EST

I understand that it's very, very weird to be famous after years of tolling away on the C to D-List, however, you have a TV show on basic cable that people (including a lot of stoner college students) love. Get over yourself and just do the show. Jerry Seinfeld didn't run away screaming when his show got really popular. Sometimes a show is good and sometimes it isn't but it's nothing unless you actually go to the set and film it!

Ned Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 11:43 AM EST

Look, I think Dave Chappelle is talented and funny, and I watched his show. It was hit and miss, but overall pretty good, but he wasn't at the level of Elvis or something. He had a popular show on Comedy Central, and a catch phrase that was already getting old, I think he overreacted.

Ep Sato Fri, Feb 3, 2006 at 10:46 AM EST

Darn it Popwatch! You guys know that "out of the loop" losers like me get up to date on tv by reading your column, right? Posted yesterday, an hermano would have totally set the tivo to record Oprah. Oh well. I still look forward to the recap.

Regarding Chappelle, he went from struggling comedian who had worked the stand up scene for more than a decade, to a guy who was suddenly recognizable by pretty much everyone in the country. For someone to achieve that level of success at a young age after so many bitter defeats (Men in Tights, Half Baked, that awful Buddies tv show) has to have created a lot of anxiety and pressure. Here he was in season 1 hoping to achieve the success of Red Fox, Eddie Murphy n' Richard Pryor. Less than two years later, it was clear that Chappelle had found a way to make Black humor completely accesible and acceptable to a nationwide audience. I have to assume that would bring a lot of stress to a guy.

IMHO, Chappelle is a comic genius. I continue to keep up hope that he, Paul Moonie, Charlie Murphy and Neil will continue to write comedy gold. Maybe we could get Chappelle to work with Aaron MgGruder?