Dave Chappelle is the baddest person to
touch a microphone that's alive right
now
Dave's beast man that's the only man
only man it puts a little fear in my
heart okay
he's [ __ ] amazing how did that funny
at 2:00 in the morning in front of a
crowd that gave up on the show like an
hour ago and they're tired they just
want to go home that second he steps
onstage
boom he just like every night before
come out on stage I'll be backstage like
I'm sure this is gonna go well what's
the deal with lampshades I mean if it's
a lamp why do you want shade doing that
Jerry Seinfeld impersonation is pretty
fun Jim Carrey had a great impression of
him as he rose to stardom in the sketch
comedy TV series in living color
imagining how Jerry would react if he
got lost in a bad neighborhood of course
there's nothing inherently wrong with
being easy to impersonate every comedian
has a style and style can be exaggerated
many comedians even joke about their
style
I will now receive back into my stage
persona Jerry Seinfeld's real problem as
a comedian he says is the attitude of
the audience he seems to constantly run
into the issue of being introduced as
the greatest comedian of all time
nearly ruining his sets because of the
attitude change it makes sense to want
the audience at ease and not against you
you always undersell a comedian this
idea of needing to undersell a comedian
also brings up the issue of celebrity
and how a comedian can struggle with
relatability after gaining so much
wealth and fame they might reference
their fame but most of the time they try
to keep that everyman feeling to the
joke all things
and it's only for with another year at
the most believe me it's not gonna last
it's been about eight months I got a
year left and then I'm back to being
just like you but one thing a comedian
like Jerry Seinfeld has no problem with
is people stealing his jokes his joke
writing is so incredibly meticulous that
it's almost impossible to copy without
obviously taking it from Jerry his love
has always been in the joke itself and
it's what he relies on I've probably
been working on this for two years but
almost every other comedian struggles
with this issue guys is good but you
need your friend oh right like you
[ __ ] from behind and then you sneak
out and he takes your place guy number
one runs outside knocks on the window
waves to the girl as David Brenner
famously said if we could protect our
jokes I'd be a retired billionaire in
Europe somewhere one of the issues with
joke telling is that you can steal it
there's also comedians that struggle to
adapt their style as they change Eddie
Murphy was a stand-up champion during
his SNL tenure but as he became a movie
star he essentially abandoned stand-up
some comedians can't adjust personal
issues in their comedy if you're being
entertained or are laughing at what is
supposed to be terrifying you it just
takes all that strength away you can't
laugh and be afraid at the same time as
what I like to say yes exactly yes
exactly well you're not on bath salts
that's true but I think Eddie Murphy
didn't know how to do that
his style that made him so famous
couldn't really address personal issues
that well he wasn't introspective on
stage he was fun and light and there's
nothing wrong with that but as his
lifestyle changed he became a superstar
after some box-office disappointment and
a personal scandal it would have been
odd for him to perform stand-up and
completely ignore those things so he
probably would have had to completely
change his stand-up persona and he chose
not to every living comedian struggles
with one of these problems
they each have one of these labels easy
to impersonate trouble with audience
attitude joke stealing or stolen from or
trouble adapting their style but there's
one comedian alive right now that
doesn't have a single one of these
problems Chappelle is just different man
like he cannot be copied you cannot
steal anything that Chappelle does his
style is so it's so it's like a UFC
fighter that that crawls on the ground
and it's over now I'm not suggesting
that Dave Chappelle is the funniest
comedian or that you have to like his
jokes but what I am suggesting is that
Dave Chappelle does not operate like
other comedians he has the gift of
ambiguity
he's the one true chameleon comedian and
as a result he can approach jokes in a
totally unique way without falling into
the usual problems for comedy in short
he can dodge the laser beams but what
does that mean let's start with an
isolated example there was some
controversy over Dave Chappelle's
transgender jokes in his first Netflix
special the offensive idea here is that
transgender people can never honestly
express their sexual identity to a man
and it implies Chappelle is a little
disgusted with the idea of transgenders
so how do you deal with telling a joke
that offends people some comedians
apologize other comedians like Bill burr
don't reflect on the problem with what
they say and can rely on their raw
talent and thoughtful arguments to keep
up the laughs you got an empire but what
does Dave Chappelle do in the very next
special he picks apart the controversy
and what he said before you know who
hates me the most the transgender
community
oh yeah he's [ __ ] I mean I didn't
realize how bad it was he doesn't
apologize but he also doesn't dismiss
the issue
he actually digs deeper I did something
that many black men in America do not
have the time or the money to do I
thought about how I felt
among the most successful comedians bill
fir probably deals with being too
offensive the most and I think he partly
started his podcast because it was a way
to express himself without a crowd is he
saying there's something wrong say no
she was dressed ridiculous the woman who
happened to be a lesbian it was funny
the way she was dressed gee I'm gonna be
washed up in six bucks but instead of
owning his joke or secluding himself
Dave Chappelle reveals the root of his
transgender comments he describes
sleeping with a transgender person and
how he's conflicted at being attracted
to them he blames himself and his own
insecurities for the fact that he's
slightly uncomfortable with trans people
sexually so here e articulates the joke
to make it about his own flaws and not
about problems with transgender people
it's the madness buttes types of
mistakes the man makes when he's young I
wouldn't know that it's necessarily
mistaken wild night out Chappelle deals
with backlash on this joke like nobody
else would he digs deep into the root of
that joke to honestly see if the joke
had a mean spirit to it and he admits
that it did and he finds the humor in
his mistake he puts himself in a
potentially disastrous situation and he
narrowly dodges the issue by making it
about him himself in a way completely
unique to Chappelle he does this kind of
reflective humour with a lot of his
personal controversies too instead of
ignoring his controversies or defending
them he admits to them and owns the
controversy always giving it a personal
anecdote the article goes on to say I
was booed off stage which is also
incorrect don't ignore the fact that
Dave Chappelle is almost always in the
news and has had an extremely successful
and controversial career and he has no
problem discussing his controversies and
the backlash but I'm like Evel Knievel I
get paid for the attempt one thing that
always struck me as odd with huge
comedians is their need to remain in
everyman these top comedians make
millions of dollars and can't possibly
have a normal life because of their fame
when Kevin Hart jokes about his latest
parent-teacher conference can you not
help but wonder how Kevin Hart can do
anything normal
his comedy largely ignores the fact that
he's such a super celebrity but Dave
Chappelle is a completely different
story after becoming one of America's
most famous comedians he left the public
eye for over 10 years as a result he has
the bizarre ability to operate outside
of the a-list celebrity life while still
being one of them
famous comedians of all time within the
same year he can say this it's okay my
career ended many years ago and then win
a Grammy Award finally he's also in this
weird limbo of being one of the most
famous comedians of all time while also
operating outside of the Hollywood
sphere Chris Rock has a great joke in
his recent Netflix special about his
fame famous no but I'm not like Michael
Jackson famous and I'm not famous from
miles away and it ends up being a good
joke but notice how the premise still
puts him as a sort of humble underdog
Dave Chappelle doesn't do that he has no
problem talking about how famous he is
how much money he has or how talented he
is he doesn't worry about getting the
audience on his side much at all he puts
himself in this dangerous position of
having the audience turn on him but he
always gets around that issue
he knows weird I've always been this
talented he said that within the first
few minutes of his special and he really
stands apart from his contemporaries in
this way I've been doing this for 32
years now
and it's been going great for four years
the only other comedian I can recall
really bragging about how good they're
doing is Anthony Jeselnik and it's a big
part of his personality on stage I'm
like eight minutes in city has already
gone gold but he relies on the jokes and
timing and there's nothing wrong with
that but Dave Chappelle doesn't have to
in having this discussion not so very
long ago with Jerry Seinfeld
he said that when he's in a situation
where he senses that things are not
going his way is when all he does is
rely on the material and sooner or later
he will prevail do you have that
experience not at all for [ __ ]
another odd ambiguity in Chappelle's
comedy is his racial humor in his
earlier comedy and his show he always
separated black people and white people
behavior black people talk about that
[ __ ] black will openly talk about
politics but openly talk about beating
up politicians as you see George Bush
and the jokes are funny but it's a
pretty standard and familiar style black
guys got a car like this dude video DVD
yeah but white guys see the type of car
like this the reason he left the
Chappelle's Show is partially because of
these kind of racial jokes going too far
saying that jokes on his show became
socially irresponsible and he was being
laughed at instead of laughed with back
then he hit the laser beam
disappointingly
for putting that out there but in his
latest Netflix specials he's adopted an
entirely new kind of racial comedy
notice how his racial jokes aren't just
white people versus black people he has
a much more ambiguous approach to race
he acknowledges how he doesn't quite fit
into the typical black upbringing he
jokes about a lot of people think I'm
from the hood that's not true
but I never bothered to correct anybody
because I wanted the streets to embrace
me he actually didn't even grow up in a
black neighborhood my parents did just
well enough so that I could grow up poor
around white people he carries that
ambiguous identity with him and all his
new specials joking both about his
wealth and privilege I know that rich
white people call poor white people
trash and the only reason I know that is
because I've made so much money last
year the rich White's totally they say
it at a cocktail party while also
defending his roots if you don't
understand that when a football player
takes a knee during the national anthem
he's actually standing up for me because
as a rich comedian he's embraced how in
many ways his lifestyle is not much like
the typical black American I was the
only black person in the restaurant and
then the nineties that felt very
uncomfortable now I tend to enjoy it at
this age but he still doesn't ignore his
racial identity not at all he spends a
lot of his new specials talking about
very serious racial topics and he earns
what he says because he uses his comedy
to discuss the complications of race
instead of simplifying them like so many
other comedians his more thorough
exploration of race allows him to get
deeper into racial issues as opposed to
the surface level observational comedy
of his earlier years and the fact that
he sometimes does become serious makes
his absurd punchlines that much more
unexpected I think that you're both
frank and what I was doing when I said
that was preserving the possibility of a
threesome with these [ __ ]
Dave Chappelle through his life and
through his comedy has molded into a
persona that doesn't make sense on the
surface
he's famous but he doesn't talk it down
like other comedians his style
constantly adapts as his career takes
unimaginable twists and turns when he's
offensive her controversial he openly
discusses the issue with his audience
and sure there are comedians that can do
some of these things but I can only
think of one comedian alive today that
can do it all and avoid getting hit I
said you guys would do that for me and
see brother Johnson with a trail right
here
he just tap-danced over six laser beams
that's what we like about that joke yeah
look at that he didn't touch one laser
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[Music]
singing my life with his world
killing me softly with this