I love Dave Chappelle, I think he’s probably one of the funniest people on the planet, and he created something so special with The Chappelle Show. We’re more than a decade removed from Chappelle Show and not a week goes by without someone making some kind of reference to one of those skits. All you have to say is “I’m Rick James…” and someone will say, “…bitch!” All you have to say is “game, blouses,” and I’m giggling to myself. That being said, Chappelle isn’t perfect. I’m still trying to get my head around Chappelle’s ridiculous political thoughts before the election. And I’m sort of trying to get my head around some of the stuff he says in a new, exclusive interview with Gayle King at CBS This Morning. Here’s the video:
The whole interview is interesting and I appreciate that Gayle King was given such a lengthy segment to interview Chappelle about many different aspects of his life. Around the 7:30-mark of the video, King asks Chappelle about Key & Peele, the absolutely brilliant skit show on Comedy Central for five years, a show created by the brilliant Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key. King starts off by saying, “I think there was a speculation that Dave doesn’t like Key & Peele…” and Chappelle says, “No, I’m a fan of their show…” and then goes on:
“You know, when I did ‘Chappelle Show’, there were certain conventions of the show that the network resisted. I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition. So like the first episode, I do that black white supremacist sketch. And it’s like, ‘Well, that’s 10 minutes long. It should be five minutes long.’ Why should it be five minutes long? Like, these types of conventions. I fought very hard … So when I watch Key & Peele and I see they’re doing a format that I created, and at the end of the show, it says, ‘Created by Key & Peele,’ that hurts my feelings.”
[From Vulture]
Sigh… I mean, I get it. Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key owe a debt of gratitude to Chappelle for breaking ground on a cable show based on an African-American comedian doing skits. But I feel like Chappelle is coming awfully close to saying that Key & Peele are, like, the poor man’s version of Chappelle Show. And that’s just not the case. Key & Peele was a brilliant show with brilliant writing. So was Chappelle Show. The two shows covered similar ground, but Jesus Christ, the Key & Peele show was SO GOOD. Incidentally, Chappelle Show was just like a one-man version of In Living Color (so thanks, Wayans Brothers!).
Also: every black comedian working today owes a debt to Richard Pryor, Redd Fox, Eddie Murphy and (yeah, I’ll say it) Bill Cosby. Do we expect every Chris Rock performance to come with a note that says “thanks to Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy”?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Source: celebitchy.com
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