The Chappelle Theory

PositiveBalance1

Keep It Thoro
http://www.chappelletheory.com

For those of you who are interested, check out the website shown above. It supposedly puts a lot of questions to rest about Dave's hiatus from the Chappelle Show, as well as a conspiracy group formed by important figures in the black community which include Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Louis Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson, amongst others. It's a pretty interesting read. Have at it folks. :)
 

D84

Well-known member
This is interesting - thanks for sharing it.

Is this for real and not some form of viral marketing?

My pet theory/hope was that he was going to do a movie instead of a TV series given his DVD sales figures, his high profile, the fact there's more money and a bigger audience in the movies and $50 million should be enough to create an independent feature over which he'd have total control.

It could be true; it has the ring of truth - esp. re the background of the hilarious Wayne Brady sketch. But anything that puts a firecracker up the arse of self-appointed cultural elites who haven't done anything even remotely humorous in decades is fine by me (Farrakhan sounds like a dubious person - give me Malcolm X any day). I could add something about capitalism, its quislings and perhaps Katrina, but i'll restrain myself ;)

I think the Chappelle Show was one of the sharpest things on TV and said a lot more about American racism/society than all those supposed conspirators' efforts put together...
 

D84

Well-known member
The more I think about this though the more it begins to seem like an elaborate send-up (or a good idea for a funny movie).

I mean Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby conspiring to threaten Dave Chappelle...

Where did these pictures come from?
http://www.chappelletheory.com/introduction.html

I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he thought it sounded a bit funny (ha ha). But living on the other side of the world we're not too familiar with some of the characters. Is Al Sharpton the kind of guy who would have his silhouette in the background of menacing photos of Chappelle's kids sleeping?
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
Of course it's a fabrication. There's way too much inside information. For example there's one part where Chapelle is in a restaraunt and the text says something "nearby diners said X". Do you pay attention to people eating next to you? Did the guy who wrote this track them down and interview them?
 

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
That's a pretty bizarre site. What I do wonder is whether Chappelle had some kind of a breakdown during which he imagined that such a conspiracy was occurring. The bit about Oprah Winfrey taping a warning into an additional segment that was broadcast only to Chappelle's home seems like classic paranoid delusion.

One of several big holes in the theory is the notion that Whoopi Goldberg might have been offended by Chappelle's comedy. Her early stand-up and one woman show material is just as likely to be considered controversial. Fontaine the Junkie could easily be considered a predecessor of Tyrone Biggums.
 

Freakaholic

not just an addiction
an interesting supplemental article regarding the recent announcement that they will air his latest episodes without his consent:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120502252.html


what sounds fishy to me is that, this supposed "spiritual retreat" HAD to start in the middle of taping?

and why would he suddenly start calling his own material racist? if whoopi wouldnt disagree with what he was doing because of her earlier character, how could he disagree with his own stuff the very next year?
 

R.Fitzgerald

Burned Man.
D84 said:
I think the Chappelle Show was one of the sharpest things on TV and said a lot more about American racism/society than all those supposed conspirators' efforts put together...

Boondocks anyone?
-Ray
 

geto.blast

snap on rims
Chapelle was on Oprah a few days ago and basically he was saying that "people" were pressuring him to stick to the "formula" and that the show had basically turned into a ca$h cow for the "lesser" playaz.

Anyone who saw Charlie Murphy on the comedy central xmas special knows exactly what Dave is talking about.

Why a conspiracy?

Why can t he just be very principled?
 

vache

Well-known member
R.Fitzgerald said:
Boondocks anyone?
-Ray
Boondocks the TV series is sadly hit-or-miss. Some of the episodes (R.Kelly, for example) have been really sharp. Others, less so. Part of the problem is likely the switch for MacGruder away from the comic strip format where he can respond to current events currently. It's just not possible to do that with the longer production schedules of animation series.
 

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
geto.blast said:
Chapelle was on Oprah a few days ago
Saw that interview the other night thanks to TiVo...was interesting and just a little bit uncomfortable to watch (esp. once I noticed that he has a film to promote at the moment). My feeling was that Chappelle had definitely wigged out a bit, has since gotten his head sorted out enough to be able to deal with public scrutiny, but is still not all that happy about having to explain his actions in front of cameras. The fact that he didn’t tell his wife and kids where he was going seemed very strange (surprising that a PR person didn’t squash that). His departure seems to have been the result of circumstances that would cause understandable pressure, and the fact that he felt conflicted whether using race issues as a source for comedy was just adding to the problem was something that hadn’t crossed my mind (I've always thought that his take was ultimately a positive thing. It hadn't occurred to me that the wider audience might be looking at it in a different way).
 

Diaz

Well-known member
Canada J Soup said:
It hadn't occurred to me that the <b>whiter</b> audience might be looking at it in a different way).
fixed.

i'm kind of glad chapelle ducked out. saying 'wait, taking race seriously is more important to me than $50 million' is kind of a really big statement to make, especially for someone who could have so easily just ridden the pop culture train all the way. i wait to see if he makes a larger statement, or if it gets carried, or what.


and the RevDrMLKJr episode of Boondocks was equally 'boy, i hope that's taken well'. As a sensitive, educated suburban white boy, i consider it my job to 1) honor the legacy of one of the few real american heroes as well as 2) wince everytime the n-word is dropped. and aaron mcgruder is good at helping me in both of those. plus, he seems to do well in making race both a major issue and a kind of non-issue, which seems to be a necessary tack when talking to americans.

-edited for typo, clarity, yeah.
 

polystyle

Well-known member
When 'Keepin it real' goes right

Last night's "Inside The Actor's Studio" ( in US on Bravo) ran the 2 hour program with Dave Chappelle
and he laid alot out there.
In times like this and under an Admin like this , someone like Dave who catches the moment AND makes us look at race , historical and media while splitting our sides laughing - dead right and crucial.

Walked away from the 30 - 50 million offered ? (previously rd it was 30 million $ offer from Comedy Central, last night he said 50)
because he was wondering what the *uck and wanted to do things his way and in his own time .
Right on Dave

He got in some good jokes and not subtle slams on the Hollyweird enviornment ,
was really playing with the host who Dave has made fun of plenty of times on his own show
prompting the host to joke 'where are my fucking royalties?' - that got him to have Dave 'do a dance'
(Dave's funky robot move) which was great fun .
Smoking cigs like a fiend onstage (prompting a big cheer from Studio audience) ,
Dave prolly went home and had a good smoke after all that (did talk about that plenty)
'This shit is stressful' - 'that's why I went to Africa man'

He made ya look and made us think
good on ya Dave and from what I deduce from the promos - some new shows are airing soon
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Stepping back in ...

yea, is the movie Block Party ?
w/ music guests and so on .

Caught Mr.C on Comedy Central the other night and the material seemed new ,
LOL , like no other at the moment .
That program was followed by another repeat from Dave's earlier seasons ,
we have seen all of those episodes so many times by now ,
millions of people with whole scenes and shows memorized and internalised
 
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