...said Dave Chappelle tonight, on Inside The Actors' Studio, after hearing James Lipton ask, "who was the inspiration for 'I'm Gonna Piss On You'?" Chappelle cracked up hearing it, noting how messed up it was to hear him say those words. He's right; I had that experience, ohhhhhh, twelve times over the course of the two-hour show. But it was a nice interview. Good to spend a couple hours w/ Chappelle regardless of the format, cause he can make it entertaining or thought-provoking just by being himself. It reminded me how genuine Chappelle is. (Either that, or he's the world's greatest actor, and therefore entirely deserving of his appearance on the show.)
He had some very interesting observations on the whole Africa thing. The gist of it is that people label you as "crazy" when you do something that they can't understand, but you're the one who has to defend yourself. In his case, he dealt with not just the "crazy/breakdown" label, but also with the drug-addict label. Because, you know, if you're an entertainer who screws over a corporation, clearly it must have been drug-motivated. Sickening stuff, when you think about it.
Anyway, the good news is that he sounds ready to work again, so keep your eyes peeled.
On a side note, I'm not sure how I feel about the "salvaged" Chappelle's Show episodes that Comedy Central is planning to air. I don't know whether the bigger fuck-you would be to watch, or to not watch. On the one hand, his rumored motivation for quitting was that a) the content was ethically questionable and b) the suits were interfering; wouldn't watching those shows go against Chappelle's intentions? Then again, perhaps not watching would only send a message that Chappelle is over, which isn't true, but still plays into the studios/networks' hands by signaling a lack of demand. I dunno. I guess I'll watch, but I'd rather watch something that's more directly beneficial to him. Because I support Dave Chappelle, and I support what he stands for... fart jokes.
sorry, confusing typo in the first one.
ReplyDeletemeant to say:
On the one hand, I think the "you're playing into the studio guys hands by watching argument" has more weight. On the other hand, since you don't have a neilson box attached to your tube, they don't know you're watching right? (oh wait, except you just told the whole world here on the internets).
Anyways, the short of it is that it would probably annoy you to no end not to know what was happening if you didn't watch it. Your biggest obligation at this point is not to buy the disks when they come out. In my humble opinion.