I have to admit that I really miss seeing new episodes of Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central every week. Because let's face it. Not only was that some seriously funny shit — it was also, more often than not, absolutely dead on in the way it made you laugh at the great racial divide which apparently still exists in America.
For that reason alone, I am grateful for this new DVD box set. Set to hit your local video store on November 20, this assembles everything from that great show together in one package.
With Chappelle's Show: The Series Collection, what you get is six discs total, encompassing some six and a half hours of viewing if you were to sit down and try and watch it all at once. Don't try this at home. The box set brings together everything from the first two seasons, as well as the short-lived third season of so-called "lost episodes," where Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings tried to carry the ball after Dave took his own and inexplicably went home.
There are also loads of extras here, ranging from audio commentary on several episodes, to previously un-aired bloopers and even a couple of bonus readings of those great Charlie Murphy Hollywood Stories.
Watching as much as I could of the six hours here tonight got me to thinking though. I'm still not sure what exactly happened with Dave Chappelle. I mean was it ever really totally explained? How does the guy who was offered the world on a silver platter in the form of a contract extension worth a reputed $50 million simply get up and walk away?
There are some hints offered here, particularly in those three final "lost episodes" that constituted the ill-fated third season of Chappelle's Show. In one sketch, Dave goes face to face with the mother of all Hollywood TV executives — a Wizard of Oz type figure — who shows Dave a future of breakfast cereal branding, and appearances on shows like MTV's Cribs. In another of these sketches, the newly filthy rich Chappelle uses his newfound fortune to seek revenge on those who have wronged him in the past.
Article comments
1 - Donald Gibson
I saw Chappelle in concert late last year and it was one of the funniest, most gut-busting comedy shows I've ever seen. Richard Pryor's concert career was before my time, but from watching videos of him, that's who Chappelle most reminded me of. Chappelle's funny, but, like Pryor, he has a dark side and a complicated life, which he uses as material in his act.
Besides nearly rupturing my spleen from laughter, I learned two things during that show:
1) Chappelle does not dig people randomly yelling "I'm Rick James, Bitch!" He will go off (which is funny as long as you're not the one who shouted it in the first place)
2) He apparently didn't consult with his wife before he turned down his multimillion dollar offer from Comedy Central. He said she was none too pleased with him. For a long time.
-Donald