Oh please. I love funny as much as the next guy, but I didn't find the Chappelle Show that groundbreaking or that hilarious. For that I'd have to hand that honor to early SNL, the first few seasons of In Living Color and NBC's the Richard Pryor Show.

I did. I loved the 1st season, but I thought the 2nd season of Chappelle show was damn near perfection.

The Apollo!!!!!

I really can't understand why Comedy Central would start meddling now when they didn't meddle before and the results were successful. That is UNLESS Dave started coming up with some really "out there", off the wall material that was completely different in tone from what he had done before. Like if the producers of 24 suddenly decided to make it an all-musical puppet show... Fox would be saying, "Ummm, WTF guys??? We said you could do whatever but come on!"

Weed is a helluva drug..

Maybe everyone should stop kissing his ass and he'll go away and come back sane..

Oh no! Comedy Central censored Dave Chapelle!

If I made $50 million and in so doing someone else made $500 million....I could live with that.

That's racist!

why does he have to be on drugs?

cause he is black right?

that's racist.

Have to agree. Some of the segments were hilarious, but they were the minority for me. Many didn't get any laughs from me. Just not my type of humor in general I guess.

Courtney Love is black?

And when did Courtney go from being a fun loving free spirit to a "drug addict"? About the time she was photographed stumbling around NY in a hazy eyed stupor letting homeless men feel up her naked breasts. And what was one of those homeless men? That's right, BLACK.

Racist.

i don't care what anyone says, i still love dave and his work.

also, i think i remember reading a while back that he was going back into negotiations with comedy central about getting the show back on the air, but he wanted to do more for the black community with his success. does anyone else remember this, or am i making it up? maybe comedy central was unwilling to do their part to help.

The show never really lived up to the very first skit IMO, the one with the blind KKK leader. Most of the stuff that he came up with was pretty obvious race type stuff that I never found all that funny. Then after he added the musical guests that i hd no interest in, I could get through the show in 5 minutes with the fast forward button.

No, because he often talked and joked about smoking pot.

If Bill Maher started writing for National Review you might hear similar comments.

Or maybe he should start sharing his weed. He must have some powerful stuff.

Bingo. He was free of his tie to CC until he signed that deal. He really only has himself to blame for his decision to re-up with them. I don't say that to condemn him, though it would be nice to see him put a little more of it on himself and a little less on others.

This principle is called anyone who works for someone else.

Because he is/was on drugs!

weed doesn't make you crazy.

An assload of week, however .........

Dave, I love you man but you gotta admit you kinda fucked up your career over some nonsensical buuuull-shit.

He screwed up a show and caused a big distraction for himself. It won't ruin his career unless there is more than that going on (and there seems to be indications there may be -- time will tell). Dave can be funny, and people will forgive a lot of crap if you have talent in this day and age.

I'm actually really curious as to what exactly Dave wanted to say or do that Comedy Central objected to. He had to know that no matter how big a contract they were giving him, there are still boundaries in cable television. I knew from the moment I heard he was "seeking spiritual guidance" in Africa that the stress of trying to live up to his mega-contract (and high public expectations) had gotten to him. There's only so far you can go, and he had pushed the un-PC stuff pretty far. How much farther can you go when you're pretty much at the edge? I wish he would've just admitted he was running low on useable ideas and needed a good long break to get the creative juices back flowing. Why is it that when someone realizes they're human and having trouble dealing with the pressures of fame, it's always someone else's fault?

This reminds me of how Marilyn Manson's whole image, music, etc used to be so controversial and always in the news. I always laughed to myself at all the hoopla, thinking, doesn't everyone realize he can only push the outrageous "shocking" gimmick stuff so far? He's not stupid; he knows he's in a business and if you don't sell records no one's going to care that you lit your crotch on fire at a concert (or whatever). The freakshow stuff was only getting press because he was selling albums. Not so much these days. I have to give him credit though, because at least he seemed to know he was risking censorship (or even arrest) when he pushed the limits of public decency.

Chappelle's a smart guy, but apparently he's confused and thinks the rules should be altered for him. I get the vibe that he thinks "the man" is out to get him if one of the higher ups objects to something about his show. It's their job to regulate it, dude. It doesn't matter how big your ratings are. They can't risk their channel getting shut down due to FCC violations. He's gotten to say and do more than just about any current comedian, especially a white one, could have, so if anyone's being a little racist it's him. I really doubt much of the stuff he was "prevented" from doing was all that witty or hilarious anyway. Probably just vulgar stuff done more for shock value than anything. His whole woe is me attitude seems more to drum up sympathy and lower people's expectations on his future output than anything else. I'm a longtime fan of Dave's but it's really time he cut the bitching and got back to making us laugh. Either that or retire until he's got something creative and original to offer again. I just wish he'd stop acting like he's being held back from bringing us the show he wants to. I highly doubt that.

[soapbox]Welcome to FUCKING show business!!! that's what non-creative executive-types do. they meddle. i'm suprised by how hard everyone is coming down on him. $50 million bucks to produce a show comes with a heavy toll. imagine getting that kind of money to do the same job you've been doing for the last two years. you don't think things would change? management wouldn't be on your ass? accounting for every move you make? making sure they're getting their money's worth? how much of yourself would you be willing to compromise? i can easily see how circumstances lead him to feel he'd just sold his soul for $50 mil and I admire his decision to walk away from it.

i recently had a major financial shift in my business. my clients (universal, warner bros, new line, etc) used to provide me with budgets under $20,000 every 1 or 2 months. 40% of that was my typical profit margin. latley, my reputation for good work has gone up and now i'm getting high profile work with $150,000 - $250,000 budgets to manage every 3 or 4 months. the stress i'm under to perform and the amount of meddling by the client has all quadrupled. so i can buy more shit, but my quality of life has definitely gone down for the moment.[/soapbox]