On an interview of Esquire mag :

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Dave Chappelle says in a new interview that he had several reasons for walking away from his cult-fave "Chappelle's Show" -- and a deal worth more than $50 million.

His decision to leave the Comedy Central series last May led fans and industry executives to question his motives, and his sanity.

But in a 10-page spread in the Esquire magazine arriving Saturday, he says he closed "Chappelle" for reasons cultural, professional and personal.

Culturally: "The bottom line was, white people own everything, and where can a black person go and be himself or say something that's familiar to him and not have to explain or apologize?"

Professionally: "I felt like I was really pressured to settle for something that I didn't necessarily feel like I wanted."

Personally: "The thing about show business is that, in a way, it forces dysfunctional relationships in people."

Chappelle tells the magazine that putting on "Chappelle's Show" was the best television experience he ever had. He plans to continue telling jokes and entertaining audiences, he says, so long as he can retain a degree of personal and creative freedom.
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starting not to like this guy....

What the hell..? Is he still living in the 1800s? Yikes.

As good as Chappelle's Show is, it certainly isn't the end all be all, most life altering TV show in the history of Television as he (or anyone who ever mentions it) makes it out to be...it was goofy sketch comedy nothing more!

So your on a TV show for a few seasons you make all kinds of money and then you move on to something you really want to do. What's so hard about that?

Not to mention the fact that his "Cultural" reason sounds more like a reason to Stay with your own show.

tell me about it.... hmmm... i was doing my thing ... making fun of the people i wanted... and getting paid a hell of a lot of money... wow.... send him to chris tuckers house and let them hang

Dear Dave Chapelle,

Shut the fuck up already. We get it.

Sincerely,

The American Public

He's:

A) a nutcase
B) a drug addict
C) both

I was always a huge fan of his, even before The Chappelle Show, but every interview I see or read shows that he just isn't firing on all cylinders anymore. He used to be an articulate hilarious guy with a lot of great opinions, now he should be rooming with Tom Cruise in a room with padded walls.

I need my Dave Chapelle to English translation book to understand a thing he just said...Oh wait, another celebrity bitching about being a celebrity. I get it now.

The more he talks, the more I dislike him. He sold out and now is playing it off like he was being forced into it. Bullshit.

I don't get the whole "used to like him" thing. It seems to me that he has always been pretty much the same occasionally funny, occasionally flaky dope fiend.

I wish I was a poor black guy like Dave Chappelle or Barry Bonds.

wait a minute ... I own everything? shit! why didn't someone tell me?

Apparently it was Comedy Central.

Yeah, I don't get it. He was offered FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS to say whatever he wanted on his show. But somehow the "white man" is keeping him down. Fucking ridiculous.

Whoever "the next Dave Chappelle" turns out to be, his first sketch should be on Dave Chappelle. What an ingrate.

Wasn't he crying some river about losing creative control? If that was part of the 50 mil deal you should have read it over before signing it.

After the 2nd interview I was fine with what he said...sure I thought wtf on some of his comments but fine he told his side of the story...but now he just continues to talk about it as if to say 'Hey Comedy Central, I want the money and my show back. Just give me more money from the DVD pie and the way my show used to be and we can both be rich bitch!'

One more reason white men become more attractive by the minute.

This guy is utterly ridiculous. He got away with more on his show than just about any comic in the past 10 years. He scewered and lambasted anyone he saw fit and was funny doing it. Black Bush? C'mon! For him to just throw it off on "The Man" is about as lame as an excuse that I can think of.

He spent years trying to reach this goal and now he was feeling pressured to settle, as opposed to doing Screwed with Norm McDonald or wearing buck teeth in The Nutty Professor.

If he was scared to live up to his own success then he should have just said that, but these lame, cryptic excuses...gimme a break.

The WB

I think you mean UPN.

I can't really tell the two apart.

Soon you won't have to.

All of you are wrong and Dave is right.

I understand what he's saying. At the end of the day, it doesnt matter that he was getting 50 million (and that was a pie in the sky number based on possible future DVD sales). If someone is paying you 50 million, then you know that they're getting 500 million. It's not the money he's complaining about, its the control. He felt like even though it was supposedly his show, there are these guys who are still telling him what to do. They gave him a bunch of money, so they figured they owned him. Thats not a fun feeling.

For Dave, it's not about money, because he's already rich. Now it's about feeling good about what he does, and working under those conditions, he didn't like it. And so why should he stay? Because some guy says 'I gave you all this money, so you have to do what I want'? Not many people would walk away, and I'm glad he did.

D

His "cultural reason" cannot be taken seriously.

i like the theory where cosby and oprah were trying to silence him.

Dave is full of crap. As stated earlier in the thread, the fact that they were going to pay him 50 million shows that they would have worked out a deal giving whatever kind of control he wanted.


Dave is starting to remind of that D.L. Hughly guy. That guy always cries racism when he is just about the most racist celebrity that I have ever seen.