I thought I should make a final post and what better topic than my final paper, Chappelle's Show. I was finishing up with my research paper in which I was examining a couple sketches from the show. I revisited the show so that I could accurately comment on my paper. I haven't seen the show in awhile now, despite watching it feverishly when they came out on DVD...the show is gold. It is still as funny as it ever was...maybe more. I did my paper on Clayton Bigsby the black white-supremacist and the white family whose last name is "Niggar". Both of the sketches are so ridicuos, man what gems. Chappelle really had a clear vision where he wanted the show to go and did he ever execute. There were some other sketches that I forgot about. Anything with Paul Mooney is gold. The one I particularly enjoyed was him commenting on movies. "They have the Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise, the Mexican starring Brad Pitt. What's next the Last Nigger On Earth starring Tom Hanks!?" That line gets me every time. The way Chappelle uses humor to make genuine, intelligible, relevant social commentary is masterful. I laugh but the skits do really make me think about things, not many shows do that, even serious ones. Chappelle has a unique ability to take humor and real issues and infuse them together without being to preachy about it or that he is trying to demonstrate his values or ideas...you've got to appreciate talent like that. I realize I'm probably beating a dead horse here being that everybody has already spoke about the show at length at some point this semester but I just had to toss my two cents in.
For my paper, I studied the use of ironic narrative in South Park in order to make social commentary. Isn't it interesting how effective humor can be used to point out the hypocrisies of society? Great shows like South Park and The Chappelle Show make the viewer think as well as entertain. I loved all those skits! One of my favorites was also the race draft, which in my opinion was sheer genius. I'm so glad you did a paper on Dave Chappelle! It is a true shame that he doesn't do the show anymore, it was one of my absolute favorite shows to watch. And come on, you can never talk about the Chappelle Show enough in my opinion lol.
ReplyDeleteDave Chappelle has appeared at the top of my Netflix queue. I blame you and Nate C!
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