Dave Chappelle, Where for Art Thou?

Oh, Dave! Oh, Dave! Where for art thou, Dave Chappelle? We mean, damn, you're Dave Chappelle, bitch!! And we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the third season of Chappelle's Show for so long now that those re-runs are starting to get real tired.

We mean, Prince whipping Charlie Murphy in a game of basketball and then serving pancakes -- that was funny the first time, and even the second and third and fourth time, too. But the 21st time? Dang C-dawg! That shit just isn't that funny anymore. Same goes for all those amazing comedy sketches -- Samuel Jackson Beer, Rick James, the Racial Draft. After a dozen airings of the reruns, that shit is tired, not wired.

Okay, so maybe we're being a little harsh on Dave right there. But it just demonstrates how much we love Chappelle's Show.

Needless to say, we were surprised when we heard the news last week that production had been halted on the third season of Chappelle's Show. We were even more surprised when we showed up at our Soho office this Monday morning and found the cover of the complimentary copy of Newsweek we get at our firm every week had a little blurb about Dave Chappelle that said: "Wassup Dave?" It pointed to a feature article about said halting of production of the Chappelle's Show and the delay of the season premiere on Comedy Central.

That mainstream media (MSM) such as Newsweek is really paying attention to the nation's pop culture pulse so closely is a plus and a bit of a surprise. Kudos to the Newsweek journo who wrote the piece and successfully pitched it right into the center of the mag editors' radar.

What's more, this kind of MSM coverage is evidence that Dave Chappelle and his groundbreaking sketch comedy program have registered on the public's cultural seismograph in a big, profound way.

The Newsweek article itself, titled "Fears of a Clown" and written by Devin Gordon, speculates that the production problems plaguing the show and the show's sudden hiatus are due to Chappelle's own meteoric rise to major player in American comedy and the intense pressures and resultant over-indulgence in unnamed party substances that have followed. In short, the media is suggesting that Dave is cracking under the pressure of his own success and possibly has a drug problem severe enough to affect his ability to produce, write and perform on his own show.

Chappelle's Show's success is two-fold. One, it very quickly garnered both high ratings for Comedy Central and a certain kind of important street cred and critical acclaim. And it built up its enormous popularity by striking a chord across a wide, diverse audience that immediately understood the show's cutting edge and exacting -- if often bawdy and offensive -- brand of comedy.

Chappelle's sketch material largely plays on America's unspoken racial discomfort and social dysfunctionality in a way rarely seen in comedy or on television. Its comedy that is socially ice-breaking and artistically ground-breaking. The Comedy Central ratings were enough to force the Viacom-owned cable channel to ante up a $50 million payout to Chappelle for two more seasons of his show, lest it be bought up by rivals at Fox and other networks.

The second part of Chappelle's success has to do with the relatively young but hugely successful business of DVD sales and rentals. The DVD for Chappelle's Show is the biggest-selling DVD title ever. (Did you hear us? We said "EVER"!!!) That's right, kids -- KA-CHING!!!

Suddenly not only is Chappelle a big star, but he's a performer who went from being a struggling B-list stand-up comedian (albeit one who had carved out a nice, small living in film, TV and stand-up), to suddenly a serious, independently successful and influential star in a very, very short time.

So if Dave is having issues dealing with this new-found level of success, attention and pressure, well, so what? That's a lot to bear, especially when you're not looking to be that big in the first place.

That doesn't mean we're not still jonesing badly for season three of Chappelle's Show nor not sore that we're still left enduring the same reruns. It's just that as folks who make our living sitting right smack dab in the middle of the New York media-marketing-hype machine and responsible for producing some of the PR sizzle, we know just how tremendously fierce and perilous the whirlwind of fame can be. Dave, come and get us when you're ready. We'll be waiting and ready to tune in. And remember, "Konnichiwa, Bitches!"

Posted by Supercore at May 9, 2005 09:30 PM