Friday, April 14, 2006

Surprise, Surprise. It's My Fault.

<Chappelle Cites "Race" Reasons for Show Walk-Out
American funnyman Dave Chappelle has cited racial prejudice for his abrupt walk-out from hit comedy series Chappelle's Show last year. The stand-up comedian made headlines in May 2005 when he quit the show on US network Comedy Central during the third season, leaving behind a $50 million contract. He was eventually tracked down in South Africa where he said he had gone to "purify himself," and "do some soul searching" because he was unhappy with the direction in which the show was going. Chappelle tells Esquire magazine, "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? I felt like I was really pressured to settle for something that I didn't necessarily feel like I wanted. The thing about show business is that, in a way, it forces dysfunctional relationships in people.">

What can I say about this? Life is hard for everybody. Cry me a freaking river. I'm white, and I barely have $50 million dollars to pay someone to do a show on my network. In fact, it would practically break me.

You can go with the whole "they wouldn't let me express myself creatively" crap, but come on. It's comedy. Not exactly high art. I don't care if you're Dave Chapelle or Howard Stern, you shouldn't be surprised when the people who are paying you millions expect you to somehow tone it down and still be funny for mass consumption. Deal with it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If he wanted to get away from White people owning everything, then why did he go to South Africa?

BVM said...

Why?

Because if he went to any other African nation there would not be enough white people to make fun of.