chappelle's show: lost episodes

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At this writing, two of the three "lost episodes" have aired. The first one contained some moderately funny sketches consistent with the quality of Chappelle's past work. The second episode, however, made me understand the Africa trip a little more. It was unfunny. I watched stone-faced. When you're mocking racial stereotypes and it doesn't quite work, what's left is painfully awkward. When the pixie was yelling in Chappelle's ear for him to order the fried chicken, not the fish, I wasn't exactly offended, but I wasn't exactly laughing, either. I was wincing. And Chappelle himself winced all the way to South Africa; that was indeed the sketch that sent him off the set.

The notion that we all make choices to avoid perpetuating stereotypes is a comedic gold mine. A great sketch could have been made out of it. They could have simply shown Chappelle unenthusiastically ordering the fish, say, and we would have gotten the joke. Then they could have followed him through an entire day of such choices, concluding with him running into white and Mexican dudes doing the same thing. Funny, inoffensive, affirming. The pixie, though, relies upon the premise that inside every black guy, there's a barely-retrained, tap-dancing lawn jockey trying to break free. That's pretty much the opposite of funny, inoffensive, affirming.