The Chappelle Theory
February 4th, 2006 by MikeI saw Dave Chappelle at what used to be the Boston Comedy Club on 3rd Street last year. It was an impromptu show, he literally walked in off the street and asked if he could do a set. I was lucky enough to be next door and was alerted by a friend that he was there. Dave immediately lit into me when I entered the room.
“Damn! Look at this big nigga. You look like you could fuck somebody up! Where you from?”
“Ohio”
“You know I live in Ohio…”
“Oh yeah? Whereabouts?”
“Green County”
“What on earth are you doing in Green County?”
“What the hell you thing I’m doing in Green County?”, he said as he put his index finger and thumb together and made the universal sign for smoking weed.
He was mostly off that night. He seemed drunk or high. Too drunk. Too high. He was having a hard time staying on his stool and his jokes were all off the top. He seemed erratic.
Needless to say, when he quit the show a few weeks later, I wasn’t surprised and was able to tell my “yeah he didn’t look so good” story for the next couple of weeks.
When my friend sent me the link to the Chappelle Theory, I was intrigued. It is authored by an alleged retired public relations executive and posits that a cabal of influential black media moguls and politicos exerted their influence and power over Dave and drove him to mental ruin. Think Oprah, Bob Johnson, Farrakahn, Cosby, et al. The reason? He was making black people look bad. While the theory is preposterous, the story is flawlessly told and it is a fun exercise in the “what if?”
Cut to Chappelle’s recent interview with Oprah.
Read this article from the Washington Post after you have familiariazed yourself with the theory.
Freaky huh?
Update: Chappelle Theory was authored by anti-social.com.
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February 7th, 2006 at 8:37 am
I may be the only person really NOT looking forward to the Chapelle comeback. I think he should just Cat Stevens it onto better things.
February 7th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
I too have often felt that a cabal of prominent black leaders is attempting to thwart my success. Damn haters!!!
February 14th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
I saw Dave on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” on Bravo Sunday night (2 hours!) and he talked quite a bit about how easy it is to dismiss someone from the public discourse by calling them “crazy”, and that it is one on the worst labels to attach to someone becauwe it completely invalidates them. He’s very clear on his position in popular culture. I think he is the closest thing we have to someone carrying Richiard Pryor’s torch. Did you know Richard had a TV show in the 70’s on NBC for a hot minute? You can get it on netflix.
One of the things he said that stuck in my mind was “Once you’re famous, that’s it. You never become unfamous. You can become infamous.” I think there is a pretty interesting journal article buried somewhere in the way American society and popular culture has framed and presented the black male comedian. All that stuff from Professor Johnson’s classes - the “jive nigga” and the consequences if you cross over into being a “bad man”. Ok, someone needs to hurry up and go back to grad school … This is what happens when I’m non-billable at the office. I spend 5 minutes writing a comment into a blog.
I don’t know why I keep checking this out, you never write, you never call … lol. oh, yeah, because you put stuff like this up all the time and make me think about something other than ROI and response rates again.
I’m sure I’ll run into/hear from you one of these days,
Liz.
February 14th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
You will.
February 17th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
That Chapelle’s Theory was a Viral Marketing Campaign (Gotta love the Marketing Mafia) for (depending on who ya ask) The Chappelle Theory Exposed, a short film by Chappelle’s Show star Charlie Murphy and Neal Brennan and/or for the Launch of The Anti-Social.com website.
BTW - There’s also a Bill Cosby Theory website: http://cosbytheory.com/index.html
February 17th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
oh wow… I knew it was a campaign of some sort, but that’s wild. Thanks for the info and the Cosby link. Checking it out now.
July 10th, 2006 at 3:18 am
yes you were sucked in for the right reason, YOU WERE SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS TO Dave leaving. AND the media’s “investigation” was so corrupt and horrible it eventually led you to chappelletheory.com, a farse site set up to distract any intelligent query into WHAT HAPPENED?
Well it is so simple if you just look at the facts.
1.His show was the alltime best seller in the world.
SO THE OBVIOUS QUESTION THAT THE MEDIA AND ANY INTELLIGENT HUMANS SHOULD BE DISCUSSING IS
“What was the CONTENT of the number one show in the world?”
the answer: “IT IS ANTI-GOV/CORPORATIONS ETC, while being pro ‘people’”.
OKAY, SO WHO WOULD HIS ENEMIES BE???
DUH!!!!! HIS ENEMIES ARE THE ESTABLISHED CORPORATIONS/GOVERNEMENT ETC.!!!
NO “THEORY” IS NECCESARY, IT IS SIMPLY TRUE.
And we know what the government does to it’s enemies… does is it ignore them and let them lead the number one show in the world thus weakining their power? NO, IT TAKES ACTION!
The government/corporations took Dave Chappelle out.
……
…..
here’s more i wrote about it earlier
use your brain to figure out what the media don’t talk about: WHAT WAS HIS SHOW ABOUT??? HELLOOOOO! IT WAS ANTI-GOVERMENT/ANTI-CORPORATIONS AND PRO TRUTH!!!! SO WHO ARE HIS ENEMIES??? THE SAME PEOPLE THAT RUN THE WORLD! AND WHAT DO THE PEOPLE THAT RUN THE WORLD DO TO THEIR ENEMIES? THEY TAKE THEM OUT,
THE CHAPPELLETHEORY.COM IS A FARSE THAT DISTRACTS PEOPLE, And follies any intellegent discussion of what really happened to Dave Chappelle /Chappelle’s Show. It was most likely created by his enemies, and again, use your brain to figure out who his enemies are….it’s not hard if you have watched the show much it is completely anti-establishment and pro-socialist meaning pro the common worker/family. That is a threat to the establishment, the show makes fun of the media’s lies and makes them look stupid, he shows the REAL problems of the people that are not talked about in the media etc. more later…
OKTISB
In all the reporting when Dave Chappelle disapeared to Africa NOT ONE article, NOT ONE news show asked the obvisous question “What was the content Dave’s comedy show?” they didn’t ask the question because they new the dangerous answer: “The content of the Chappelle’s Show is largely exposing truth in the world’s history, exposing the LIES of the media and the government and corporations. etc.”
That answer immediately reveals who his enemies were, obviously the corporations and government systyems that he was showing to be fraud!