Chappelle: "Here's Why I Left...

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Chappelle: "Here's Why I Left..."
by Natalie Finn
Apr 12, 2006

When Dave Chappelle walked away from a $50 million deal with Comedy Central last year, forcing the cancellation of the third season of Chappelle's Show, his fans, critics and, well, everybody, thought he was crazy. But the 32-year-old comedian had his reasons for turning his back on the show that turned "I'm Rick James, bitch!" into a household phrase.

And the Dave Chappelle's Block Party star (who obviously has been busy again lately) has elaborated on those reasons in the May issue of Esquire, which hits newsstands Saturday. Basically, Chappelle attributes his change of heart to cultural, professional and personal concerns.

"The bottom line was, white people own everything," Chappelle said, "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?"

Well, his loyal audience--those who made season two of Chappelle's Show the best-selling TV show on DVD of all time--probably thought that was what his side ache-inducing sketch show was for, but apparently Chappelle has other ideas about what constitutes creative freedom.

"I felt like I was really pressured to settle for something that I didn't necessarily feel like I wanted," he told Esquire. "The thing about show business is that, in a way, it forces dysfunctional relationships in people."

While a host of Hollywood celebs would probably agree, Chappelle's decision to turn down all that money and take a break from the biz just as his star was at its brightest puzzled those close to him and strangers alike.

But now that Chappelle has stepped back into the positive limelight with the critically acclaimed Block Party (which was actually shot shortly before he went underground), a fairly emotional appearance on Oprah and an Inside the Actors Studio interview (taped in December), his sabbatical has pretty much been explained away.

And Chappelle has been sticking to his publicly stated principles, making it perfectly clear that his relationship with Comedy Central would be in jeopardy if the network went ahead without his input and aired the handful of sketches he shot last year before unexpectedly leaving the country to chill out in South Africa.

One of the latest rumors being bandied about, per In Touch Weekly, is that Emmy-winning talk show host Wayne Brady will step into Chappelle's vacant hosting shoes to present the leftover sketches. Comedy Central stated after their wayward showman's Oprah visit that "the door is always open to him," but presumably every door has to close sometime.

As it stands, Chappelle hasn't made any definite decisions about whether the show will ever go on again with him onboard.

Meanwhile, Block Party, the Michael Gondry-directed documentary that chronicles Chappelle's staging in 2004 of a good-old-fashioned neighborhood shindig in Brooklyn, has grossed more than $11.7 million at the box office, an impressive showing considering the film was only available in 1,200 theaters nationwide and it cost $3 million to make. The movie features performances by your usual party guests--Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and the like.

And, of course, Dave Chappelle is on the block, doing what he does best: telling jokes and entertaining the audience. Exactly what he told Esquire he was gonna keep on doing, so long as he calls the creative shots.

[MiChuhSuh]

Someone told me he met Dave at some mosque... forgot the name of it, I'll get it later but he was going all "groupie" saying "I love your show" and stuff, and Dave got a kind of embarrassed look and said "If you're Muslim you shouldn't watch my show." So he think's he left because of moral issues, but seeing as how he still does the same type of comedy routine I think he's either just saying that or he sold out for $$$$

[Individual]

heres the real reason why

http://www.chappelletheory.com/

[alexalonso]

I read that page, so if i understand it correctly, The Dark Crusaders which included Bill Cosby, Louis Farrakhan, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Johnson (BET), Whoopi Goldberg, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, all conspired secretly to end Dave's show because of the black stereo-types that he reinforced?


It sounds like a very well written and thoughout theory, but when I read that Robert Johnson of BET was part of this, I got confused, becasue he and BET constantly reinfornce black stereo types, so if the theory is true, the motivations for the Dark Crusaders must be something else. Why where they hating on Dave?

[L Grindin]

I also read chappelletheory.com and can't believe that any reasonable person would take it seriously. It's a satire done by someone with too much idle time! My opinion is that it was written by a White person who wanted to characterize Dave Chappelle as being crazy, while denigrating prominent Black people, because that person couldn't understand how someone would refuse to be a whore for money. The word usage and factual errors also made it unbelievable.

[alexalonso]

can you point out any factual errors in that website. Just curious. So what is the real reason why Dave didnt show up for season 3?

[Individual]

You say its a white person with 2 much time on there hands

they did alot of homework then..ALOT..i mean theres some real personal shit in there that looks like it can be hard 2 get ahold of

[L Grindin]

can you point out any factual errors in that website. Just curious.

The biggest lie is that Dave Chappelle had conversations with his father, and that his father conversed with Louis Farrakhan, and the three of them had dinner, all in 2004…Dave’s father died in 1998! [/quote]

So what is the real reason why Dave didnt show up for season 3?

I believe Dave when he says that too many people started trying to befriend and control him when he made the $50 million dollar deal. I’ve seen examples in my own life where people thought they could use money to control others and were surprised when someone bypassed the money because they don’t place the same value on money that others do – happiness is more important to them.

You say its a white person with 2 much time on there hands

they did alot of homework then..ALOT..i mean theres some real personal shit in there that looks like it can be hard 2 get ahold of

There’s a term for it: Creative Writing. Hollywood is full of creative writers! They went too far when they said Robert Johnson help transit a threat directly to Dave’s tv from Oprah during her interview with Tom Cruise, or that Dave was awakened one night while in bed with his wife, who had been drugged, and that three men held him down and held a gun to him while Oprah whispered a threat in his ear. That was too funny!

[dutch]

Dave show is now also on t.v. inthe Netherlands,that's some funny shit man.Does Wayne Brady have to choke a bitch!!Hahahahaha

[StillNoScript]

heres the real reason why

http://www.chappelletheory.com/

I think that website is intended to be a joke, and perhaps even put on by Chapelle himself. The writing seems like his. Especially the part where it sais that Oprah threatened him through his t.v. set during an episode of one of her shows. LOL!

The timeline format of the website is also vintage Chapelle. How many skits on his show did he use that format? Like every other one, it seems. I can just here the guy who played the t.v. reporter in the Black Klansment skit narrating as I read through it.

I think he left when he realized most of his audience was White, and they were hanging on for the jokes that made fun of Blacks. And, maybe Oprah and Cosby had a chat with him about that, but not in the dramatic, and hilarious fashion described on that website.

If you watch Mencia, you'll notice that Carlos makes fun of Mexicans more than anything, and, when you see the camera pan to his audience, they're mostly White. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out with Comedy Central is doing here. Chapelle wanted to do more big world jokes, and Comedy Central told him they wanted more Rick James, Bitch, along with the pimps and crackheads, etc. That's likely why Chapelle walked. My prediction? Chapelle with a similar show on HBO, within 2 years.

[perongregory]

He left because he pitched a show to comedy dentral and they said it was too black. Also, he was having problems with whites, and stupid minorities not gettin the message behind his material, just wanting to laugh at the stupid shit and so on.

[MiChuhSuh]

"Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes" is gonna come out in July, and they said they're gona explain why he left or something like that

It'll be on comedy central around July 7 or something

[BlaKK]

That nigga aint funny no way anyway...

[se11]

why ever he left, it was the biggest let-down in dissapointment in TV history. he was just 2 seasons into it and he had almost everybody under 60 and over 10 talking about him or imitating him in some way. and the shit on his show was FUNNY. week after week it was funny, it was like saturday night live funny. just imagine what it would have been like after the 4th and 5th season. he would have been the #1 celebrity in the US, the most talked about, popular, and admired. him leaving the show was a huge let down and dissapointment.

He left because he pitched a show to comedy dentral and they said it was too black. Also, he was having problems with whites, and stupid minorities not gettin the message behind his material, just wanting to laugh at the stupid shit and so on.

what problems with whites and stupid minorities? for every 1 person that complained he had 100 more that found the same thing hilarious.

[perongregory]

his skits weren't just for the comedy...he wanted the audience to get the satire the truth and realness behind his jokes, but stupid blacks and whites, and mexicans, or whoever didn't wanna delve deeper they just wanted him to continue to make fun of blacks and do his shit.

[MiChuhSuh]

And whites wanted him to make fun of whites and do coon skits

[Aquafresh]

"Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes" is gonna come out in July, and they said they're gona explain why he left or something like that

It'll be on comedy central around July 7 or something

JULY 9th, homie.

Their going to have a line up of "Reno 911," "Chapelle Show," & "Mind of Manceia," every Sunday.

[Aquafresh]

Ya'll Nicca's watchin' it? It's on right now on the South coast.

[Past]

That nigga aint funny no way anyway...

[UmanH-ay]

That nigga aint funny no way anyway...

[MiChuhSuh]

Ya'll Nicca's watchin' it? It's on right now on the South coast.

I saw that yesterday

It was different from his "over-the-top" stuff but really I liked those skits more, the revenge, the Tupac

Mostly because it fits his personality better, the one where him and his wife were like "oooh" that's how he talks in real life from what I heard, my cousin met him working on HBO's Comedy show in Colorado

[MiChuhSuh]

O yeah and another thing he didn't have a fake black wife like he did in his other skits

[Aquafresh]

Yeah, that Tupac sketch was a trip.