I never really got the whole Dave Chappelle thing. During the height of the frenzy, when he was selling skizillions of DVDs, I watched a few episodes, but it never really stuck with me the way that other sketch comedy has. Given the fact that plenty of people whose taste I respect like him, I’m perfectly willing to say that is a defect on my part. Just add it to the list.
However, I found his whole abandonment of his megastardom fascinating, and a bit refreshing. It seemed to be part and parcel of whatever anger fueled his comedy in the first place, and it actually made him more interesting to me.
Of course, what’s “interesting” to me was a goddamn nightmare for Comedy Central, who have plenty of experience dealing with badly-behaving geniuses (Matt and Trey!), but probably never had to deal with someone who just left all of the money on the table.
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