He's in control, I kept thinking to myself. The meaning is twofold. First, in terms of the fact that Chappelle is one of the greatest stand-up comedians ever. Sure, his punch lines are funny, but more than that, Chappelle is incredible at setups. He can create elaborate settings, like spinning a vivid description of going on a winter walk with his sister in full Muslim garb, and he can slow down his cadence and trick the audience into buying into a moment of sincerity. By combining the two, he's able to say the absolute silliest things and have them kill. (The person behind me has a proclivity for saying "He's so stupid" at all such punch lines. I love it.) The best example is during the LGBT chunk: Chappelle talks about a documentary showing a transgender person playing all these disgusting, hateful messages that he received on his answering machine. He goes on and on about how hard they are to listen to. But then, "It made me feel sad. It made me feel sad. Because, first of all, he still had an answering machine."
Continue reading here
No comments:
Post a Comment