Long live the Chappelle's!

I was thinking about Dave Chappelle last night after watching one of his "lost episodes" (I obviously have too much time on my hands). Here's a guy who skyrocketed into becoming the second-coming of Chris Rock (or the third-coming of Richard Pryor... black comedians can only be compared to these two, apparently it's a rule) with his show and the classic "Killin' Them Softly" comedy special (Chip, no! Don't do it!). He signs this huge contract for two more seasons of his show, buckles under the pressure (imagined, from himself, caused by Comedy Central), has a mini-breakdown, and comes back to the States thinking he can just wash himself clean of all the speculation for leaving the show.

Now, my big lightbulb of a thought I had last night is that Chappelle needs to stop doing interviews talking about the show and is starting to pull a woe-is-me routine with the media. There was Oprah (the only episode I've seen in probably the last 10 years), Rolling Stone, Conan, more magazines, and most recently, Anderson Cooper 360 (AC 360, bitch. I freaking love AC, I can't tell if he is a joke, a throwback to Vietnam-era reporters, or too intense. I do have to say, though, he's pretty and he did a great job with Katrina.). What really got me was during the "lost episode." Charlie Murphy and that other dude has a lame-ass discussion about the pixie sketch and quoted Dave in a magazine saying he was unsure he wanted the sketch to be seen. Dave's also been quoted saying he doesn't think Comedy Central should air the sketches he made before he left. Uhh, dude, you're the one the left them hanging in the breeze with their pants down. What do you expect them to do? Just let you go on your merry way, parlaying your return to the limelight into free advertising for your stand-up act?

I don't think you can pick sides in the Chappelle Show saga. How can you root for Viacom? Maybe Dave figured he was going to get chewed up and spat out if his show didn't do as well in the third season or his DVD revenues started to dry up. Who knows? But his lost episodes are decent (my favorite so far is the Tupac sketch), the show isn't coming back, and he's still funny as shit.