Chapelle's Show: Season 2 (2004)

He's Rick James, Bitch!

Genre: Comedy Music Series

Starring: Dave Chapelle (Half Baked; Block Party) , Charley Murphey (CB4; Roll Bounce)

Directed By: Neal Brennan

Overview: In this second season of Chapelle's show, the unrated racial antics continue, in the form of sketch comedy. Highlights include Lil' John and True Hollywood Stories about Rick James.

Acting: The cast of this show is gold. Charley Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother) is great, and obviously had a big part in making the show, with his True Hollywood Stories episodes. You know they don't take themselves too seriously, but they're still 'keepin' it real'.
Rating: 8

Cinematography: There's a good budget for the show, some decent special effects that add to the spoof mood of the thing. As always though, they're not going to pull any high-art antics, since it's television. Professional, we'll leave it at that.
Rating: 7

Script: The sketch comedy is one that focuses on the still-taboo race humour, while dabbling in sex and celebrity mockery. This is really funny stuff, but it's certainly not for everyone. I get a nice kick out of this, and it'll keep you coming back for more (though Season 1 is still much better) .
Rating: 8

Plot: I'll admit that though this was good, the first season is still my favorite of the two. The Lil' John jokes got old quick, and the third disk with the extra stand-up and out takes seemed more like filler than having solid comedic value. I still liked it enough to be looking forward to Season 3.
Rating: 7

Mood: You know I've always thought the style where the host introduces the sketch comedy to be a bit of a time filler, don't you find? I mean Dave saves himself about 2 to 3 minutes just saying, "Here comes a commercial", "Thanks for showing up", "Here's the next sketch." As for the sketches themselves, overall they're pretty gutsy, a nice sensitive subject that, even for Dave, is touchy. Musical guests? Fast forward...
Rating: 7

Nigga' Please!

Overall Rating: 74% (A Decent Show)

Aftertaste: So Dave Chapelle up and left, choosing not to make a third season. His reason, as he told Oprah, was watching this white guy laughing at one of his Black vs. White racial humour sketches, and as he watched, he thought that this spectator was laughing just a little too hard, that perhaps his humour was not shattering stereotypes, but reinforcing them. This, apparently, affected him very deeply, to the point of walking away from 20 million dollars. Good for him. I agree that the people for whom the message is intended may still not be getting the point. For the rest of us, Dave's preaching to the choir.