Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes

Impressions before seeing it
The first two seasons of Chappelle's Show were hilarious. This was supposed to be the third season until Dave walked out, leaving Donnell and Charlie to host the sketches he left behind. I knew all this going in, and my only complaint is that I never really found Donnell funny in the previous seasons.

How was it?
Okay, there are a few things to talk about here. First I will just say that Donnell and Charlie hosting the sketches was nowhere near as funny as when Dave hosts them, because Dave does something that more closely resembles stand-up comedy as he introduces and bookends the clips. The replacement duo tries to crack a few uninspired jokes and then basically just goes, "watch this." I'm glad the sketches were still written by and starring Dave because I would not watch The Donnell and Charlie Show.

The interesting thing about the sketches though is that they seemed to foreshadow Chappelle's departure. He has the usual stuff about race controversies, but there are also a number of sketches about the success of Chappelle's Show having an effect on his life and how he doesn't want to sell out. There is some classic wacky Chappelle humour to be appreciated, but some of it also feels a little preachy or self-righteous.

Which brings me to the racism and why Dave left. It has always been my understanding that Chappelle's Show sometimes does perpetuate black stereotypes, but mainly as a kind of inside joke for the black audiences who will recognize them as such. I can't speak for other white folks, but I can say that the race jokes have never, ever been my reason for watching the show. I just like Dave Chappelle's sense of humour, especially when he's not talking about race. If there were white viewers stupid enough to buy into the stereotype jokes and use it as an educational tool to learn about black culture, then that is a very unfortunate side effect. They even had Charlie and Donnell interview some audience members about the racial stereotype sketches, and I thought some good opinions were shared. The best one was probably from a woman who said that the show shouldn't be used to educate or to make us think, only to make us laugh. I wholeheartedly agree, because Dave's most brilliant sketches from past seasons had absolutely nothing to do with race - I'm thinking of the "What if the internet were a physical place?" sketch, and the "real" versions of Hollywood movies, to name a couple. Perhaps he would not have left the show at all if he had stuck to that kind of comedy in the first place.

Recommendation
It's not as brilliant as the first two seasons but it's worth watching if you enjoyed them. Just try to ignore the racial stereotypes for Dave's sake.