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Dave Chappelle sounds like he's having a midlife crisis in Sticks & Stones

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (20491)
31 replies | jump to latest

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/i-get-it-dave-chappelle-its-hard-to-be-a-comedian-in-your-40s.html

In his new Netflix special, Chappelle is "proud of his trans jokes, dismissive of cancel culture, and defensive of celebrity status," says fellow comic Shalewa Sharpe. "Overall, he comes off as a very rich old man yelling at today’s kids to get off his expansive lawn. Why does Chappelle seem so out of touch? Yes, he’s wealthy enough to not have to mix it up with the hoi polloi, though I’m sure he’s appreciative of the dollars we fling at him for live performances. He’s not even that old — he just turned 46 on August 24. His chest hair is probably only now starting to gray. My friend recently mentioned on Twitter her surprise at Chappelle’s age. I tweeted back my theory that Chappelle is probably dealing with an unexpected aspect of middle age: the hardening of your worldview, for better or worse." Sharpe adds: "A midlife crisis isn’t just buying a ridiculous vehicle, pulling a muscle at the gym, or leaving your wife. (It also doesn’t only happen to men, Hollywood, but we ain’t got time for that.) It’s realizing that after 30 years of my being the Go-To Voice (and ten years of diminishing returns), the world has stopped listening. So when you speak confidently about, say, music or sports or dating based on the way it’s always been and a young person informs you of the way it is now, it can knock you back on your heels. A decision must be made: Am I in the mood to reflect and adjust, or am I going to dig in my heels because it’s what I’ve always known?"

[–] Guitar King (5110) 5 years ago

Vulture.com's butthurt meltdown continues. I love it!

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

You love it? So what? There will come a time (and very, very soon, it looks like) when Dave Chappelle and all of these whiny cancel culture-blaming idiots will become so irrelevant that there won't be anymore shows for them to do for Vulture to have a meltdown over.

That is the point of that Vulture column. Every comedian throughout history has had to adapt or die to stay relevant. It's why people like Groucho Marx, Redd Foxx, George Carlin and so many others had longevity; they reinvented themselves. Audiences change over time and either you admit that things have changed and adapt or you become a bitch like Chappelle, dig in your heels and play the victim.

Chappelle is choosing to dig in his heels and play the victim, is choosing to not get that he's getting old and that there's a new generation of kids who won't care about him or his comedy until he adapts. People like you cheering him on are just enabling himself in his delusion that his career is on the skids because of this fake "cancel culture" nonsense. There is no such thing as cancel culture, and there is no "culture war" being fought against him. He is just culturally irrelevant, just as Bob Hope became in the 1980s when people like Sam Kinison became popular, just as Milton Berle was in the 1970s when people like Richard Pryor and Cheech and Chong became popular.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 5 years ago

I also will toss in my vote of support for Dave. Irrelevant, you say? Irrelevant to whom? I think his shit is funny.

If kids today don't, then should he really adjust his act to their whims?

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Irrelevant to whom? I think his shit is funny.

Irrelevant to the demographic he's trying to appeal to, who are the dominant culture right now, just as Groucho Marx was "still funny" in the 1970s to some people, but wasn't funny anymore to a culture that was more into Richard Pryor, Cheech and Chong and George Carlin.

If kids today don't, then should he really adjust his act to their whims?

He doesn't have to adjust his act. He could go into acting. He could become a producer or director. Or he could do what other people did when they were no longer relevant/popular: he could step down and become a mentor for the next generation of comics (help them get gigs, show them the ropes, teach a class, hold lectures, etc.). That's what many people did. When their career dried up, they tried their hand at something else.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 5 years ago

I think he realizes that Mellennials are a shitty generation and they need to be called out on it. And I say that as a Millennial (albeit one on the high end of the age range).

Kids today want to kill comedy. The best showgoers can laugh along with it, even when that sometimes means laughing at themselves.

I can't imagine what today's twentysomethings would even think is funny. They're too offended to laugh at anything.

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

^ this x1000000!

[–] Guitar King (5110) 5 years ago

If Chappelle is not relevant, Cancel Culture sites like Vulture.com would have no need to keep telling people to skip his special. The reality is Dave gave you fools a black eye.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

There's no such thing as "cancel culture." This another stupid buzzword that social media morons invented. to label a phenomenon that doesn't exist, since they don't know how to talk about reality in any meaningful, honest way.

[–] Guitar King (5110) 5 years ago

So, nobody was ever fired for saying the wrong thing? Do you even know what Cancel Culture means?

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

He sure af did ...and I laughed my ass off!

[–] Stratego (31081) 5 years ago

Vulture columns have a point???

[–] AP (5295) 5 years ago

George Carlin became edgier the older he got. Have you ever listened to him?

[–] Satan2016 (26200) 5 years ago

Shalewa Sharpe is nobody! Three IMDb credits, only one rating - 6.4. Blames her personal failure on successful comic!

[–] JimmyStrudel (600) 5 years ago

Lol of course they come up with the angle that Chappelle is “out of touch”. The people coming up with that slant are the same people Chappelle is skewering. Thank god there’s a comedian out there with the balls to fight against the hyper PC cancel culture pussies and the blue check mark Twitter twats. He’s exactly what we need right now.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

You're out of your mind. I'm old enough to remember when his brand of bullshit comedy didn't even exist and was brand spanking new.

Chappelle and all of these morons like Sarah Silverman aren't getting it. Comedy exists in phases and waves. It's why vaudeville, impressionist comedy, ventriloquism and "comedy duos" are no longer popular. Their comedy was never anything more than a phase. There's a new generation of kids that couldn't give a shit about their shtick anymore. Instead of Chappelle and company just bowing out gracefully like older comedians did (like Milton Berle, etc.) or reinventing themselves for a new generation (George Burns, Groucho Marx), these old farts would rather cry and whine about them being victims of "PC culture" and invent bullshit terms like "cancel culture."

It's not "cancel culture." It's "When You're Fucking Old and Don't Adapt, You Become Irrelevant" Culture. It's, "Wake the Fuck Up; It's not 1999 Anymore" Culture.

[–] Stratego (31081) 5 years ago

Adapt to what? I don't think Vulture represents a significant part of society.

If "cancel culture" doesn't exist, then why does the article complain about Chappelle bring "dismissive" of it?

[–] JimmyStrudel (600) 5 years ago

For someone who tries so hard to sound like an authoritative figure on comedy, you sure don’t know shit about the subject.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

You're the one that doesn't know shit about the subject. You've spent your entire life listening to a small handful of "PC comics" from the 1980s and 1990s thinking that they comprised the totality of comedy, when they didn't comprise even 5% of what comedy represents. Decades before Chappelle and all of these one note comics were squirted out of their mothers' sloppy vaginas, comedy consisted of everyone from ventriloquists and impressionists to music and improv. It was never exclusively this thing where a douche bag on a mike tryies to be as offensive as possible.

But you grew up thinking that this is what it's always been, so it offends you when someone tells you, "No. This is just one of many styles of comedy that have come down the pike, and Chappelle, Silverman and all these other guys aren't accepting the fact that they were only just practicing a "style" of comedy this entire time, and that it's no longer relevant."

[–] JimmyStrudel (600) 5 years ago

You have a long winded way of saying you’re a humorless crazy cat lady.

[–] kungfulord (957) 5 years ago

"Chappelle and all of these morons like Sarah Silverman aren't getting it"

Well at least they this professional comedians with decades of expereince in the fields and millions of fans around the world and huge level of succes are lucky enough to hear what a expert like you have to say about how they have to do their work

Jesus this is like me going to a hospital and pretend educate doctors about how they need to do their job

This especial was funny as F and i understand is not the cup of tea from some people wich is fine but you need to be humble enough to understand you dont speak for the majority a lot of people thinks is funny and laugh with this especial and all this buzz some whiny idiots who can take a simple joke are making are just making him more visible and i can predict new rounds of special from this dude and new contracts he still in the game and more conected with reality than much millenials and PC groups who claim to be the new voice of what people should be allowed to do and say

[–] sut6432 (2928) 5 years ago

You're not out of your mind, you're spot on! Great post!

Laughed my ass off at this special, and we NEEDED someone like this to kick the PC police right in the balls! I loved it. It was genuinely funny, and of course the reviews were going to attack him. Those are the people he was actually talking about in his special! It was a beautiful thing!

Time to starting fighting back against the "offended PC nazis", to stop apologizing for every little thing that is said that could be considered "offensive" because people can't take a joke anymore, and to send the PC brigade back to the dark, dirty, smelly hole they crawled out of so they can go back to only making themselves miserable instead of making everyone else (The people who actually HAVE a sense of humor) miserable!

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

Agree 1000% with you Jimmy.

atomicgirl needs a vaj draining ...she can't handle that the tide has turned on the cancel culture.

Chappelle was awesome...DEAL WITH IT!!!

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I read that on Flipboard, and man, what a great article!

I'm also 46, and one of the things that I cannot stand about my generation is how we don't seem to get that we're fucking old now. Like, officially grandparent/no longer running the show old. It's gotten to the point where I've had to practically babysit people in their 40s, because it's like they're in suspended animation. They still think they're 22 years old and their entire way of life is relevant, not realizing that it stopped being relevant, like 15 years ago and that a whole new generation of adults (yes, ADULTS) grew up in a different era with a completely mindset and their own sensibilities of what's entertaining to them.

[–] Stratego (31081) 5 years ago

Like, you think you don't sound like a fucking grumpy, old woman???😐

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

That's an unpleasant attitude. I'm 45 and I think I would rather be dead than throw my hands up in the air and submit to what you see as irrelevance. I know many people my age and older who have a genuine and infectious zest for life, and believe it or not can be entertained by both new and older comedians. It's sad that you see yourself as "no longer in the running", I myself am enjoying this part of my life more than any other. Which has nothing to do with coveting youth or trying to be relevant, in fact the opposite, now I'm older I no longer feel the need to fit in and couldn't care less if what I like is currently in vogue or not. More than that, now that I have more spare time I'm finding I can seek out a lot of new films, music, comedy and literature from the new generation of artists and I have nothing but admiration for the new breed. You are painting all over 40's as miserable gits unable to accept anything new, but maybe in this case you should just speak for yourself.

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

Well, it seems that Chappelle has lost his 'special group' card. The character assassination campaign has started.

I hope he survives it. Sure he has some balls.

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

Same here ...FU millennials!!

[–] dmac8 (5050) 5 years ago

the article should be retitled "I get it, Dave Chappelle got 60 mil from Netflix for saying things just like he did -- while I'm still unknown in my 40s. So I'll talk about him and try to get some attention that I couldn't get otherwise."

[–] liscarkat (19418) 5 years ago

Why the f should Chappelle or anybody listen to what kids think is relevant? They should grow up and adapt to him. It looks as if he's had great success with this special, in spite of the leftist bias of most of the critics and media who either don't like him or ignore him. A guy like Chappelle who stands up to the PC and SJW jerkoffs is exactly what is needed now. So adapt to it, because it's relevant, or get out of the way and run to a safe space.

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

So true...preach it bra!

[–] Kingswood (1307) 5 years ago

LMAO ...nailed it!