Attribution: Edward Kimmel from Takoma Park, MD, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter
Bots,
Speaking of Mz. Kari…. I’m here to provide a few comedic relief YouTube recs: Dave Chappelle’s SNL 14 minute stand up—link to it below. He goes after Kanye and Kyrie and Herschel a bit—but also turned the finger back at “The Jews” and all of us…NPR panned it— but I liked it, caught me up on why he’s so popular. I’ve never seen him prior…(I know…I know….living under a rock…). The YouTube should autofill with more SNL if you are serious about killing time–there is a cast member that effects that evil polish of the mistake named Lake so spot on and a skit spoofing the ‘black element’ of HBO’s Dragon series—follow up to Game of Thrones—which I’ve never seen—but it looks like it deserves a rip job and this is a good start.
But maybe you gents saw it “live from NY…” …stay up “late”.
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/13/1136343690/dave-chappelle-saturday-night-live-antisemitism
-Dave S.
I have to say, I wasn’t really impressed with the Dave Chappell monologue. Eleven minutes and, what, two good jokes? I dunno, I guess the bar is lower these days.
He essentially spit out his own form of mild antisemitism, but made it all jokey like, so nobody could take offense.
Or maybe it’s because I’ve reached peak geezer. I can’t get interested in Kanye’s misadventures, no matter how mentally unstable he has gone. Who cares, and, hey kid, get off my lawn!
One other thing to get off my chest. I really cannot stand the interplay between late night TV comics and the audience anymore. I think my beef goes back to Letterman. He would tell some joke, and then launch into the shtick where he grimaces and tugs on his tie. The audience would hoot and holler and applaud like a bunch of undergrads on Ritalin, no matter how tiny or lame the joke. For crissakes, these late-night TV guys are interrupted by applause more times than the State of the Union. It’s as if the audience has to prove that they are hip and “in on the joke”.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no desire to return to the Johnny Carson Brezhnev era of stock humor. But for me, Steven Colbert playing himself is almost unwatchable.
Rant complete! As you were. Resume your lives of quiet desperation.
–Mark M.
“…hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” –speaking of Roger Waters, has anyone been following his rants lately? He is completely going off on any media platform that will have him. About war, American hegemony and imperialism, Israeli apartheid, poverty, whatever… Some of his European tour dates are being cancelled for his trouble. Agree with him or not, he is speaking his mind regardless of the consequences for him personally. Of course, only the wealthy can afford that luxury. Kinda like Kanye, Kyrie and Chappell. Personally, I think society needs heretics. It gives folks an alternative to the Kool-aid.
I enjoyed the Chappell monologue, but I guess it’s because I’m now considered an anti-Semite too. My attitudes toward The ___s hasn’t changed forever, but the definition of anti-Semite has moved to encompass me. I understand that generally recognized authoritative Jewish organizations now consider criticism of Israel and Zionism to be anti-Semitic and I am proudly critical of both. I’m not in a position to question those organizations and their definition. They are the authorities. So, there it is, I’m anti-Semitic.
MO
Noice! Sublime as the Roger’s countrymen oft say. Whether describing a perfect Beckham cross, or a turn of a phrase.
I thought Chappelle did a nice job of skewering Kanye, Kyrie and Herschel the commercial—all of his own race mind you, first, yet not letting the pendulum sway too far, clarifying: “Blacks did not cause the holocaust”
We bots may agree to disagree.
–Dave S.
Okay bots. I had to see what all the fuss was about re. Dave Chappelle, so I dialed my offense-o-meter (the thin-skinned model) to 7 and watched Chappelle’s SNL monologue. I agree with MM—some of his cracks regarding Jewish people were kinda cringy and not all that funny. The offense-o-meter squawked, sensing strong undercurrents of antisemitism until I dialed it back to 4. At that level, the meter adjusts to filter awkward satire and recognized that Dave Chappelle revels in being an iconoclast. He’s been walking a fine line between commentary and comedy for a while now, often taking wild swings at sacred cows, ethnic tropes, and political correctness. Once in a while Chappelle really nails it; this time, in my humble opinion, not so much.
Dennis C.
Yeah, I wasn’t overly impressed either. I’m not sure what he was after with his Jewish commentary. The Hollywood stuff seemed to come out of nowhere and not make much sense either comically or satirically. I typically like him for his hereticism—if that’s the correct term, but here he kept crossing from pseudo-apologist to social commentator to weird forays into outrageousness. I thought he rambled a lot and wasn’t making a hell of a lot of sense. I sort of wondered if he’s wrestling with some anti-Semitic demons of his own while sort of defending Kanye and Kyrie.
MO, I know what you mean about widening definitions. I find it hard to make honest comments about some of my African American students. Separating their economic and social conditions from their skin color in educational discussions is now pretty much impossible; anything culturally negative is “racist”.
Geoff
Chappell’s brand of comedy is hardly unique to him. Maybe half the standup universe takes current events and riffs on them, parsing out what they find to be absurd or ridiculous about those stories and trying to get laughs on those takes. Chappell just happens to be really good at it (IMHO). If there is no controversy about those current events, then it’s not going to produce any laughs. It’s a tightrope to walk for comedians, especially if there are powerful groups out there that would like to cancel you.
Chappell’s popularity and wealth are a direct result of a huge market that is sick of being told what to think by urban elites. “Wokeness” is very unpopular outside of a few centers of cultural production in this country. This is something that a certain political party can’t seem to get their head around, at their own peril.
MarkO