STICKS AND STONES
A Review of the New Dave Chappelle Special
A Review of the New Dave Chappelle Special
I’m always wary of writing a comedy special review as it’s more important for me to focus on my own craft. But more people have asked me about Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones than any latest release ever. So, here goes.
Still Smokin’.
I finally got around to watching it twice (once with my wife and once by myself, taking notes the second time) and then reading a plethora of reviews. A friend recently sent me a tweet that made a fascinating observation — there may be no better illustration of the gap between the élite and the average Joe than RottenTomatoes.com. The Tomatometer (Critics’ Score) is 25% and Audience Score is 99%. Wow.
I Got 99 Percent. Bein’ a Bitch Ain’t One.
What is it that the masses are getting that the so-called experts are not? Here’s my guess: a crowd will laugh if it gets the sense that the comic is being good-natured instead of mean-spirited. And Chappelle has enough charm, fame, talent, skill, aplomb, and alacrity to come across like he knows what he’s doing.
“Stupid is as stupid does.” — Forrest Gump
It took me a long time to understand that quote, which may say a lot about my own intelligence level. But here’s the thing: Funny is what makes you laugh. When I watch comedy, I’m looking for two things: does it make me laugh? Is the audience laughing? From the latter perspective, Chappelle clearly did his job. The audience is with him from front to back. And why not? We tend to laugh the hardest at things we’re not supposed to.
My high school British Lit teacher, Mrs. Wilson, used to say, “If you can’t be right, be amusing.” Her unwritten policy was if you were going to miss an answer anyway, she appreciated a laugh. That she was an otherwise strict instructor who preferred that you ask permission to get up to sharpen your pencil taught me the value of humor.
And so it is with comedy. If you’re gonna go out on a limb and talk about taboo topics, you better nail it. Standup and music have this in common: just as the verses build tension and the choruses release it, the setups build tension and the punchlines release it. Picture a roller coaster. If you’re gonna take the audience on a three-minute incline, the drop better be epic.
To me, there are only four current comedians who have these three traits:
are hilarious,
actually say something, and
have great commercial success.
Chappelle, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, and Louis C.K. (Rest in Peace). One incredible aspect that is unique to Dave Chappelle is that the recurring theme of his work is Dave Chappelle himself. He’s his own thread that ties it all together. I don’t know that any other comic can really pull that off. Others’ lives and careers simply aren’t fascinating enough. Chappelle has lived such an enigmatic existence that he’s singularly positioned to talk about himself and keep us interested.
One of the criticisms of Chappelle’s latest stuff is that he’s violating a cardinal rule of comedy: thou shalt not punch down. Granted, Chappelle is a sexual, able-bodied, cis-gendered male, but are we forgetting that DAVE CHAPPELLE IS BLACK? African-Americans have had it so damn tough in this country that it’s pretty damn tough for a black comic to punch down. It’s reminiscent of modern liberals’ take on Presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg. I’ve actually read reviews of how he may not be diverse enough. I was waiting for the punchline but these people are serious. Um, being the first GAY President wouldn’t be an enormous milestone? OK.
Whenever people send me something to watch, I evaluate it on four levels and score it out of 10:
How unique is the concept? It’s a standard comedy set but he tackles tough topics, including himself. 8.
How good is the material/writing? 7.
How good is the delivery/performance? His crowd work and ad-libbing match the brilliance of his prepared set. 7.
How well-assembled is the final product? 7.
I round to the nearest integer so it’s a 7/10. Or 70%, if we’re on Rotten Tomatoes.
I’d divide this special into three parts:
The first 22 min are straight fire. He comes out swinging and I LOLd a lot.
The next 30 min are more insightful/clever and less funny.
The last 13 min are fire again.
In the first part, he sings a few lines from Prince’s “1999,” tackles Anthony Bourdain, drops the knowledge of “save that bitch for later,” and does impressions of slaveowners and of us, his audience. He caps on Michael Jackson, confesses to victim blaming (a sentiment I’ve declared I share, as well), and defended MJ not by the now-tired line of the quality of his music but because the victims would get to brag at school about happened to them over the weekend. I won’t give it away completely but the line that begins with “MICHAEL JACKSON…” is vintage Chappelle.
The problem with the second part is that it takes on more of a Town Hall feel. He spends too much time on the LGBTQ and gun bits; I found my mind wandering. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard an original gay joke. (Perhaps my biggest issue with Nanette was that even her jokes were all things I’d already heard. (Her confession was the new part.))
Moreover, though Chappelle is the master of metaphors, his car analogy is too pedestrian (#irony) to capture what he’s trying to say. And I’m not sure any comic should grapple with guns after Jim Jefferies so thoroughly disassembled the topic. Though the special would’ve only ended up being 50 minutes, Chappelle could’ve tightened this 25-minute section down to 10 minutes.
Pulling Out The Big Guns.
The last 15 minutes are normally where Chappelle shines. He’s one of the few comics who still does callbacks in his set. Over the years, whenever I’ve asked people what they enjoy the most about standup, they say, “When a comedian comes back to something they said at the beginning.” Chappelle wraps up so many topics like nested parentheses, referring back to Michael Jackson, “sounds like something I would say,” and even the very end of the production, when he keeps Prince’s line, “Mom, why does everybody have a bomb?” An ominous lyric that serves as an oblique reference to what he said about guns.
The Jussie Smollett stretch (which hilariously confounds one white man in the middle of the audience) is one for the ages. But the very end of the entire set falls flat, especially when compared with the brilliance of some of his other four specials.
Chappelle’s takes on abortion, school shooting trainings, the opioid epidemic, and the dichotomy of poor whites vs. poor blacks are why we listen to Chappelle. The special is more than worth watching for these bits alone. But compared to Equanimity (8/10) and The Bird Revelation (9/10), Sticks and Stones doesn’t quite measure up. It’s more on the level of the first two he dropped — The Age of Spin (7/10) and Deep in the Heart of Texas (6/10). It’s still Chappelle, so fans of comedy will be delighted, as indicated by the 99% RT score — and the audience’s laughter.
Hollywood Laugh Factory. 2007.
Rajiv Satyal is a standup comic. He resides in Los Angeles.