Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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74 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fearless, controversial, and absolutely hilarious, November 4, 2004
I had caught snippets of Chappelle's Show here and there before, but I had never made a point of actually sitting down and watching a complete episode. Then a friend of mine told me about a hilarious skit featuring Dave Chappelle as a black white supremacist (he is blind and doesn't know he is actually a black man); if it was only half as funny as she said it was, I knew I had to see it for myself, so I soon bought myself a copy of Chappelle's Show Season One. Not only is the skit in question hilarious, it basically defines the type of humor Dave Chappelle brings to the comedy scene. I don't think the television viewing audience has ever seen anything like this before - certainly not to the extremes that Dave Chappelle takes it. When he jokes about the fact the show has not been cancelled yet, it actually rings with a bit of truth. Very few comedians could get away with this type of over-the-top humor.
To say that this is mature humor is something of an understatement. Adult language abounds, and all the bleeps you heard on television are now removed - thus, the Uncensored! tagline. You'll find a lot of jokes centered on human anatomy - especially female anatomy. Far beyond everything else, though, is a relentless comedic skewering of racism. Some would probably consider this a racist show, actually - the "n word" is used in abundance, and stereotypes of blacks, Asians, whites, and other races are exploited shamelessly. The whole point of the race-based comedy, though, is to show just how extreme and ridiculous racist thinking and behavior really is. Some people won't "get it," of course, and they will probably think Chappelle's Show is one of the most offensive things they have ever witnessed - and that's OK. The majority of viewers, I believe, will "get it" and will join me in an extended laugh-fest that lasts throughout all twelve episodes of Season One as well as the bonus materials included in this DVD offering.
Among the gut-bustingly funny stuff you will find in Chappelle's Show Season One are the antics of crack addict Tyrone Biggums (including a visit to a drug awareness day at an elementary school), Chappelle-ized scenes from hit films such as Roots and The Matrix, a news report detailing the profound aftereffects brought about by the paying of reparations for slavery, "Great Moments in Hookup History," a "Real World" episode featuring one really white guy living with five crazy African-Americans, a hard-hitting documentary detailing the racism of famous animal performers, a documentary covering great inner city gang wars of the 1980s, an interracial episode of Trading Spouses, numerous Chappelle-ized television ads, Ask a Black Dude features with comedian Paul Mooney, a hilarious look at the international Player Hater Ball, and of course a lot of crude jokes about drugs and bodily functions. The only bad thing about these episodes is the fact that they are sometimes rather short. Chappelle featured rap and hip-hop musical guests on each show, but those segments are not included on nine of the twelve episodes you get here (and it's only a half-hour show to begin with).
The comedy is a little uneven at times. A few skits never really catch fire and are thus forgettable, but the vast majority of the material here will have you rolling in the aisles. Even the kind of toilet humor that normally isn't that funny will have you in stitches because Chappelle just keeps going to the well so many times that he makes it funny despite itself.
Five of the episodes come with audio commentary by Dave Chappelle and the show's co-creator Neal Brennan (who is white, by the way), as does the extra 29-minute feature of bloopers and deleted scenes. I was actually a little disappointed by the audio commentary; it was informational but not as funny as I had expected. The bloopers and deleted scenes were also less than hilarious - but I realized long ago (thanks to Dick Clarke and Ed McMahon) that bloopers really aren't very funny much of the time. All these extras are just icing on the cake, though, as the twelve episodes of the show more than make this Season One collection worth the money. Heck, it's worth it for just the blind, black white supremacist feature by itself.
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50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Funniest Man on TV comes to DVD, February 5, 2004
Dave Chappelle is, undoubtedly, one of the most daring and intelligent comedians working today. At first glance (or listen), his humor may seem offensive or like little more than toilet humor, but if you dig a little deeper you'll realize that Dave is simply saying the things so many Americans would LOVE to say, but can't.Chappelle's Show is one of my favorite shows on television. Dave's sense of humor breaks the color boundries and he's not afraid to attack anyone for a laugh. Whites, blacks, Asian...whoever you are, you're a target, and that's the beauty of it. By not singling out anyone, Dave has made a show accessible enough for EVERYONE. Sure, it's controversial and yes, it can be vulgar, but it's also hilarious and only the most uptight of people who take everything at face value could possibly be offended by it. Dave tackles everything from racism to R. Kelly in the first season and it's some of the most refreshing, intelligent television humor I've seen in years. His ability to look inward and poke fun at himself, as well as everyone else, only makes it funnier. Nothing in the show should be taken too seriously. From it's over-exaggerated racial stereotypes to it's parodies, everything is done with a great deal of humor and, most importantly, intellect. Chappelle's Show is a brilliant piece of television and kudos should be given to Comedy Central for bringing it out on DVD and, most importantly, giving Dave enough creative control over his show to say and do the things he does and keeping it on the air.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti . . . ., March 11, 2004
First things first: this DVD is hilarious and has hours and hours of great comedy that won't diminish after one viewing.Now to break it down further:
Some of the skits on here are downright brilliant and funny (e.g., the reparations skit, the black white supremacist skit, the Real World, the rapper Fisticuffs), some are potty-humor funny (Redman's toilet bowl cleaner? no one else could have done that skit but Redman), and only a few are lackluster (Blackzilla, any of the Great Moments in Hook-Up History). But there's so many of the first two categories, you'll forget about the misses. There's twelve episodes on two DVDs with deleted scenes and some unaired "Ask a Black Dude" with Paul Mooney material. The deleted scenes are freaking HILARIOUS. The Antwone Fisher bit is always funny to me no matter how many times I see it. Additionally, there is audio commentary on five episodes by Chapelle and his writing partner, Neal Brennan. This one of the few DVDs where the audio commentary is actually worthwhile. They explain how they came up with the ideas for skits, which skits offended the most people, explain jokes that are unclear, etc. Therefore, this is a worthwhile DVD to get. I must say here that, judging from this DVD, some may be overrating the content here as this sort of real edgy, in-your-face, social commentary. Yeah, that's here - and when it shows up, it's clever, funny, and thought-provoking. But alot of the content is baser in nature. I just hope we get more of the smarter, dark, and edgy stuff in the future. Two small complaints - I heard that some of the musical performances were removed. Not good. (By the way they did include Mos Def absolutely ripping it in Chapelle's car.) Another thing, they need to include better descriptions on what is in each episode. Sometimes you just want to see a particular skit and it takes a while to figure out which episode it came from.
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