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Chappelle's Show - Season 1 Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 44 Reviews)

The front of the DVD says Chappelle's Show Season One Uncensored. From this title, one should be able to conclude that the package is Season One Plus (plus the words no longer bleeped out)....not Season One Plus and Minus. The only reason I can imagine the song sequences are missing is because someone (Paramount?) would not fork over the money needed to secure these performances for DVD release. Truly disappointing.

Unfocused brilliance
With the scourge of political correctness maintaining its grip on American society, the sketch comedy of "Chappelle's Show" has come along at a very opportune time. Dave Chappelle and his writers obviously take a great deal of pleasure in demolishing sacred cows, and Comedy Central's loose standards ensure that no taboo subject is off-limits. And as an equal-opportunity offender, Dave ensures that his show can be enjoyed by anyone with a fully functioning sense of humor. You may have to wade through some slow moments, but this debut season is still worth its relatively small price tag for comedy enthusiasts.

"Chappelle's Show" makes heavy use of racial humor, and while part of me decries the double standard that allows a black comic to get away with jokes that would get a white guy pulled off the air in a matter of seconds, the other part of me can't help but laugh at some of what Dave comes up with. He comes out firing in the very first episode with a newsmagazine piece on Clayton Bigsby, a vicious, blind white supremacist who's never been told a terrible secret: he's black. Later on we're introduced to Tyrone Biggums, a not-quite-recovered crack addict who pays a visit to a local elementary school in order to scare a few kids straight. In another brilliant drug-related bit, Dave advertises "O'Dweed," a new strain of marijuana with the THC taken out for that family-friendly effect.

There's plenty of fun with stereotypes to be found, as well. It's not easy to deal with serious topics in a lighthearted manner, but "Chappelle's Show" may well do it better than any show to hit the airwaves since "South Park." Episode four skewers the whole reparations-for-slavery debate with a look at what might actually happen if blacks ever get their money from the government. "The Mad Real World" presents a terrifying vision of a lone white guy trapped in a house with six crazed black people. And in perhaps the season's finest moment, the last episode's "Trading Spouses" skit, the show gives us a hilarious take on interracial relations when a white couple and a black couple swap wives and cameras are there to capture the shocking results.

This isn't to say the show's perfect, or even close to it at this point. There are still plenty of kinks to work out, as many promising skits go over the top or just don't go anywhere. For every inspired idea like "It's a Wonderful Chest," where a woman who resents her large chest gets a glimpse of what life would be like without it, there's an aimless waste of screen time like the painfully unfunny "Blackzilla." Like many new shows, this one is wildly inconsistent, and you have to wait through some dead moments to get to the good stuff. The current season has shown a bit more direction, so some patience is definitely well-advised here.

While there is some room for improvement, it should be kept in mind that "The Simpsons" and "South Park" weren't anything all that special in their first seasons either. Dave's boldness and ambition are refreshing, even if he does occasionally fall short of his mark. Hell, nowadays I'm just grateful to see something other than reality TV coming out. So give "Chappelle's Show" a shot.

Haven't seen the DVD but man...
Dave Chappelle is by far the funniest guy in the world, no that's too small, the UNIVERSE. I've been watching his show since it first aired on Comedy Central and it has done nothing to me but make me laugh so hard. I can watch the reruns over and over and it never bores me, it makes me laugh even more than the first time seen. Buy this DVD right now.