Comments

1. KEYSHA wrote:

   I thinks he is making fun of the stereotypes that we place on them. if you saw the whole special, you will get it.

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 9:24 am ¶

2. kim wrote:

   That is a rhetorical, yes?

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 10:26 am ¶

3. Zig wrote:

   Chappelle has always been about perceptions more than people. The joke is always on the person who stereotypes, usually the narrator. Of course, after getting rich off this shit, he went insane. Comedy is a dangerous business.

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 10:52 am ¶

4. mike wrote:

   Zig,

   Uhhhhh, Dave Chappelle has done multiple interviews (Oprah, Charlie Rose, Actors Studio) after his South African hiatus in which he explains himself, and he strongly condemns and resents people who called him “insane” or a drug addict.

   Do you usually say things that are blatantly false and pass them off as fact? Or are you just ignorant and arrogant?

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 11:53 am ¶

5. Zig wrote:

   Uhhhhh…. There’s always a third option: Figurative language. The brother also said that he was making big changes in his life partly because he didn’t want to do the same sort of thing anymore, and what I got was that he was conflicted about his art, i.e., human. When I say “insane,” I meant it like, “Man, mean-muggin’ dumbasses like ‘Mike’ can really drive your boy insane, you know?” “Crazy” is a weird word. You ain’t heard the song?

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 1:43 pm ¶

6. S wrote:

   Unless there is more to it that we didn’t see in the video clip, it was offensive and I bet Indian people get tired of that kind of treatment.

   But his joke had a very tiny point: in class, we WERE taught about them and studied them as if they didn’t exist anymore. Most of the pictures we’ve ever seen of Indians feature very brown-skinned people with a braid on each side of their head and a feather cap. Kids still dress this way for Thanksgiving activites at school. Other popular pictures of them are actually mascots. I couldn’t imagine how irritating it has to be for them.

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 3:21 pm ¶

7. Colin wrote:

   mike,

   I don’t think Dave’s paying a huge amount of attention to people joking that he went “insane”.

   Is it offensive? I honestly am a poor critic of anything, so I don’t know. I only know that instinctively, I cringe when I hear my boi Dave do these jokes. Running Coyote? Wal-Mart? The bows and arrows one is the worst; it gives me the creeps.

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 8:48 pm ¶

8. dtrout wrote:

   S:
   American Indians…or,
   Native American or Indigenous American. These are more widely accepted terms when describing Native Americans as a cultural group.

   The Chappelle clip? I agree with Keysha, context is critical.

   I suggest for gaining more awareness, check out accurate depictions of American Indians, like the following:

   http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/indians.html

   Posted 18 Apr 2007 at 9:08 pm ¶

9. merq wrote:

   I felt that, like much of his comedy, he was trying to debunk stereotypes in his usual subversive, “blink-and-you-miss-it” way.

   But I agree that certain parts of it could easily be seen as offensive.

   Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 12:27 am ¶

10. Rob Schmidt wrote:

    I’d say he’s skewering some stereotypes while reinforcing others. Isn’t that what most comedians do when they tell race-based jokes?

    Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 2:31 am ¶

11. Rabia wrote:

    “I studied you in social studies”

    “They gave me my own teepee[...]which I thought was f***ed up cuz they all had houses”

    I think the joke is on the ignorant outsider, not the Native Americans. But of course, with this kind of comedy that aims at mocking the bearers of stereotypes (e.g. Borat), one treads on eggshells. Whether it skewers stereotypes or reinforces them is highly dependent upon the racial/ethnic attitudes of the audience.

    Posted 19 Apr 2007 at 10:11 am ¶

12. yousername wrote:

    This is why Dave had to cancel his show, some people just didn’t get what he was doing and believed we were laughing at the people of ____ race, instead of racists.

    Posted 21 Apr 2007 at 5:22 pm ¶

13. emdubz wrote:

    im native american ojibway

    anyway watch conair
    dave chapelle calls this native guy
    Cochise and sets him on fire

    Posted 24 Dec 2008 at 8:10 am ¶