Search - Chappelle's Show - Season 1 on DVD

John C. (bookwheelboy)
Reviewed on 12/31/2007...

Truly hysterical.

2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

The funniest show I have ever seen

Mitch Weaver | Houston, TX | 02/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With the amount of wannabe comics that are out there today, it is hard to find the geniune article. Well let me tell you. Dave Chappelle is without a doubt the funniest man alive today. The Chapelle Show is filled with controversial, outrageous, and overall hilarious skits that are guaranteed to have you laughing until your stomach hurts. Even the most up tight and liberal minded people will enjoy this show. The show manages to poke fun at racism and all the stereotypes of today very effectively. You will see everything from Chappelle playing a black white supremacist, to a skit done on black people receiving slave reperations and the effect that it has on the economy. Seeing this show on DVD is the only way to go, because it is completely uncensored. Nothing kills the mood more, than an annoying beep from the censors that you would see on Comedy Central. Now you get to see the show uncut and in its entirety without commercial interruption. If there was ever a reason to own a DVD, it is the Chapelle Show!!A solid 5 stars...."

Fearless, controversial, and absolutely hilarious

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 11/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

The Funniest Man on TV comes to DVD

Matthew Antonich | Madison Heights, Michigan United States | 02/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."