Dave Chappelle made a big comeback this year, and while the comedian has always riffed on race for his sketch comedy, the two new stand up specials he released are pretty astute in their observations/musings on race and culture in America.
In one special, The Age of Spin, he spends a lot of time challenging his audience with some pretty uncomfortable jokes about rape. And so while it looks pretty rough there for a while during the special, he ties his joke about a superhero who "has to rape to save but he only rapes to save and he saves way more than he rapes but he still rapes" to a real life parallel between himself and Bill Cosby. He sets up one last premise when he says that the PA system at MLK's speech on the Washington monument was paid for by Bill Cosby. And so: he saves more than he rapes but he still rapes is the punch line. While he draws humor out of the situation, the pain is real: Cosby was a man who was so influential to a generation of black comedians that many people don't really understand the impact he had. He changed the landscape for black comedy and culture. He was respectable in the Cosby Show, active in the community, a guy who did a lot to alter white perception of black people and who gave black people a role model who was funny and cool. It hurts and is terrible to see your hero slandered and dragged to court over an obscene amount of allegations, and Chappelle is very candid in saying that he felt he lost a hero.
My brother and I talked about this the other day, and we reached pretty much the same conclusions as you did. I commend you for being able express these ideas, knowing full well a great deal of people will likely not like what you have to say. Good job.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am going to have to disagree with you on this one, I do commend you again for taking a different approach than most. While he had without a doubt a powerful impact a generation of black comedians and at one time I was a great fan, I do believe there should be two separate memories. One for accomplishments, and one for his terrible actions. However, I do agree with you that Cosby helped alter a lot of negative perceptions of black people in America and this is vastly important. That is why I will go half way in contending that he was a influential actor but not so much a good guy. While public memory will probably remember him as a villain, it is always sad to see a role model being dragged through the mud.
ReplyDelete