Ignoring your shitty hyperbole against an imagined foe, you have to be pretty stupid to think that race played zero role in Chappelle being driven from television and stand-up on multiple occasions and being labeled "crazy" each time.

I am definitely stupid. But I was referring to what prompted this alleged "meltdown": drunken dumdums screaming out shit like "I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH." Etc. I'm squarely on Chapelle's side here.

I'll go out on a limb here, and I don't mean this sarcastically. If race played a part in it, it's likely not that people were being clearly racist to Chappelle, but something more psychological with Chappelle where the history of racism and slavery in the US has caused him certain anxieties stresses. I suppose there is also a possibility, depending how traumatized he is, that he incorrectly interprets things as racially motivated, perhaps in the same way a hypochondriac doesn't correctly link apparent symptom and cause.

I'm not saying Chappelle hasn't experience first hand racism, I'm pretty confident all black men and women in the US have. But in his case it would seem there is something more psychological going on, and I wouldn't deny that racism plays into the psychological condition.

I don't know.

There are white people in Hartford?

Don't you see all of the white people in this clip? I mean, it's clearly full of white people and they're definitely being super racist by shouting out bits from their favorite episodes of their favorite Dave Chapelle show. People never do this to white comedians. They're practically lynching him up there.

Yes on all counts to Pain. It's definitely stupid to think that race plays no role here, but it should also be said, and said loudly, that mainstream comedy audiences in America have proven time and time again that they have become the most entitled, worthless masses of humanity that we can pull together in a not-necessarily-political context.

Chappelle should be commended for taking a stand as a black man who refused to be the two-dimensional figure demanded of him by a white-dominated industry. But he should also be commended as a comedian, for standing on that stage until his contracted time was up and showing drunk, disruptive solipsists exactly what their money is worth when it comes to attending a live performance, ostensibly for grown-ups.

Our increasingly rote expectations for comedy have been so deadened and hollowed by Daniel Toshes and Larrys the Cable Guy that so few people really give a shit about finding anything funny anymore, half as much as they can feel proud of themselves for recognizing the pattern of a socially acceptable joke. Buying a ticket to a stand-up comedy performance is not a contract to hear your favorite toy spout its catchphrases, it's watching a human being dynamically adapt and respond to a practically unknowable, usually volatile swarm of people. Chappelle delivered this on his own terms, and anyone in Hartford who felt cheated should take a good long look at themselves and what they take for granted.

I went to one of the Oddball shows (not this one) and had a great time. Everyone on stage was funny including Chappelle. Although I don't think the festival atmosphere lends itself well to comedy.

Throughout the entire show, people are getting up to buy beer/food/shirts, or going to the bathroom. There are side acts going on at the same time as the main show.

I guess my point is that while race is an issue to the point that it's a black comedian performing for a predominately white audience; I think an excess of alcohol and a show format that doesn't lend itself to sitting in one place plays the bigger role here.

BE FUNNY FUNNYMAN. DO IT NOW. BE FUNNY!

They're in Hartford. They were cheated before this show was even booked.

I heard about this on NPR. The description for this concert seemed kind of... stupid (for whoever planned it). I believe they called it a "rock concert audience." There were several comedians who had to go before this audience that had been spending quite a bit of time drinking and getting rowdy, and none of the performers had an easy time of it. I guess Dave just wasn't in the mood to take their shit.