It has nothing to do with stupidity, people steal jokes all the time. It’s just lazy writing. maybe if Chappelle weren’t that popular, you could argue that he wasn’t influenced by it, but I highly doubt McGruder hadn’t seen his comedy special. Dave Chappelle said:
“15, to me, is old enough to decide whether or not you want to be pissed on…if you don’t want to get pissed on, just get the fuck out of the way, it’s not even a decision. If I start peeing on the front row, they’re not gonna have to calculate and think, like ‘how do I feel about this, am I okay with this’, they just move…”
What they said on the Boondocks was too similar to that joke and others I’ve heard Chappelle make to be a coincidence. Even if he didn’t knowingly steal it, the joke was made by someone else first, and is less funny when you hear someone else make the same point.
Sure, but somebody else making the joke doesn’t mean you stole it. That was my entire point. I just don’t think any of the phrasing or ideas in Chappelle’s jokes were so unique that somebody had to watch Chappelle’s Show and steal it as opposed to, I don’t know, thinking it as soon as they heard the details of the case years ago. For whatever it’s worth, Chappelle makes this point in a straightforward way while it was mocked on the Boondocks.
It’s not stupid because it’s not really an uncommon thing for writers and comedians to do.
True.
I believe there is enough similarity between the two to justify the belief that he stole it.
If it were so easy to do what Chappelle does, many more people would be doing it. I think you underestimate how “unique” his jokes are. It was the same exact joke/point, delivered in the same exact way, with similar intonation. It’s hard to believe the writers didn’t realize that. That’s why I think they stole the joke.
I’m not underestimating Chappelle’s talent or how funny he is. This particular point about the Kelly case is very simple and obvious. The Chappelle episode in question aired two years ago and there’s very little you can say about R. Kelly that is fresh at this point - and certainly not “if I peed on you, wouldn’t you move?” I’d never heard anybody make the “what happened to standards?” argument, and Chappelle sure didn’t go there.
As are most good jokes. If it were so obvious, then someone else would have made the joke. They didn’t, Chappelle did.
Once again, it’s not an episode, it’s from his comedy special from last year. The DVD came out this year.
Come on now. Comedians have been there before as well. Just off the top of my head, both Chris Rick and Bill Maher discussed those in there more recent HBO specials. I’m not saying the Boondocks can’t discuss stuff other comedians have gone over, just that stealing jokes is a lazy thing to do.
I didn’t notice that the R Kelly joke was stolen, personally, but for some reason I can never remember the Chappelle’s sketch. I can remember the “Pee on you” song but the rest is a fuzzy area. I always thought it was one of his less funny jokes.
I think this is a joke many people can and did make in conversation. It strikes me as something a lot of Dopers might have said.
I guess I’m confusing it with Kelly spoofs on his show. (I don’t suppose Chappelle can be accused of ripping himself off, a la Fogerty? ;)) If it’s from a special last year, the Boondocks episode could have been written before it aired.
I think the timing was what made me think they stole the joke. The Chappelle Special aired roughly a year and a half ago, this was the first episode they made for the Boondocks (they aired them out of order). I doubt it took them a year and a half to produce this episode.
I mean, I could say that Wikipedia notes the show has a long turnaround time, and that of course writing is the START of the process, and that McGruder said in the Washington Post that he’s been working on the show for about two years, but I thought cites were for assertions. I’m just wondering if something is possible.
So we can say it might have happened, not (as I felt he was asking) whether or not it did happen. If “For What It’s Worth” first aired last September 4, it’s very possible that the episode was written first.
Yes, it’s very possible. For what it’s worth (despite the “Snarky snarky” comment) I thought you might be right. Mcgruder does not seem to be very derivative in his comedy, and I can’t imagine that he would consciously steal a joke. It just seems to me that Mcgruder works in the well-trodden comedy area of race-relations and racism. Many jokes (white people can’t jump and like mayonnaise, black people steal and have huge johnsons) are riffed on successfully by many different comedians.
So in summary, I don’t think that Dave Chappelle (though I am a huge fan) invented the R. Kelly sketch. He did a great job on the topic - but the subject seems fairly ubiquitous to me.
Finally, FWIW I did think you were a bit snarky, BUT I also thought you were probably right. And the constant calls for “Cite?” drive me a little bonkers as well. Cool?
Sure. I’ll admit that I hadn’t seen “you can’t change the racist power structure with cheese!” before, but obviously you don’t have this show without Richard Pyror and a bunch of other people.
Absolutely. And hey, you did do the work. I looked a little and found that Post interview, which I read a while ago. I didn’t think there would be anything so definitive out there.
Yeah, it bothers me too, and I probably was being kinda dick when I asked for it. But, I was genuinely interesting in something saying how long the turnaround is. Either way, it seems as thought the timing was perfect for him to steal the joke, as I’d imagined. I think he did, but I can understand if you just think it’s a coincidence. No big deal.
I do find him to be pretty derivative in his comedy, which is why I think he stole the joke. I can’t think of any new ground he’s ever broken with his cartoon, because the whole “black people are different from white people” has been done to death. That, and his political humor is all the show is about. That’s not really new in my mind. Not that he has to be, just that I see the majority of his stuff as unoriginal and unremarkable.
I didn’t realize they were doing the show and somehow, happily, ran across it the first week it aired. I read the strip and enjoy it, so I immediately took to the show. I think it is faithful within the constraints of animated television (even cable).
The bit that got me Sunday was the whole grandpa: “I wish somebody’d give me a golden shower.” Cheap and easy, you bet. Funny? ditto.
I think the speech and commentary “yeah, vexed is a good word” are what really make this show sing.
So, is it okay for a middle-aged white guy to find this stuff funny?
