Analysis of Dave Chappelle's For What It's Worth Stand-Up Comedy

Analysis of Dave Chappelle's For What It's Worth Stand-Up Comedy Dave Chappelle’s stand-up comedy can be raunchy, grotesque, and

sometimes chillingly serious, but for the most part consistently funny

throughout. His newest routine being "For What It's Worth". In this

stand-up it seems that there are no objective boundaries for the

subject of his jokes, so long as the extremity of the subject raised

is outweighed by the comedy the joke provides. This not only allows

Chappelle to use offensive ideas in his routine, but to subtly express

concerns relating to inconsistencies and inadequacies among the

American media, justice system, and government.

It is quite observable in "For what It's Worth" that as an

African-American man living in the United States, Dave Chappelle has

reservations about some particular things existing in his culture.

The first concern he raises neatly intertwined in a joke is that of a

negative bias American police hold about African-American men. This

bias pertains to the subject of the police being very erroneous in

their practice of detaining offenders

when the suspect is black. Chappelle jokingly states that before he

goes out at night he checks his police scanner to take precaution of

the injustice, only to hear "Calling all cars, calling all cars, be on

the look-out for a black male between 4'7'', and 6'8''." This

punchline allows Chappelle to casually raise a serious concern about

law enforcement in the United States. The concern relates to the

unjust detainment of African-American men who might happen to be at

the wrong place a...

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...stem. Chappelle

feels that if a fifteen year-old cannot be held responsible for the

decision of whether or not they want to be peed on, then how can they

be treated as an adult and be held responsible for an action that

would be them life in prison.

Throughout Chappelle's stand-up routine, an array of subjects arises.

Although some of the topics are purely for the comedy, others show

serious concern yet are still raised in the form of a joke. Because

Chappelle is able to raise these concerns as a joke, it is much more

intriguing and effective. This also allows him to touch base with an

audience who otherwise may never be exposed to the subjects, which he

talks about. It is very meaningful to see Chappelle use his

celebrity status in a positive way.

WORKS CITED

Chappelle, Dave. “For What It’s Worth”