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ERIC DEGGANSSophisticated wit, slapstick, irreverence and satiric sting: It's the mix Dave Chappelle uses to give laughter a daring new cultural context.
Once upon a time, only the comic cognoscenti knew about Dave Chappelle.
Sure, you might have faintly recognized the brother who dissed Eddie Murphy's Buddy Love in 1996's The Nutty Professor or traded quips with Tommy Chong in the 1998 stoner movie Half Baked.
But not many could name the guy whose turn as a corpse was the biggest joke in Jerry Bruckheimer's ill-fated 1997 action film Con Air.
What a difference a year makes.
Well into its second season on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show is threatening to turn the lanky, Washington D.C., comic into a bona-fide star for the MTV crowd.
For proof, check the watercooler buzz over Chappelle's sidesplitting impersonation of crack-addled R&B legend Rick James and the black George Bush (his case for invading Iraq: "Tried to kill my father, man. I don't play that s--.")
Or check the ratings: for the week ended April 18, Chappelle's riotous sketch show was the sixth-ranked show on cable, above TNT's Law and Order reruns and USA Network's highly hyped miniseries Spartacus.
Chappelle's April 7 episode drew 4.4-million viewers, the most-watched Comedy Central episode since an October 1998 South Park telecast. The show was a particular hit among young male viewers, drawing the second-highest total of guys ages 18 to 24 in the channel's history and third-highest total among those ages 18 to 34.
So it's not surprising that a newly hot Chappelle isn't doing interviews while on his Comedy Central-sponsored "Grass Roots" standup tour: especially after reports that he hasn't yet committed to a third season of Chappelle's Show.
He spoofed the idea of a Chappelle-less show in a recent episode, in which an argument with Comedy Central suits - South Park's "Mr. Hanky makes more than me," he screams in one outburst - convinces them to hire supercommercial nice guy Wayne Brady as a replacement.
"There are only a few of us black actors that happen to be working," said Brady, whom Chappelle had once dissed in a joke saying his white-friendly image made Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X. "And nothing makes me happier than to be able to take another black actor's job."
The sketch that quickly followed - a hilarious spoof of Training Day that found the supernice Brady pulling off a drive-by shooting, taking money from a stable of prostitutes and killing a cop (after singing to him, of course) - showed why Chappelle's Show is such addictive viewing.
One spin through a tape of five recent episodes offered other examples, including a game show in which he tested selected white people on their knowledge of black culture, asking "What is a chickenhead?" and "Is pimping easy?"
(The answer, delivered by the game's only black contestant: "Hell, yeah.")
Another skit showed Chappelle quitting his job and embarking on a massive spending spree after impregnating billionaire talk show host Oprah Winfrey. One of his recurring characters, a homeless crackhead, wins NBC's game show Fear Factor by acing the show's gross-out challenges (sleeping overnight in a container full of earthworms, for example).
Chappelle's Show, inconsistent in its first season, has hit its stride this year, offering comedy that often hits on two levels. A recent Frontline spoof about the first black man to use a whites-only lavatory featured spot-on recreations of classic civil rights speeches and police attacks.
And there were lots of fart noises for those with more, um, basic comedy tastes.
The show's duality is impressive: incisive social commentary linked with street-smart humor, quick-witted concepts combined with slapstick gags and painstakingly produced skits married to bawdy, in-your-face sex and drug humor.
But Chappelle's appeal to young viewers reaches beyond flatulence and bleeped profanities (curiously, the channel covers up many bald-faced curse words, but not the n-word).
Indeed, Chappelle's Show has become a primer of sorts on hip-hop culture for the young white viewers that have made icons of previous channel hits such as South Park and The Daily Show.
Regularly featuring musical performances and acting turns by notables such as Snoop Dogg, Outkast's Big Boi, Wyclef Jean and ex-Tribe Called Quest frontman Q-Tip, Chappelle helps school his young charges on the history and humor of hip-hop - lacing his most powerful routines with heavy doses of outlaw flavor.
"The idea when we were doing the show was just to dance like nobody's watching," said Chappelle, 30, during an interview in January 2003, before the show's first season. "Just do what you think is funny, and don't worry about explaining yourself."
PREVIEW: Dave Chappelle comes to the Improv in Tampa for five shows tonight, Friday and Saturday. All performances are sold out.