Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly
DVD cover
GenreStand-up comedy
Written byDave Chappelle
Directed byStan Lathan
StarringDave Chappelle
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersDave Chappelle
Howard Klein
Stan Lathan
Michael Rotenberg
ProducerKimber Rickabaugh
EditorJeff U'ren
Running time57 minutes
Original release
NetworkHBO
Release
  • July 26, 2000 (2000-07-26)

Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly is a 2000 American stand-up comedy television film directed by Stan Lathan and written by and starring comedian Dave Chappelle. Filmed at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., it was Chappelle's first hour-long HBO special,[1] premiering on HBO on July 26, 2000. In the special, Chappelle talks about a variety of topics, including racism, police brutality, and drug use.[2]

Reception

Shortly after the special's release, Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune gave it a positive review, writing that it "[covers] the predictable black people versus white people and men versus women territory, but doing it with fresh observations and, more important, a sophisticated structure", and noting: "somebody give this guy a TV series".[3]

In 2015, Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly was ranked #6 on a Rolling Stone list of the 25 best stand-up specials and films, with writer Matthew Love stating that the special "delivers everything we know now as the comedian's trademarks: shaggy-dog tales with increasingly absurd details and quick reversals; loose-limbed and playful bits that even inspired the comedian to giggle fits; blistering commentary on race couched in seemingly offhanded storytelling. Weed-dealing three-year-olds and Sesame Street pimps aside, the comic's routines about police brutality are even more painfully prescient today than they were in 2000."[4]

Home media

Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly was released on DVD in 2003.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Haggins 2007, p. 191.
  2. ↑ Williams 2007, p. 124–125.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Steve (August 4, 2000). ""Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly": Chappelle's is..." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  4. ↑ Ciabattoni, Steve; Fear, David; Grierson, Tim; Love, Matthew; Murray, Noel; Tobias, Scott (July 29, 2015). "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Brevard 2013, p. 238.

Further reading

  • Brevard, Lisa Pertillar (2013). Whoopi Goldberg on Stage and Screen. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786468874.
  • Haggins, Bambi (2007). Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813539850.
  • Williams, Dana A. (2007). African American Humor, Irony and Satire: Ishmael Reed, Satirically Speaking. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1847182142.
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