Dave has the ability to talk about difficult subjects fluently that most people would rather not approach. One of his speals that I find most intriguing is how he intwines himself in the psychological mindset on how men and women think of one other. I'm talking about the idea
"Men are from Mars and Women are from.. well you know."
"Men are from Mars and Women are from.. well you know."
Chappelle starts off with the phrase "chivalry is dead."
Immediately, the women start cheering in an agreeing type manner. Dave condescendingly answers back, "That's right, chivalry is dead... And women killed it."
Dave basically summed up his whole bit with that strong statement. Ironically, it is the men, this time, who start wailing and applauding in agreement.
It's amazing to me how Chappelle was able to capture his whole audience, both the men and the women, on a topic that force opposite sex in disagreement. He goes on how each sex have different tests in life. "A women's test in life is material. A man's test in life is a women." Now, obviously Dave is not insinuating that all women care in life is material and all men care in life are women. That's not what he's trying to get across. Any veteran comedian or public speaker, in that matter, would know Dave is simply hooking the audience with that blunt statement. He's leaving the audience baffled, in a good way, and wanting to see where the joke is going to.
I love the next part, mainly because I believe it to be true. Women magazines are becoming so ridiculously deceptive and superficial nowadays, that it leaves people reading them baffled, in a bad way. They encourage you to become someone else outside your own element. I absolutely hate this idea. I would rather be disliked for being me then to be loved by someone I am pretending to be....
See how self-righteous this sounds. It is even hard to talk about a topic, such as women magazines, without sounding arrogant and even a little annoying. However, Dave Chappelle turns it into golden comedy. Right from the start, he gets the audience laughing and at the same time, he tears Cosmos rag-azine to shreds... (figuratively speaking).
Chappelle goes on about how women, not all women, disrespect themselves by throwing sex out to men so easily. Also, he informs the women viewer that when females dress scandalously, like most women do at clubs, bars, parties, etc., that men will perceive them as whorish, for lack of a better word. I, a stand-up fan, personally loved how Dave was able to relate to the men, but at the same time not offend the women audience, or at least not the mass majority. He did it in a modest approach by not bashing and discouraging women; but at the same tim, getting across that women who dress revealing should expect men to think that way about them. Later on, he uses an analogy to compare this idea to: how a distressed person might mistake a regular citizen dressed like a cop, as a cop. Hilarious isn't it?
This last part I'll write about is the exact conversation our class had: How men like to get to the basics of events and how women like to get more into the descriptive detail of things. This is a big reason why men and women don't understand one another in conversations/arguments. Women don't think we are good listeners, mainly because we subconsciously tune out all the important detail. We see this (important detail) more as dramatic, exaggerated, and unnecessary. On the other hand, men view women as naggers, whiners, overly chatty, and judgmental. But in reality, men don't know how to handle the value of feelings and emotions quite like women do. We just can't. This is why alcoholism is two and half times more common among men than women and drug abuse is about the same ratio...
Uh oh, this conversation is getting serious again... However, Dave embellishes this same conversation into a comical, yet influential speech.
Whether it's a topic as broad as chivalry to the conflicting problems of conversation, Dave Chappelle has the ability to bring the truth out of both men and women. He can teach us about how the opposite sex thinks and maybe even teach us a little bit about ourselves. There's not many comedians that have the influential talent as Chapelle which is why he's one of my all time favorites. Thanks for the laughs, Dave.
