Between Thoughts -Intellectual Musings

A Tribute to Dave Chappelle

 

On comedians, the ones who do it right.
The shit-steerers.

The truth-surgeons.

The laughing therapists.

I. The Inheritance
The smoke rises before the word begins,
a modern prophet in a wrinkled suit,
where Hollywood demands a scripted grin,
he stands unbowed, uncompromised, astute.

He walks the stage, nicotine vibes, microphone in hand,
designated driver of our unspoken fears,
he maps the madness of a fractured land,
and shifts the mud where public thinking steers.

Inheritor of Pryor’s bleeding heart,
perfectly imperfect, raw, and deep,
he turns discomfort into high-grade art,
and wakes the truths the culture wants to sleep.

II. The Craft
A behavioural scientist of the unrehearsed,
he strips the armour from the social beast,
with simple words,  remarkable in verse,
a lone reporter at the cultural feast.

He holds the mirror till the room goes still,
no anesthetic, no apology given,
laughter as the scalpel, laughter as the pill,
the medicine by which the honest live.

They tried to boundary what a man can say,
to bind the jester to a safe design,
but like a ghost, he slipped and walked away
left fifty million on the cancel line.

III. The Controversy Is the Curriculum
Some loved him. Some convened a public court.
He bowed to neither throne nor twitter mob,
got tackled hard, then rose, unhurt, unbought
because quitting was, in fact, the better job.

They wanted Dave to teach a narrower thing,
to shrink his angles, sand his sharpest edge,
but truth, like smoke, refuses tidying,
and funny, like the prophet, lives on ledge.

The controversial is not the careless;
it is the territory of the brave
the place where lesser voices go wordless,
where Chappelle plants a flag and names a grave.

IV. The Lineage
Before Dave, there was Richard,  God, there was Richard,
red bloodied on a stage in Long Beach, telling it whole,
perfectly imperfect, nothing left untendered,
comedians are confessors of the soul.

They are the vulnerability we outsource,
our social scientists without the grant,
our therapists who made us laugh, of course,
then charged admission for the covenant.

I love them for the courage that it takes
to speak a truth the powerful prefer unspoken,
to stand inside the silence till it breaks,
and hand the audience something finally open.

V. The Coda
And Chappelle remains,  still laughing on the battle line,
still smoking, still departing before the bow,
still proof that walking away is not decline,
sometimes leaving is the most courageous vow.

Not every man who quits is broken by the weight.
Some quit because they finally know their worth.
The $50 million? Let the nervous take the bait.
Dave went home  and that was wisdom’s birth.

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Dr. Mzamo Masito
Between Thoughts — Intellectual Musings

Where the uncomfortable questions get a seat at the table..