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Clayton Bigsby: Blind, Black, White Supremacist
To further branch out what this blog offers, I am going through some shows of years gone by and posting some pretty damn epic moments.
In this inaugural edition, I’m going to discuss a segment that was featured in a first episode! Even though this show would have MANY more glass-shattering moments, this one is the thesis for what would redefine the word “controversial”.
For the uninitiated/people who didn’t bother to catch it during it’s original run, let me give you a low-down. Chappelle’s Show debuted on Comedy Central on January 22nd, 2003 to a surprisingly uproarious reaction.
To this point in time, only one show defined that network.
No, not that one. It’s about the four kids in the small Colorado town. It’s actually still on today!
Anyways, this show was inauspicious. It featured Dave Chappelle, a funny man who primarily has had small roles in many projects, doing sketches.
In the first episode, there was a car commercial with a “bleeper” (as in wardrobe malfunction of Mrs. Tits McGee), a infomercial for Pop Copy (a crappy computer store, quite literally), Nat King Cole’s Christmas Album, and the home stenographer used to record conversations “conveniently”. So far so good, this show has promise.
However, the sketch about to come up next would shake up the whole universe as we know it, and re-write the rules of racial humor. This, my friends, is the tale of a bigot whose a photo negative of what he believes in.
For the rest of the review, I’m posting these two screen caps as a warning.
That’s a first shot. If you don’t like politically incorrect language or are easily offended by it, turn back now because it will NOT get any better!
Hosted by Kent Wallace (that’s how he signed off as), it’s primarily a news show akin to Nightline and 60 Minutes.
The main story just so happens to be a man by the name of Clayton Bigsby. A hermit of a man whose racial rhetoric is infamous, he’s an author whose books have combined a total rake of 600K+ sales.
When faced with the task of actually getting to the locale of said Mr. Bigsby, Wallace encounters a not-so-friendly town with lots of racial tension and beautiful scenery.
Accompanied with a white wife of similar visual disability...
...Bigsby is rocking in a chair on his front porch. Wallace is bewildered at the sight of how a blind black man could be a white supremacist of the highest order.
Like any good reporter, Wallace must get down to how the belief system started, so he goes to the “home” where Bigsby was raised.
At the Wexler Home for the Blind, Wallace interviews the head mistress Bridgett. Her motive was that it would be easier to tell Clayton and all the other kids that Clayton is white.
Meanwhile, back near the bayou, Clayton clarifies that SIX books were written but only FOUR were published. When asked about the purpose of his works, Clayton comes up with how all the other races (like Chinese people and Arabs) STINK! In conjunction with this, Wallace asks Bigsby about his beliefs on African American people. Bigsby responds with various stereotypes, up to and including having big butts and “...breathing all the white man’s air.” Unlike some other sketches later in the series, I don’t think the audience reaction was piped in!
Apparently this rant takes so long, the camera crew has to film the two men walking on a bridge! Clayton ends this part of the interview with a twistingly uncomfortable anecdote about a friend from years gone by. “IF ANYONE’S GONNA HAVE SEX WITH MY SISTER, IT’S GONNA BE ME!”
Allowing the audience to breathe, Wallace and Bigsby get into a alabaster-style pickup truck and go on to a gas station en route to a rally.
Jasper, one of Bigsby’s dearest friends, explains to Wallace that he couldn’t tell Bigsby he’s black because he’s too important to the movement (alas, there’d be one less nigger around). While overwhelmed at the irony, Kent notices Clayton’s in trouble.
Some rednecks are making fun of Bigsby and his “race”. In a reversal of fortune, Clayton yells to “GET THAT NIGGER” while he’s somehow able to leave unscathed. “WHITE POWER!”
This “confusion” doesn’t end there. Two wiggers in a Mustang are playing hip hop way too loud, and Bigsby lets them know it by calling them niggers. The reaction by the crackers?
At the rally, I mean “book signing”...
(typical Southern racist crowd)
...Bigsby is given a God-like entrance. Complete with KKK getup, Bigsby has important things to say. However, members of the audience are calling for the man to reveal himself. So Bigsby obliges though Jasper knows full well what could happen.
A shockwave goes through the audience worse than a earthquake in a third-world country.
That’s much better!
The shock was so great, a guy’s head EXPLODED like dynamite in a haystack.
Blood spread so far that splats were featured on the bigot’s books.
Wallace ends the portion of the show by saying that the reputation of Bigsby has been irrevocably harmed, although his physical presence wasn’t. While it was acknowledged that Bigsby has come to grips that he is a black man, he divorced his wife of 19 years because she’s a “nigger lover”. If that is not a punch-line, then I don’t know what is!
If anyone wants to know who Trent Lott is, just click on his hyperlinked name.
IN CONCLUSION: For any series, their first episode should provide a glimpse of what their show promises to be.
In this one sketch, Dave Chappelle managed to turn comedy as we knew it on it’s head.
While more segments from this series will be featured, it is important to note that this landmark show only lasted two whole seasons with a bastardized third. In a short time, no other show has as much a cultural impact as this one did. Hopefully, this sketch outlined the reason why.
“I’M RICH BE-YOTCH!”
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