Anyone Up For a Game of Basketball?

For years, I had to hang for by the water cooler listening to all the girls talk obsessively about crappy shows like The Bachelor(ette), American Karaoke, and Oprah, there hadn't been something from the TV that guys could talk about the day after since the heydays of Jerry Spinger (sadly this Sorority Girls doesn't count because apparently myself and a co-worker were the only ones that watched then dissected each episode the next day). Then came Chappelle's Show. It wasn't an instant cultural phenomenon. I didn't catch it until the middle of the first season with the reparations bit, "I'm rich, (expletive deleted)!" The first season also featured such instant classic as Black KKK, The Mad Real World, Wu Tang Financial, The Player Haters Ball, and the latest R. Kelly video (who doesn't have (Expletive Deleted) on You on their iPod?). But the best was yet to come as in the second season Chappelle's Show became the show guys could talk about the next day.

It would be silly to review the episodes, so instead I will countdown the top five sketches from season two.

5. Wayne Brady - When Brady said, "Is Wayne Brady gonna have to slap a (expletive deleted)?" it had me on the floor for days.

4. When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong - Keep it real is a phrase that has annoyed me for a while so these skits were always good for a laugh especially the one with the girl.

3. Black Bush - A rare political statement from Chappelle with great takes from Mos Def as Black Ashcroft, Charlie Murphy as Black Rumsfeld and Jamie Foxx as Black Tony Blair. Check out the deleted scenes for Black Jeb Bush explaining the Florida recounts.

2. Kneehigh Park - How can you go wrong with Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg as a puppet and a bunch of little VD puppets? I just hope that they overdubbed the lines so the kids there didn't actually hear any of it.

1. Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories - This one is a no brainer with the duel blast of Rick James and Prince. I remember reading Prince said he's constantly getting challenged to play basketball, although he never mentioned whether it actually happened or not. And it is very hard to go a day without hearing someone say, "I'm Rick James..."

This DVD does have most of the musical performances unlike the first season so we get great performances from the likes of Anthony Hamilton, Common, Kanye West (three times), Mos Def, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg, and a special performance from John Mayer and ?uestlove doing a few 80's TV theme songs. I'm a huge John Mayer and The Roots fan so the skit was great to see them perform together (a side note, ?uestlove played drums on Mayer's Clarity).

As for extras on the DVD, we get the standard audio commentary by Chappelle and co-creator, Neal Brennan for five episodes. We also get about an hour and a half of deleted scenes and blooper, including twenty-three takes of Charlie Murphy laughing at Prince's challenge. But the highlights of the extra a two unaired storied by Charlie Murphy. One of which I can't believe they didn't turn into a sketch because it could have been as funny as Rick James or Prince. Then there is the extended interview of Rick James that they used for that episode. His imitation of Charlie Murphy had me on the floor. This interview would be great for any Health teacher starting the drug unit, because as Rick said just six months before his death, "Cocaine's one hell of a drug."

Chappelle's Show 2x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.