Transcripts:
Hey guys, welcome back to Parasite TV, where today we'll be diving back into the celebrity conspiracy theory iceberg. A series where we explore the dark corners of Hollywood and expose the disturbing secrets of the world's most famous celebrities. From conspiracy theories to bizarre scandals and open secrets to chilling and infamous crimes.
So, if you love videos about conspiracy theories, bizarre events, and disturbing mysteries, subscribe to my channel and turn notifications on so you never miss a video. But before we get started, could you please like the video? Today, Dave Chappelle is inarguably one of the most famous comedians in the world.
But if you weren't around in the early 2000s, you may not have a firm grasp on just how insanely famous Chappelle was. He was already wellknown in the comedy scene in the late '9s and landed an HBO comedy special in 2000, making his debut in front of a worldwide audience with Killing Them Softly. However, Dave's fame skyrocketed in 2003 when Chappelle's Show came out, quickly making him one of the most famous celebrities in the world.
Chappelle's Show wasn't just funny, it was iconic. It was something fresh and new, and it satarized racial issues in a way that seemed to make everybody laugh. Chappelle's show was a massive hit. The first season sold a record-breaking 1.7 million DVD copies, and after the second season, he signed a $50 million contract to produce seasons 3 and 4.
But during production of the highly anticipated third season of the show in 2005, Dave abruptly quit, not only leaving the show, but the public eye entirely, immediately fleeing to South Africa and ultimately walking away from the $50 million. Obviously, the question is why? Well, in 2006, a website called chappelle theory.
com went online and appeared to have all the answers. The site wo an extremely detailed and compelling story about Dave's rise to fame and what caused him to suddenly flee to South Africa, alleging those responsible belong to an organization made up of America's most influential African-American politicians, leaders, and celebrities.
The organization was dubbed both the Dark Crusaders, seems a bit racist, and the Black Illuminati. Eventually, the whole thing was debunked as a hoax, complete with somebody taking responsibility claiming that they set the site up in order to sell t-shirts. But due to the details surrounding the debunking of the site, as well as certain other things that have transpired since, many online sleuths believe the narrative that was proposed by the site, with even some of those that knew Dave best, inferring that he has changed so dramatically, he might
not even be the same person. That's right, we're talking celebrity clones, baby. Whether it's a hoax or not, I stumbled upon this somewhere around 10 years ago, and I was so entertained while reading it. It was the middle of the night, and I actually got a little paranoid and freaked out. So today, I'm going to try to share that experience with you.
We're going to go through the website page by page. I'm going to summarize certain things either for time or just because we've already covered it in the intro, but for a lot of it, we're going to read it verbatim as the author wrote it. And one last thing, it's not totally known who wrote the text on the site.
We do have a pretty good idea of who it could be, and we'll cover that at the end. So, let's talk about chappelle theory.com. A word before you begin. This account of Dave Chappelle's fall from grace has been pieced together by me, a retired public relations executive who wishes to remain anonymous, many of whom were closely related to the individuals involved, enabled me to fairly accurately recount the events that took place.
You can take this for what you wish, but it is the truth, the abhorrent byproduct of the industry I used to hold to such a high esteem. I have written this account without the need for embellishments or exaggerations, for the truth is appalling enough. Let this site serve as a drawn curtain to the entertainment industry which is blindly adored by the entire world.
Introduction page two covers what we talked about at the beginning of the video. Dave's rise to fame and the show's incredible success leading to the $50 million contract, as well as highlighting Dave's prosperous personal life he shared with his beautiful wife and lovely children and his devotion to the Muslim faith. After signing the contract, Dave looked forward to returning to his rural Ohio home to spend some time with his family before hunkering down to begin work on the show's highly anticipated third season. But Dave was haunted by a
secret, one that only he was aware of, and one he couldn't share with anyone, lest his comedy empire crumble. He knew that at the same time he was signing his record- setting deal, there was a secret cabal of powerful African-American leaders from the business, political, and entertainment industries workingtogether to ensure that the third season of Chappelle's Show would never happen.
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And of course, thank you so much to Rocket Money for sponsoring this video. At one time or another, each member of this loosely knit, informal group had played a key role in Chappelle's rise to stardom. They had been instrumental in securing movie and television roles, offering counsel and simply aiding Chappelle financially when his stand-up work couldn't pay the bills during his lean early years.
Over the last two years, they had watched wearily as Chappelle's show had become the Comedy Central's premier show, eclipsing even South Park and the Daily Show in terms of buzz. Introduction page three describes how a group informally known as the Dark Crusaders, led in part by Bill Cosby, had long opposed the creative direction of Chappelle's show, believing it reinforced damaging racial stereotypes and in Cosby's words was quote setting race relations back 50 years.
Despite voicing concerns to Dave Chappelle for 2 years, they couldn't sway his comedic approach. When Chappelle signed a $50 million deal, guaranteeing massive attention for season 3, the group saw it as a crisis point. Meeting secretly at Atlanta's Omni Hotel in August, they drafted a detailed five-point plan, funded, coordinated, and using any means necessary to prevent the third season from ever airing, setting up the narrative of Chappelle's eventual fall from grace.
Introduction pages 5, 6, and 7 introduce us to the Dark Crusaders, describing the members as an ad hoc organization whose members were all an integral part of Dave Chappelle's early life and career. The group known as the Dark Crusaders came together to sabotage Chappelle's career because they felt the material on Chappelle's show was not reflecting well on the black community.
Using a mix of measures, the Dark Crusaders achieved its primary goal. The cancellation of Chappelle's show's third season and the near crippling of Chappelle's comedy career. According to the site, the members of the Dark Crusaders were the following. Al Sharpton, infamous and controversial former mayoral, congressional, and presidential candidate, civil rights activist, reparations advocate, Pentecostal minister, connection to Chappelle, was a rabid fan of stand-up comedy, who took an early liking to Chappelle and offered support and
encouragement early on in his career. Jesse Jackson, former Martin Luther King confidant and presidential candidate, founder of the Rainbow Coalition, and prominent civil rights leader for over 40 years. connection to Chappelle, friend of Chappelle's mother, Ivonne Cerrone, and has known Chappelle since he moved to Washington DC with his mother after his parents' divorce.
Lewis Farrakhan, leader of the African-American Nation of Islam, founder of the Million Man March, and former confidant of both Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Rumored to have been involved with the assassination of Malcolm X, has elicited controversy by espousing his views that the white race was invented by an evil scientist named that the white race was invented by an evil scientist named Yakub.
In one of the cr in one of the craters on the dark side of the moon connection to Chappelle has advised Chappelle on spiritual matters related to the Islamic faith. Bill Cosby, Philadelphia born star of Ice Spy, Fat Albert and the Cosby Show. Purveyor of respectable black family television and he did some other stuff too. Some pretty bad stuff.
Really bad stuff. Connection to Chappelle. Helpedsecure the role of Achu in Mel Brooks Robin Hood Men in tights for Chappelle. advised Chappelle against taking the role of Bubba in the film Forest Gump. Whoopy Goldberg portrayed Gynan, bartender of the 10 Forward Lounge aboard the Starship Enterprise in the hit television show Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Connection to Chappelle gave Chappelle one of his early breaks when she offered him the chance to appear on Comic Relief in 1994. Oprah Winfrey, billionaire talk show host and the most powerful woman in show business. Also not the best judge of character. Look up John of God if you don't know who that is.
connection to Chappelle worked briefly with Chappelle when he was an extra on the set of The Woman of Brewster Place and offered mentoring early on in his career. Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, the first black controlled company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. First black owner of a major sports franchise, the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, served on the board of US Airways, Hilton Hotels, and General Mills.
connection to Chappelle used his influence in corporate America to help broker deals for Chappelle to be the pitchman for both Pepsi and Coca-Cola at different times in his career. And with the alleged members of the Dark Crusaders laid out, we can now dive into the theory. The first episode of Chappelle's Show aired on January 22nd, 2003.
It was a lightly promoted 30inute show that Comedy Central executives hoped would perform as well as earlier shows such as Strangers with Candy or The Man Show. The budget and stars were modest. Chappelle's biggest success up until this time had been the cult stoner comedy Halfbaked, and his expectations were modest. Chappelle was looking forward to the show's debut, but was non plused about its chances for success.
Clearly, neither Comedy Central or Chappelle had any inkling of the impact Chappelle show would have on pop culture. Theory page two. The first episode featured the blind black white supremacist character Clayton Bsby. One of the viewers that night was Bill Cosby, an old friend of Chappelle's, and he was not pleased. The second episode featured Tyrone Bigums, a crackhead that lectures at a school during drug awareness week, during which he says that dog food is delicious and that he is for crack.
Once again, Cosby was watching and he was absolutely livid over Chappelle's portrayal of the black community. He was beginning to think about sending Chappelle some kind of message about the show's outrageous tone. The third episode poked fun of Roots, a 1977 miniseries based on a book depicting the struggles of African slaves in the 19th century.
a series held sacred by many African-American baby boomers. Soon after the airing of this show, a friend of Minister Lewis Farrakhan recalled a heated phone call discussion between Farrakcon and Cosby. It appeared that already upset from having seen Chappelle's show before, Cosby had been pushed over the edge and decided to seek out help from his influential friends.
Chappelle Show was picking up steam in the ratings. Episode 4 fantasizing about what would happen if black people receive reparations. A ghetto hustler named Tron supplants Bill Gates as the world's richest man and stock market prices for fried chicken related companies surge. It's about this time that Al Sharpton, a longtime fan of Chappelle, noticed the show's growing popularity and he began writing concerned letters to his contemporaries about Chappelle.
Episode 6 of Chappelle's show featured the sketch it's a mad real world, a take on MTV's real world series. In the Chappelle version, a white suburban male rooms with six black inner city youth and is terrorized throughout his stay. Robert L. Johnson, alerted by the rumblings coming from the Cosby, Farrakon, and Sharpton camps, decided to tune into this episode to see what Chappelle had been doing that was getting so many black leaders wrankled.
After this episode, he agreed with the others and decided to get involved with them in potentially taking measures to interfere with Chappelle. Theory March 2003, episode 8 of Chappelle's show saw the reemergence of Tyrone Bigums. After the show's conclusion, a reportedly furious Cosby got Farrakhon and Al Sharpton, who he had heard were also concerned about Chappelle's effect on the African-American community.
On a conference call, the three men decided to meet for lunch at Farrakhan's Chicago residence to discuss what action to take. Episode 8 also featured the player haters ball and a character named Silky making derogatory remarks about Rosie O'Donnell, which was brought to Oprah Winfreyy's attention after O'Donnell mentioned the remark while lunching with Winfrey at the Palm in West Hollywood.
The next day, Winfrey, who had supported Chappelle early on, had her staff get a tape of Chappelle show so she could take a look at the sketch. She was appalled at the subject Chappelle mind for humor and immediately began calling friends inthe black entertainment and business communities to see what they thought of the show's content.
The season's 10th episode features the R. Kelly Donu video. This controversial sketch ignited a world of criticism and unsurprisingly caught the attention of Bill Cosby once again. In a call on March 27th, Cosby voiced his concerns directly to Chappelle in an aside to a coworker. Chappelle reported telling Cosby how he was thankful for his insight, but while the show was riding a wave of a claim, he didn't want to tinker with a successful formula.
He believed Cosby was just overreacting and didn't think much of the phone call. On April 1st, 2003, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby were seen dining together in Philadelphia, where Cosby voiced his frustration over failing to persuade Dave Chappelle to change the direction of Chappelle's show. Oprah reportedly agreed that she shared similar concerns.
During the long dinner, they discussed ways to quietly pressure Chappelle into altering the show's content. Oprah offered to contact others who had expressed worries to her as well. This was the informal creation of the group that would later be known as the Dark Crusaders. The first season finale of Chappelle Show aired on April 9th, 2003, featuring a sketch spoofing the popularity of mate swap reality television programs.
It revolved around a black family and a white family trading spouses and plays on long-held stereotypes about black male verility while willfully promoting racial misogynation. Lewis Farrakhan, most likely under the direction of Cosby, sought out the opportunity to speak with Chappelle. Farrakcon, who had advised Chappelle on his conversion to Islam in 1998, visited Chappelle on location days after the episode aired.
His concerns fell on deaf ears as Chappelle was resistant to pressure to tone down the show's content. With Chappelle's show on hiatus before production for season 2 commenced, Chappelle took some downtime at his Ohio area farm. It was here that he received a strange package. As told by Dave himself, at around noon in the middle of an early season Cincinnati Red's game, there was a knock at his door.
Chappelle was a bit concerned as no one except his close family and friends were aware of where he was. When he opened the door, all he found was a crudely wrapped package with the inscription for Chappelle. Inside the package was a voodoo doll style replica of Chappelle dressed as Clayton Bixsby, the African-American clansman from his first show.
The doll was riddled with safety pins and had a noose tied sharply around his neck. Accompanying the doll was a message in a childlike scroll that read, "What you're doing is hurting the African-Amean community. It needs to stop." Chappelle was extremely bothered by the development, but later chocked it up to a local group of black nationalists, probably some college kids from Antioch, a nearby university, looking for kicks, though Chappelle was unaware of it at the time.
This was the first assault by the Dark Crusaders aimed at shutting down his comedy career. About 2 months later, on July 4th, 2003, while enjoying a holiday weekend with his wife at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara, Chappelle alerted the staff that he received a late night phone call to his room that told him, "If you know what's good for you, you'll stop using your show to denigrate African-Ameans.
" While telling his wife about the package he received in Ohio, Chappelle began to think that maybe the Voodoo Doll package was not an isolated incident, but part of a larger coordinated campaign. Shaken by the phone call, he stayed awake with his wife and executives of the hotel for the rest of the night.
In late August of 2003, as Chappelle began production on the second season of Chappelle Show, strange things started to occur. Scripts for the sketches began disappearing. Featured players weren't showing up on set, and illnesses were plaguing key members of the crew. Additionally, Chappelle voiced his concern to one of the extras of the show that one of the replacement cameramen looked like the Nation of Islam bodyguards Farrakhan had with him when he visited the set earlier in the year.
Upon confronting him, Chappelle learned that the replacement cameraman was originally from Chicago, was a fellow Muslim, and was a member of Farrakcon's congregation. After this incident, Chappelle convided in cast member Charlie Murphy and headwriter Neil Brennan that he thought some powerful black people are out to get him to tone down the show's content and that they may have infiltrated the set.
Both told him not to worry, that it's just the pressure getting to him. But personally, both worried that the pressure to succeed may have been getting to Chappelle and expressed concern to other crew members. On September 15th, Chappelle took a break from his rigorous shooting schedule. On September 15th, Chappelle took a break from his rigorous shooting schedule in Washington DC and decided to catch amovie with his mother.
Shortly after the movie started, witnesses reported a man who looked like Al Sharpton taking a seat behind Chappelle and his mother. When Chappelle's mother excused herself to go to the bathroom, Sharpton was seen moving into the seat beside Chappelle. When Chappelle's mother excused herself to go to the bathroom, Sharpton was seen moving into the seat beside Chappelle.
Dave would later recount what Sharpton had whispered. I didn't appreciate the mockery directed at reparations in the last season shows. You should be ashamed of selling out the community for cheap laughs and ratings. Sharpton was seen quickly leaving the theater immediately after.
When Chappelle told his mother about this upon her return, she was in disbelief. She asked if he was feeling all right and if the pressure of success was getting to him. She then offered to take him to see her psychiatrist. It was around this time, and understandably so, that Chappelle began to sink deep into paranoia.
In January of 2004, with the debut of Chappelle's show's second season growing closer, Dave began receiving phone calls at all hours of the day when he was in his family's house all alone. The phone calls said the same thing, "Tone down the show or you will have to go." When Chappelle contacted the local police department and phone company in an attempt to trace the calls, they reported that they had no record of the calls ever being made.
When Chappelle confided in his wife that he thought he was being targeted by a group of powerful black showbiz folks and politicians, she told him to relax, that he's acting crazy, and that he should relax and enjoy his success. With everyone in Chappelle's life doubting his sanity, it was only a matter of time before the media started to report Chappelle acting strangely.
On January 21st, 2004, season 2 of Chappelle's Show aired, in which, of course, the show continued to satarize racial stereotypes and contemporary racial issues to the audience's delight. After the show played, Chappelle was seen having dinner with friends at Pastis in New York City's fashionable meat packing district.
When he tried to pick up the tab, embarrassingly, he found out that his credit card had been rejected. He tried several other credit cards and found that surprisingly, they were rejected, too. After his last credit card was declined, Chappelle received a call on his cell phone. Chappelle confided to his friends that the voice on the line advised him, "This is only the beginning if you don't do what we want. Try your credit cards now.
" Chappelle, clearly rattled, told the weight staff to run his credit card once more. When it went through, Chappelle began to realize the seriousness of the situation. Despite what appeared to be a growing conspiracy against him, Chappelle forged ahead with his show, refusing to rewrite skits. The sketches were hilarious and would never be allowed to air on TV in today's climate.
And if you've not found any of this unbelievable thus far, this next bit will certainly shock you. According to the site on a Tuesday, while watching an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Chappelle recalled being completely stunned when Winfrey turned to the camera in the middle of interviewing Tom Cruz and said, "Dave Chappelle, you should be ashamed of yourself for airing that sketch on your show this week.
I'm going to make sure you never work in Hollywood again." The image allegedly taped by Winfrey and transmitted to Chappelle's house under the direction of Robert L. Johnson, who called in some favors with Chappelle's local affiliate station manager, terrified Chappelle. At that time, he considered telling the show's cast and producers what was happening to him, but decided against it.
He feared it would alienate him from his staff, making them think he was delusional, which by that point, Chappelle was fairly certain that he was. On February 11th, the catchphrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch," made his debut on the show. What was once a somewhat successful cult television show was now a full-blown phenomenon. Season 1 DVD sales began to blow up and Chappelle's Q rating soared.
This caused the Dark Crusaders to really turn on the pressure. Most likely sensing their window of opportunity to silence Chappelle was fast closing. They convened at Oprah Winfrey Chicago production offices to coordinate yet another assault on Dave. February 18th, 2004, the next episode of Chappelle Show aired and it once again featured the Tyrone Bigums crackhead character.
All was quiet in the life of Chappelle after this show. No reports of harassing phone calls or strange packages delivered to his house. No message from Oprah arriving via television. To Chappelle, it appeared that the Dark Crusaders had stopped. But soon he would find out it was just the eye of the hurricane.
What laid in store for him next would be worse than anything that came before. March 3rd, 2004. After a relative lullin their campaign against Chappelle, the Dark Crusaders came back with a vengeance. That week's Chappelle show featured a sketch that parodyied anti-drug commercials and shows a little girl on a bike being hit by a car of stone teenagers.
In this rendition, however, Dave and his crew hit the kid, freak out, and then decide to chop her body up and stuff her remains down a drain. This is perhaps the runchiest skit ever to appear on the show. Dave's way of thumbming his nose at his harassers, saying no, he won't back down. After the show aired, Chappelle began to notice that he was being shadowed by a group of three large, crisply attired African-American gentlemen.
Wherever he went, they never seemed far behind. He asked his family and close friends if they noticed this, too. But they never seemed to catch a glimpse of the men. This reached its apex when Chappelle emerged from the shower one morning to find the three men sitting in his bathroom. By Chappelle's account, they told him, "If we can get into your home this easily, David, imagine what we can do to you if we really wanted to hurt you.
If you don't tone down your show, maybe the next time we're in your bathroom, we'll be waiting for your wife or children to get out of the shower, not you. Chappelle was found on the bathroom floor by his wife several hours later, most likely having fainted due to shock. When he tried to relate the story to her, she immediately called for an ambulance, thinking, and rightfully so, that her husband was having a nervous breakdown.
The incident was hushed up by Chappelle's agent, who was in negotiations with Comedy Central to produce a third season of Chappelle's show, March 10th, 2004. Figuring that he had nothing left to lose, Chappelle went ahead with his decision to air a sketch he knew would be patently offensive to everyone that was after him, as well as catering to the base taste of his white middle-class audience.
The sketch, called I know black people, centered around Chappelle asking people who claim to know black people comedic questions about black culture. Chappelle knew there would be retribution for this, but at that point, he probably figured if he was going to go down, he was going down fighting. The next day, a friend recounted a frantic phone call from Dave at 2 p.m.
He described the following story of the previous night, which his friend assumed at the time to be a dream. I was in bed next to my wife when I got woken up by a heavy pressure on my chest. I opened my eyes to find one of the three men that appeared in my bathroom days before, perched on top of my stomach, wielding a Colt 45 handgun with an enormous silencer.
The other two men were holding me down. It seemed like my wife had been drugged as she laid motionless, but breathing next to me. Oprah Winfrey leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "You better watch your step. We're representing interest more powerful than you can imagine. You do remember that Farrakhan killed Malcolm and that Cosby Johnson and I have more money than God.
We can keep this harassment up forever." Is this what you want your life to be like, Dave? The last thing I remember, someone knocked me out. I woke up with my wife the next morning and I thought it might have been a dream, but I still have a bruise on my head and I really think all of this happened despite the fact that my wife shows no signs of anything having ever happened.
Chappelle then said he was afraid to tell his wife this story because he was nervous that she would call the ambulance again. He told his agent he felt like he needed bodyguards, but his agent advised against it for fear that it would make him look too paranoid and jeopardize his career. Since it seemed like he could get no outside help, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
March 24th, 2004, on the next show, Chappelle decided to attack Oprah directly, as he now knew she was behind all of the harassment. The skit, called Dave Gets Oprah pregnant, centered around Dave getting a call from Oprah informing him that she is going to have his baby. After hearing the news, Dave quits his job and moves in with Oprah, spending her money like it's going out of style.
Chappelle felt like he had the leverage to get away with this as Winfrey wouldn't want her involvement to unseat Chappelle made public. He soon realized his leverage wasn't as strong as he thought. Nothing seemed to happen immediately following the airing of that show. Like before, things seemed oddly quiet.
Chappelle began to noticeably gain more confidence on the set and grew a bit more comfortable with the situation despite all that had happened so far. April 7th, 2004, Chappelle again decided to send a message through his show's material by opening with a sketch called Dave Quit Chappelle Show. The sketch had him doing exactly what his antagonist wanted him to do, stepping down from the show.
In the sketch, executives at Comedy Central replaceDave with Wayne Brady. The show ended with a sketch that has Wayne Brady acting like the thug Chappelle's characters often portray on the show, with Wayne killing police officers, beating Chappelle, and partaking of copious amounts of drugs. Dave, after this episode's production, reached out to Brady, who he knew was a close friend of Oprah's, to see if he could intercede on his behalf.
Brady acted like he didn't know what Chappelle was talking about and as Dave recounted later looked at me as if I was nuts. Chappelle failed yet again at reaching out for help. On April 14th, 2004, technically the season finale aired as the following two episodes were compilations of season 2 sketches.
Chappelle treaded lightly during this episode. Constant harassment had a deep psychological impact on him. Sketches included the first black man to use a white toilet, which poked fun at black historical figures and more insight into the life of Little John. According to a stage hand, after the show, when Chappelle returned to his dressing room, he found a package containing pictures of Malcolm X, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, and himself with the words, "You're next," scrolled across his picture.
After the incredible success and ratings of the first two seasons, and the record-breaking DVD sales of the first season, on August 4th, 2004, Dave Chappelle signed his $50 million contract with Comedy Central, a 2-year, two season deal. On August 7th, 2004, in the wake of Chappelle's record-breaking deal, The Dark Crusaders likely realized they had very little time to formulate a plan to shut Chappelle down once and for all.
The third season of the show would reach an even broader audience than the previous two seasons, and if they were to do anything, timing was everything. The entire group was seen meeting over the August 7th weekend at the Posh Omni Hotel in Atlanta. They were able to keep the meeting out of the press, as Robert L.
Johnson owns an interest in the hotel and arranged for the entire top three floors of the hotel to be reserved for the group. However, the underpaid staff was quick to vent their frustrations on the organization of this event, which is how I came to know this information. According to some of the documents left behind by the group, they seem to have emerged with a definite plan.
A plan developed largely by Al Sharpton and Lewis Farrakan and most likely financed by the deep pockets of the rest of the group. On August 31st, 2004, while Chappelle was in Yellow Springs preparing to spend Labor Day weekend with his friends and family, he received a phone call from his father who was a professor at the nearby Antioch College.
His father told Dave that Lewis Farrakan will be passing through town on a lecture tour and that he called his father, an old friend, the two had met in the 60s when Mr. Chappelle was a black radical, to invite him to dinner. He also mentioned that Farrakhan said he would enjoy seeing Dave during his visit.
According to interviews conducted with Mr. Chappelle. Chappelle allegedly tried to warn his father. Don't go see Farrakhon. I think he's involved in a group that's trying to shut me down and you may be in danger. However, his father did not take this very seriously. He recalled as Mr. Chappelle told Dave he thought the stress of him being famous may be getting to him.
I told him to stop acting ridiculous. Why would Minister Farrakan bother himself with something like that? His father reported. September 5th, 2004. Chappelle received an anonymous letter in the mail that said, "Only those who wish to be led to hell or to their doom will follow Chappelle." It echoed what Farrakhan wrote in the Nation of Islam paper regarding Malcolm X 2 weeks before his assassination.
Chappelle thought about going into hiding after this. Legitimately beginning to fear for his life, but the pre-production and filming for the third season of his show was set to begin. On September 10th, 2004, Farrakhan dined with Dave Chappelle and his father while he was in the Yellow Springs area. When Mr. After Chappelle excused himself to go to the restroom, Farrakhan reportedly leaned in to Dave and said, "Certainly would be a shame if anything were to happen to your father.
" Nearby diners reported. Chappelle said nothing when his father returned, most likely because he felt his father would have no reason to distrust his old friend. After dinner, Chappelle placed a call to his close friend and fellow comedian, Mario Canton, who he thought he could count on for help to reveal what had been happening to him.
After placing the call to Canton, Canton seemed to have vanished. Despite numerous attempts by Chappelle, he was unable to get a hold of him. Co-workers recall Chappelle then contacted the police in an effort to locate his friend. The police were resistant to begin an investigation, partly because Canton's voicemail message reported that he was out of the country with no return date and partly due to Chappelle'sunwillingness to file a missing person's report, most likely because he did not want the press getting involved. On
September 25th, Canton showed up at the studio where Chappelle was filming the third season of his show. Chappelle related to Canton that he'd been very worried about him and asked where he had been. Staff members recall Canton then pulling Chappelle aside and telling him, "You're dealing with very dangerous people here.
I have to advise you to halt production of the show immediately." Canton then exited the studio very quickly. Chappelle was seen following Canton and saw him getting into a car that looked to be driven by one of Louisis Farrakhan's bodyguards. After this incident, Chappelle halted the day his work on the show and went back to his Los Angeles area hotel.
In October of 2004, Chappelle began slipping into paranoia. He called his agent and told him he was thinking about pulling the plug on the show. When his agent asked why, Chappelle told him about the Dark Crusaders and how they were out to end his career. His agent reportedly laughed, but after realizing Dave was being serious, he recommended that Dave see a psychiatrist.
Chappelle began to retreat further into his shell. People close to him noticed that he began to start drinking heavily and occasionally taking drugs. Word of this got out and rumors began to fly in the press about troubles with Chappelle's show, The Dark Crusaders, appeared to have finally reached Chappelle.
November 12th, 2004, after another talk with his agent, Chappelle rallied himself and tried to give the show one last shot. With a $50 million contract on the line, it wasn't surprising. During the show's production, Dave's secretary appeared on the set to give him his messages for the day.
One of those messages was from Dave's wife, who had run into Bill Cosby in Ohio. The message said that Cosby had invited Dave's wife and her friend to a screening of Cosby show and that they were going. After hearing this, Chappelle immediately told his secretary to book the next flight to Ohio and left the set of the show running.
This raised further concern with the show's cast members and Comedy Central. The entertainment press continued reporting that the Chappelle show was troubled. Comedy Central summoned Chappelle to a meeting to discuss the show's problems. In December of 2004, Chappelle missed his scheduled meeting with Comedy Central to discuss the production problems with the show.
At this point, six shows had been completed and Comedy Central was growing anxious, waiting for production on the remainder of the shows to be completed so they could put it on their schedule. They had already sunk a substantial amount of money into marketing the upcoming third season and were planning to make it the centerpiece of their upcoming lineup.
Stories began to appear in the mainstream media about the problems with the show. The day after Christmas 2004, Chappelle and his family were home trying to enjoy the holidays. Dave had taken to sleeping with a gun under his pillow and wouldn't let his wife or children leave the house without him.
Privately, his wife had consulted with her doctor about institutionalizing Dave. On that day, Chappelle received a package that made him decide to halt the show's production for good. The package, which arrived via UPS, contained a picture of Chappelle's sleeping children taken the night before in Chappelle's house. A person who appeared to be a Val Sharpton's build was standing next to their beds.
January 15th, 2005. While Chappelle laid low, biting his time until a resolution with Comedy Central could be worked out. He and his family were continually harassed. They complained about being followed wherever they went, the windows of their house being broken repeatedly and receiving harassing phone calls at all hours of the night.
The local police appeared to have been doing nothing to ensure the protection of Chappelle and his family. There was talk of the department being in negotiations with BET and Oprah's production company, which may explain why. Chappelle began talking about leaving the country for a while, at least until his show's cancellation was publicly announced.
Chappelle called his agent immediately, hinting at what just happened. Dave told him he would like to cancel the production of the third season. His agent advised Dave not to tell anyone else yet, as he'd like some time to see what he can work out with Comedy Central. Chappelle made one more phone call that evening to Bill Cosby.
All he said to Bill was, "It's over. Call off the dogs only when I see an announcement in the press. Cosby responded. April 2nd, 2005. Chappelle made contact with his friend See in South Africa. Sem, who was later interviewed in the Time magazine article about Chappelle's trip to South Africa, agreed to provide him with a place to stay while he was in South Africa and not to ask too many questions.
April 28th, 2005, Chappelleleft the country for South Africa as the heat from the Dark Crusaders was getting to be too much. His secretary reported getting a hold of Bill Cosby for him, though the details of the conversation are not known. Immediately following that conversation, Chappelle drove his family to a safe location in rural Ohio and booked a flight to South Africa at the Cincinnati airport.
On May 15th, 2005, Time magazine ran the article that effectively announced the ending of Chappelle's show. In an interview with a Time reporter done in South Africa, Chappelle spun the decisions for cancing the show. He talked about how things overwhelmed him and how he didn't want to dance and shuffle for the show. Chappelle also denied rumors of drug and alcohol abuse.
Later, he reported having thought about going into the campaign waged against him by the Dark Crusaders, but he just wanted to put it all behind him and not take a chance of any harm coming to him or his family. May 16th, 2005, the Dark Crusaders met again at the Omni Hotel to celebrate the publication of the Time Article and the delay on production of the Chappelle Show.
All members agreed not to be seen together publicly in the next 12 months and deny any involvement in the cancellation of Chappelle's show if ever asked about the rumors. According to documents, they designated Farrakhan as the man to silence any member who appeared to be considering talking about their involvement. They all left from separate entrances at the end of the party and at staggered intervals.
Their mission was complete. After the Time magazine article in May of 2005, Dave was gone and managed to stay out of the public eye almost completely. That wasn't until February of the following year when he came back for an interview with Oprah Winfrey. >> So, what happened to Dave Chappelle? He's here today to talk about it in his first television interview.
Please welcome Dave Chappelle. Fun, fun, fun, fun. I'm glad you're here. Everybody wants to know why'd you walk away from $50 million. >> Well, I wasn't walking away from the money. >> Yeah. >> I was walking away from the circumstances. Mhm. >> It was completely outside of my frame of reference.
I've been in show business since I was 14 and uh I've heard the stories >> Mhm. >> of what happens and I've seen these kinds of things play out in front of me. >> Okay. When I saw >> When you say you heard the stories, what do you mean? What stories? >> I mean, you see before, look, Mariah Carey made a $und00 million deal and three months later, she's all of a sudden mysteriously crazy.
or Mar Lawrence punches through when he's waving a gun on the street screaming, "They're trying to kill me." >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We hear those stories >> and it always happens around a time in their career where it seems as though they're crossing over next plateau. >> Yeah. Yeah. Would you say you lost your mind sort of? >> No.
>> No, >> not exactly. >> Okay. >> Uh I wasn't crazy, but it it's incredibly stressful. >> Yeah. And uh I felt like in a in a lot of instances I was deliberately being put through stress. You know when you're a guy that generates money >> Yeah. >> people have a vested interest in controlling. >> Yeah.
Were they trying to control you? Because you know I read the Time magazine article and they were quoted as saying you had extreme creative control and that you really ran your own show. >> Yeah. Okay. But Oprah, I did two very successful seasons before that. So why all of a sudden on the third time >> am I in Africa by myself? Like what what's happening? >> Yeah.
So what happened? Did you find yourself spiraling >> down? Well, first of all, yeah, but I don't want to make it as a thing where I'm absolving myself of any responsibility of obviously I'm I'm partially responsible. You know, a lot of it has to do with me. >> Was there a tipping point for you? Yeah. People were saying though that you were on drugs. You lost your mind.
You went into a mental institution. What is true? What is not? >> Not on drugs. >> Not on drugs. >> Nah, not for years. >> Okay. >> No, I'm not on drugs. I >> And you weren't on drugs at the time. >> No, no, not at all. Not at all. I'm telling you, I was incredibly stressed out. >> No, really. What was going on, >> man? Where do you start? Damn, this story.
I uh let's say for your handlers, for instance. >> Yeah. >> A lot of these people uh traditionally get paid on percentage basises. The more you work, >> the more they make. >> The more they make. >> Yeah. >> You make that real money. They lost their minds. I thought they were crazy. >> Uhhuh. >> And then they put in the paper that I had uh pneumonia. God knows what. Mhm.
>> It was walking pneumonia cuz I was walking all over the place. Uh I was relaxing. And then the the next day it was in the paper that I had writer's block. Then I knew something was getting ready to get stressful cuz I hadn't even started writing. It wasn't I was on the schedule to write.
So I waslike what's you know what's going on? Are they going to >> So these are your people trying to feed >> manipulate me. Sounds like somebody's trying to put Young Dave in a compromising position. Now, whether or not the website was a complete hoax, the energy in that interview is very interesting. And in my opinion, some of Oprah's body language and the looks she gave Dave were a little suspect.
Also, Oprah seems dead set on insisting Dave was crazy and spiraling, bringing it up over and over and repeatedly asking if he was in a psych ward or if he visited a mental institution. And most interesting of all, the interview came from the OWN YouTube channel. OWN stands for Oprah Winfrey Network. So, this is the official upload from OWN of the interview, but something's missing.
A viral clip cut from that interview that I happen to know exists, but seems to have been removed from the official upload. I mean, I'm a conspiracy theorist to a degree. Like, when I I connect dots that maybe shouldn't be connected, I don't know. But certain dots like when I see that they put every black man in the movies in a dress at some point in their career.
I'll be connecting dot like why all these brothers got to wear a dress. That's happened to me. I'm doing a movie with Martin. >> Yeah. >> The movie's going good. So I walk in the trailer. I'm like, man, this must be the wrong trailer cuz there's a dress in here. They come in. It's the writer comes in. I think he's the writer.
He's like, "Dave, listen. We got this hilarious scene where Martin's sneaking out of jail. So, he disguises you as a prostitute and you put this dress on and Huh? My prostitute. No, I'm not doing that. I don't feel comfortable with that. That should have been in the discussion. What? You don't feel comfortable with it? I mean, it's a hilarious bit.
All the greats have done it. So, well, if all the greats have done it, it's kind of hacky, right? You're right. So, why don't we just not do it? Cuz I don't feel comfortable wearing a dress. Oh, come on, Dave. Listen, we we got it all set up. We're supposed to shoot. Every every minute you waste cost this much money. You know, the pressure comes in.
Huh? He said, "I'm No, I'm not wearing no dress, man. I'm funnier than a dress. Just give me something funny to say. I don't need to wear no dress to be funny. What am I burrow?" You know, we're going like this. And then finally, he's like, "Ah." And he he leaves. And then like the director comes, David, really would be great if you wear the dress.
What is wrong? What is this broke back mountain in here? So then like where the wear THE DRESS I WANT TO WEAR THE I WANT TO WEAR this dress you know I mean this is oh gosh this guy's so difficult they leave now the producers comes come on David would be so great I mean and then I started thinking about all the comics that I've seen man you know strong brothers why why they putting us in these dresses But the minute it was clear, I was adamant.
I'm not wearing the dress. I'm not wearing the dress. All right, fine. Think of something else. Guy comes back 10 minutes later, a whole new scene. God damn. How did you write the scene so fast, you know? It's like, so you got to take a stink. >> So, let's talk about the hoax and how it was debunked.
According to the New York Times, the website was made in order to sell t-shirts. The original postings about the theory all came from Jason Hill, 33, co-founder of the Philadelphiabased web development company WebLink LLC. According to several sites, Weblink registered the domain name chappelle Theory.com in October, 2 months before its unofficial debut.
The plan was to use the site to promote a clothing site called antisocial.com, which sells dark crusaders t-shirts for $18. "We are definitely getting a resurgence of traffic now," Mr. Hill said. Darren Hill, 30, Jason Hill's brother and co-founder of Weblink, admitted that Chappelle Theory was published to promote the antisocial brand.
Still, he said he saw some value in the website. Wow, what an incredibly convoluted way to sell some t-shirts. Not included in the article is any information about how many t-shirts they sold. How lucrative was this apparent business opportunity? So, that's pretty much it for chappelle theory.com.
As usual, I'd love to hear what you think about the theory in the comments below. But a couple videos ago, I was accused of not going deep enough, and I took that a bit personally, so we're going to go a bit deeper. In 2017, Dave Chappelle made a major comeback, releasing the first two of several comedy specials in a massive deal with Netflix.
But I want to talk about his special, The Bird Revelation, released on December 31st, 2017. The Bird Revelation was filmed in a more intimate setting in front of just about 50 audience members. In the special, Dave tells a very interesting story that I believe shines just a little more light on what may have transpired leading to him quitting the show.
With around 17minutes left in the special, he ends a runchy bit about R. Kelly by saying, "It's okay. My career ended a long time ago." After a big laugh and a long pause, he says, "You want to know what happened to me?" After a few more minutes of banter, Dave does get into what happened to him, but he says, "I'll tell you what happened, but I can't say it directly.
But there's a book that encapsulates my entire experience. That book is called Pimp. Now, I wish I could just play the whole clip, but it's several minutes long, and I don't think Netflix would appreciate it. I obviously don't have the same gravitas as Dave, but I will summarize the story here to let you know why I think it's important in this theory.
Like I said, the book Dave relates directly to what happened to him, is Pimp, written by a former pimp named Iceberg Slim about his life in the 1940s. The story Dave directly relates to is told near the end of the book and details the ways Iceberg Slim must psychologically manipulate the women working for him. Iceberg Slim's top earner is starting to wear thin.
The struggles of her daily life are becoming too much to handle, and she's beginning to lose her sanity. But more importantly, she's beginning to cause problems for Iceberg and is constantly thinking about leaving him in search of a better life. So Iceberg agrees to free the woman if she does one last job. A big money client, big enough that she can keep a portion of the large payout for herself this time to help her begin her new life.
The woman, disgusted by iceberg and eager to get away from him, agrees. Slim instructs her that the client is across the street at a motel in room number seven. But there's a catch. He retrieves a vial of powder and hands it to the woman, instructing her to slip it into the man's drink, then sleep with him. By the time they are done with the deed, he will pass out, at which point she is to retrieve his briefcase, bring it back to Iceberg, and then they can go their separate ways.
The woman snatches the vial and goes across the street, disappearing into room number seven. Time passes, too much time, so long that Iceberg actually starts to worry. But then the woman comes crashing back inside, desperate and hysterical. She begins to tell Slim that >> the man doesn't look right, like he's sick or something.
>> He asks, >> "Well, did you put the powder in his drink?" >> She replies, >> "Yes, I dumped the violin." And >> Iceberg cuts her off. >> "You put the whole violin? You weren't supposed to dump the whole thing in there." >> The two cross back over to the hotel and enter room 7 together. The client is limp, lay it out on the bed.
Iceberg tells the woman to relax, and he calls the shady doctor that lives down the street. The doctor arrives, checks the man, and confirms that he is dead. Iceberg retrieves the client's briefcase and opens it. It is nearly overflowing with cash. He takes a little out and gives it to the doctor, who takes his leave.
The woman breaks down beside herself with fear and regret, her mind racing with thoughts of spending the rest of her life in prison. >> We killed him. We killed him. What are we going to do? >> Iceberg corrects her. >> We didn't do anything. You killed him. >> Sending her spiraling further into panic. He demands she relax and tells her he'll fix it.
But the people that will be coming to help will expect a big favor from him in the future, adding to the weight and stress that is already on the woman's shoulders. He makes a call, mumbling on the phone, and several minutes later, a van pulls up. Two men in moving uniforms enter the room with a large area rug in which they roll up the body.
Iceberg retrieves another bit of money from the packed briefcase, pays them, and then says he'll contact them later. They correct him. You won't have to. We'll find you when we need you. Finally, Iceberg once again tells the woman to pull herself together. She once again says, "We killed him." >> He once again corrects her. >> "You killed him. I cleaned it up.
Now we have a secret between us." >> The woman that was at her breaking point was now broken. Trauma bonded to Iceberg Slim after accidentally killing a man. Fearful as to what would happen to her if the police ever found out what she had done, it now felt impossible to move on with a normal life.
Except the thing is, the man wasn't dead. He was a friend that owed Slim a favor. He just laid there pretending to be asleep for an hour or two while the scene played out. The doctor wasn't a doctor. He was a butcher that Iceberg knew that entered the room wearing his long white butcher's coat. The movers were movers. They had helped Slim previously move into his apartment and showed up for the quick payday.
And the money in the briefcase, it was Iceberg Slim's money all along. The lion share of it made by his top earner who was now back in the palm of his hand. >> That's a cold game. That's the [ __ ] capitalist manifesto.And that's why I went to South Africa. So obviously it was more than just making the show was really stressful and he couldn't handle it and had to leave.
Something happened to Dave. Whether they put him in the middle of a bad situation or blackmailed him or what, he became so successful that they had to compromise him. And when he wouldn't allow it, they tried to destroy him. Because of the stark contrast in Dave's musculature before and after his hiatus, many people have speculated that they outright replaced him with a clone or lookalike to continue profiting from his likeness.
With Jim Brewer, a fellow comedian and close friend of Dave, saying this when Dave Dave was visited and that's that's up for him to tell that story. And that was my first real like are you what do you mean you were visited and nobody talks about that if I were to say 100% that's him >> because our commu our communication ended and when I say our communic he stopped communicating with me when he came back when I say came back I'm not talking about from Africa because the first thing he did was go on Oprah which I find fascinating.
Um, and I highly suggest people really watch that interview intently. Um, and I sobbed. I sobbed cuz I don't I hope it's him. Um, but I will say when he came back bigger >> Yep. Um, and I thought, "All right, maybe he did steroids. Maybe he worked out like crazy." Um, and and our communication ended.
Now, I had a bizarre FaceTime thing, which again, I think is very sketch. Even the person that, you know, I I there was this um I'll just leave it this. I don't know. Personally, I don't think he was replaced. I think something very scary and traumatizing happened after he blew up. I think he was invited into the big club and when he didn't want to pay the entry fee, aka sell his soul or compromise himself or be blackmailed, I think they ran him out of the business.
I don't think the entirety of the Dark Crusaders thing is true. I think a lot of it's very fictional, but based on the ending of the Bird Revelation, clearly something very disturbing happened that he feels would be too dangerous for him to expose directly. So, that's my deep dive on Dave Chappelle and the various theories surrounding his departure from Chappelle's show and his reappearance as an extremely buff Netflix ambassador.
Guys, as always, thank you so much for watching the video. Please let me know what you thought in the comments below and leave a like on the video if you enjoyed. If you're interested in exclusive videos that might not make it past the YouTube algorithm, check out my Patreon, where I've covered the Vegas shooting in a two-part video, Isaac Cappy's disturbing death, I made a video about the very mysterious death of a 34-year-old physicist Amy Estridge, who made a lot of interesting claims about anti-gravity research shortly before she
passed. I recently made a video where I covered three extremely disturbing conspiracy theories. And probably the most disturbing video I've ever made is all about the cattle mutilation phenomenon. You can see all those videos on Patreon for five bucks. So head over there if you're interested. Guys, thank you so much again for everything and I'll see you very soon.
