Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis: Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle returns to his hometown of Washington D.C. in the year 2000, during his tour around the country, to perform for the people of D.C. During his show “Killin’ Him Softly” Chappelle effectively uses rhetorical strategies by engaging his audience, understanding the culture he is addressing, as well as exemplifying the problem with racial stereotypes and the disparity of police brutality between the African American community and the white community. As Chappelle walks out onto the stage the crowd whoops and hollers as he takes his place in front of the microphone. As the camera scans over the audience it becomes distinct that the demographic for this show is African American. Chappelle knows that his jokes are appropriate only to this audience because of the way the jokes push boundaries. He understands that his audience will be able to understand his jokes because most of them grew up in the same neighborhood and experienced the same racial stereotypes that he did. For example during his performance he commonly refers back to the audience and waits for their agreement. When talking about a very good friend of his who is white he jokes about how this friend of his would be constantly under the influence when he would cross paths with a police officer. Chappelle then turns to the first row audience members and says “now we all now what would happen if one of us walked up to a police officer high” continuing on to make a joke about police brutality. Now if the audience had been predominantly white then they would have not been able to relate to that joke as well. This shows that Chappelle understood whom his audience was and how to engage them because of his prior experience growing up in a predominantly African American community. Also, because of where he grew up Chappelle understood which racial slurs and stereotypes were commonly used again African Americans. He makes several jokes about the
Dave Chappelle returns to his hometown of Washington D.C. in the year 2000, during his tour around the country, to perform for the people of D.C. During his show “Killin’ Him Softly” Chappelle effectively uses rhetorical strategies by engaging his audience, understanding the culture he is addressing, as well as exemplifying the problem with racial stereotypes and the disparity of police brutality between the African American community and the white community. As Chappelle walks out onto the stage the crowd whoops and hollers as he takes his place in front of the microphone. As the camera scans over the audience it becomes distinct that the demographic for this show is African American. Chappelle knows that his jokes are appropriate only to this audience because of the way the jokes push boundaries. He understands that his audience will be able to understand his jokes because most of them grew up in the same neighborhood and experienced the same racial stereotypes that he did. For example during his performance he commonly refers back to the audience and waits for their agreement. When talking about a very good friend of his who is white he jokes about how this friend of his would be constantly under the influence when he would cross paths with a police officer. Chappelle then turns to the first row audience members and says “now we all now what would happen if one of us walked up to a police officer high” continuing on to make a joke about police brutality. Now if the audience had been predominantly white then they would have not been able to relate to that joke as well. This shows that Chappelle understood whom his audience was and how to engage them because of his prior experience growing up in a predominantly African American community. Also, because of where he grew up Chappelle understood which racial slurs and stereotypes were commonly used again African Americans. He makes several jokes about the