Dave Chappelle's Sticks and Stones as Black Radical Tragic comedy. Issue 2 (3rd April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pierce, Lee M.
• Is Part Of: Text and performance quarterly. Volume 42:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 126
• Page End: 143
• Publication Date: 2022-04-03
• Subjects: Performance -- inscription -- stand-up comedy -- ethopoeia -- Dave Chappelle; Oral communication -- Periodicals; Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 302.224205
• DOI: 10.1080/10462937.2022.2036803
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1046-2937

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay argues that Dave Chappelle's 2019 Netflix comedy special Sticks & Stones is a staging of the Black Radical Tragic in which Chappelle performs without resolving the tension between Black revolutionary leadership and the mass-based concerns necessary for collective mobilization. Chappelle maintains the tragic dialectic through two modes of performance: the inscription of Black men and ethopoeia, or impersonation, reserved for the Others. However, that dialectic fails in key points as Chappelle's Others, particularly Black women, are simultaneously inscribed and impersonated, revealing the impossibility of inscribing Black men against threats to liberation.