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Dave Chappelle

Sometimes a person’s success can come too fast. I think this was the case with Dave Chappelle. After all, he went from starring in small, minor roles to having his own, insanely successful, sketch comedy show. At first everything was all fine and good until Chappelle started feeling like people were laughing at him as a fool instead of a comedian. It had gotten to the point where Chappelle had to walk off a stage during one of his standup performances because people wouldn’t stop screaming, “I’m Rick James Bish!” Chappelle went on to tell his audience that the show was taking him away from his standup career and thereby ruining his life. He finally drove the nail in the coffin with this nugget, reported by the Sacramento Bee:

“You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you’re not smart enough to get what I’m doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong. You people are stupid.”

Shortly after that Chappelle left the show, taking a vacation to South Africa. Time Magazine reported that he offered this as an explanation:

“Coming here I don’t have the distractions of fame. It quiets the ego down. I’m interested in the kind of person I’ve got to become. I want to be well rounded and the industry is a place of extremes. I want to be well balanced. I’ve got to check my intentions, man.”