'Lost Episodes' defy and demystify Chappelle
It's hard to enjoy ``Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes" knowing that Dave Chappelle disapproves of this three-part series. After two seasons of his popular ``Chappelle's Show," the comedian walked away from a $50 million-plus contract having filmed only a few skits for season three. He went to Africa to recover his perspective about fame and money; Comedy Central went nuts.
After failing to coax Chappelle back, the network has cobbled together the unused skits into a semblance of a show, beginning tomorrow night at 9. But if ``The Lost Episodes" is a vindictive act by Comedy Central, you wouldn't know it from the jovial presentation of the material. Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings do the introducing, beginning with thanks to Chappelle. ``If it wasn't for Dave Chappelle," Murphy says to the audience, ``you . . . would still be calling me Eddie Murphy's brother." The pair teases Chappelle for leaving them high and dry, but I didn't detect anything but respect.
And the skits don't hurt Chappelle's reputation, even while they defy Chappelle's wishes. Tonight's material is not bottom-of-the-barrel comedy that indicates some kind of waning of his creative juices. But as they obsessively revolve around Chappelle's fame and money, the skits do seem to reveal a performer in the midst of a burst of self-awareness. In retrospect, you can almost see Chappelle pondering a retreat from the public eye behind all the joking.
In one bit, he's sitting in a barber's chair in St. Thomas when an announcement of his multimillion-dollar contract appears on the shop's TV. Suddenly, the price of his haircut rises to $11,000. By the end of the skit, his bodyguard has been fatally shot and is giving Chappelle parting wisdom: ``Money is the root of all evil," he says, and then, ``You didn't have to do two more seasons. No matter how good the show is, they're only going to say it's not as good as last year was."
Another skit has Chappelle torturing people on his revenge list, including an ex-girlfriend and an agent, both of whom rejected him before he was a star. As he ruins their lives, he laughs gleefully. The message:
A goof on Tupac Shakur also seems to have a cautionary subtext. About the constant flow of Tupac's music since his death, the skit shows how the vulturous industry around an artist can continue to benefit from him after he's gone. Chappelle couldn't have been thinking about Comedy Central and ``The Lost Episodes" when he wrote the skit, but it's nonetheless resonant.
None of the skits in tonight's half-hour will become classic Chappelle; they're good enough, if not great. And I'd be surprised if Comedy Central were saving the best for the second two episodes. But as a look at a man about to turn his back on a $50 million -plus payday to preserve his sanity, ``The Lost Episodes" does have its moments.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. 
