The logo of Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones in 1947, with George H. W. Bush just left of the clock

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class "landed societies" at Yale.

The society's alumni organization, which owns the society's real property and oversees the organization, is the Russell Trust Association, named for William Huntington Russell,^[1] who co-founded Skull and Bones with classmate Alphonso Taft. The Russell Trust was founded by Russell and Daniel Coit Gilman, member of Skull and Bones and later president of the University of California, first president of Johns Hopkins University, and the founding president of the Carnegie Institution.

The society is known informally as "Bones", and members are known as "Bonesmen".^[2]

History[link]

Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 after a dispute among Yale's debating societies, Linonia, Brothers in Unity, and the Calliopean Society, over that season's Phi Beta Kappa awards; its original name was "the Order of Skull and Bones."^[1][3]

The only chapter of Skull and Bones created outside Yale was a chapter at Wesleyan University in 1870. That chapter, the Beta of Skull and Bones, became independent in 1872 in a dispute about control over creating additional chapters; the Beta Chapter reconstituted itself as Theta Nu Epsilon.^[4][5][6]

The first extended description of Skull and Bones, published in 1871 by Lyman Bagg in his book Four Years at Yale, noted that "the mystery now attending its existence forms the one great enigma which college gossip never tires of discussing."^[7] Brooks Mather Kelley attributed the secrecy of Yale senior societies to the fact that underclassmen members of freshman, sophomore, and junior class societies remained on campus following their membership, while seniors naturally left.^[8]

Deer Island lodge.

Skull and Bones owns an island in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York named Deer Island:

The 40 acre retreat is intended to give Bonesmen an opportunity to "get together and rekindle old friendships." A century ago the island sported tennis courts and its softball fields were surrounded by rhubarb plants and gooseberry bushes. Catboats waited on the lake. Stewards catered elegant meals. Although each new Skull and Bones member still visits Deer Island, the place leaves something to be desired. "Now it is just a bunch of burned-out stone buildings," a patriarch sighs. "It's basically ruins." Another Bonesman says that to call the island "rustic" would be to glorify it. "It's a dump, but it's beautiful."

—Alexandra Robbins, TheAtlantic.com

Once the pinnacle of the college's social system, the society remained central to campus life through the 1950s, but since then some say it has lost much of its luster.^[9]

Tapping[link]

Skull and Bones selects new members every spring as part of Yale University's "Tap Day", and has done so since 1879.^[10] Recent Tap Days were held on April 20, 2009,^[10] and April 15, 2010.^[11] Every year, Skull and Bones selects fifteen men and women of the junior class to join the society. Skull and Bones traditionally "tapped" those that it viewed as campus leaders and other notable figures for its membership.^[12] The Tapping ceremony has always been a public event at Yale.^[13] The traditional form was followed for generations:

Every year, ... about 200 hopeful juniors gather on the grass in Branford College court (until 1933 they stood by the Fence in front of Durfee on the old campus). At the stroke of 5, senior members of the societies, wearing their pins, black ties and blue suits, march through the crowd, tap their men. A tappee hustles to his room, followed closely by his tapper, or shakes his head (refusal). Each society picks 15. Tapping usually ends when the Battell Chapel clock strikes 6, but in 1936 Wolf's Head, turned down by 17 tappees, went on tapping long after dark to fill its quota.

—Time Magazine, [4]

The Tomb[link]

Exterior view of Skull and Bones, 64 High Street, New Haven, early 20th century

The Skull & Bones Hall is otherwise known as the "Tomb". The architectural attribution of the original hall is in dispute. The architect was possibly Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) or Henry Austin (1804–1891). Architectural historian Patrick Pinnell includes an in-depth discussion of the dispute over the identity of the original architect in his 1999 history of Yale's campus.^[14]

The building was built in three phases: in 1856 the first wing was built, in 1903 the second wing, and in 1911, Davis-designed Neo-Gothic towers from a previous building were added at the rear garden. The front and side facades are of Portland brownstone and in an Egypto-Doric style.

The 1911 additions of towers in the rear created a small enclosed courtyard in the rear of the building, designed by Evarts Tracy and Edgerton Swartwout, Tracy and Swartwout, New York.^[15] Evarts was not a Bonesman, but his paternal grandmother Martha Sherman Evarts and maternal grandmother Mary Evarts were the sisters of William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837). Pinnell speculates whether the re-use of the Davis towers in 1911 was evidence suggesting that Davis did the original building; conversely, Austin was responsible for the architecturally similar brownstone Egyptian Revival gates, built 1845, of the Grove Street Cemetery, to the north of campus. Also discussed by Pinnell is the "tomb's" aesthetic place in relation to its neighbors, including the Yale University Art Gallery.^[16] New Hampshire landscape architects Saucier & Flynn designed the wrought-iron fence that currently surrounds a portion of the complex in the late 1990s.^[17] Coordinates: 41°18′31″N 72°55′48″W / 41.30857°N 72.930092°W / 41.30857; -72.930092 (Skull and Bones Hall)

Bonesmen[link]

Yearbook listing of Skull & Bones membership for 1920. The 1920 delegation included co-founders of Time magazine, Briton Hadden and Henry Luce

Skull and Bones has developed a reputation with some as having a membership that is heavily tilted towards the "Power Elite".^[18] Regarding the qualifications for membership, Lanny Davis, writing in the 1968 Yale yearbook, wrote:

If the society had a good year, this is what the "ideal" group will consist of: a football captain; a Chairman of the Yale Daily News; a conspicuous radical; a Whiffenpoof; a swimming captain; a notorious drunk with a 94 average; a film-maker; a political columnist; a religious group leader; a Chairman of the Lit; a foreigner; a ladies' man with two motorcycles; an ex-service man; a negro, if there are enough to go around; a guy nobody else in the group had heard of, ever ... "^[19]

Like other Yale senior societies, for much of its history Skull and Bones membership was almost exclusively limited to white Protestant males. While Yale itself had exclusionary policies at various times during its history, the senior societies were even more exclusionary.^[20][21] Catholics had some success attaining membership in such groups; Jews less so.^[21] Sports was the means by which some of these excluded groups eventually entered Skull and Bones, through its practice of tapping standout athletes. Star football players were the first Jewish (Al Hessberg, class of 1938) and African-American (Levi Jackson, class of 1950, who turned down the invitation) students to be tapped for Skull and Bones.^[20]

Yale became coeducational in 1969, yet Skull & Bones remained all-male until 1992. An attempt to tap women for membership by the Bones class of 1971 was opposed by Bones alumni, who dubbed them the "bad club" and quashed their attempt. "The issue", as it came to be called by Bonesmen, was debated for decades.^[22] The class of 1991 tapped seven female members for membership in the next year's class, causing conflict with their own alumni association, the Russell Trust.^[23] The Trust changed the locks on the "Tomb"; the Bonesmen had to meet at the building of Manuscript Society.^[23] A mail-in vote by members decided 368-320 to permit going co-ed, but a group of alumni led by William F. Buckley obtained a temporary restraining order to block the move, arguing that a formal change in bylaws was needed.^[23][24] Other alumni, such as John Kerry and R. Inslee Clark, Jr., spoke out in favor of admitting women, and the dispute even ended up on The New York Times editorial page.^[23][25] A second vote of alumni in October 1991 agreed to accept the Class of 1992, and the lawsuit was dropped.^[23][26]

Like its counterparts, Bones has diversified further its membership, similarly with the other six landed societies at Yale. Although, members have noted that no longer do they simply represent the strongest leaders on campus.^[27] As one member of the 1991 class wrote to alumni, "Being a part of Bones is often an embarrassment, a source of ridicule and occasionally a good way to lose a friend ... Very rarely is the Bones still seen as an honor, and never is it seen to represent the mainstream of Yale."^[28]

Judith Ann Schiff, Chief Research Archivist at the Yale University Library, has written: "The names of its members weren't kept secret — that was an innovation of the 1970s — but its meetings and practices were."^[29]

While resourceful researchers could assemble member data from these original sources, in 1985 an anonymous source leaked rosters to Antony C. Sutton, who wrote a book on the group titled America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones.^[30] This membership information was kept privately for over 15 years, as Sutton feared that the photocopied pages could somehow identify the member who leaked it. The information was finally reformatted as an appendix in the book Fleshing out Skull and Bones, a compilation edited by Kris Millegan, published in 2003.

Among prominent alumni are former President and Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft (son of a founder of the society); former Presidents George H. W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush; Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart; ^[31] James Jesus Angleton, "mother of the Central Intelligence Agency"; Henry Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War (1940-1945); and United States Secretary of Defense, Robert A. Lovett, who directed the Korean War.

Senator John Kerry; Stephen A. Schwarzman, founder of Blackstone; Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers; Harold Stanley, co-founder of Morgan Stanley; and Frederick W. Smith, founder of Fedex, are all reported to be members.

Lore[link]

One legend is that 322 in the emblem of the society stands for "founded in '32, 2nd corps", referring to a first Corps in an unknown German university.^[32][33] Others suggest that 322 refers to the death of Demosthenes and that documents in the society hall have purportedly been found dated to "Anno-Demostheni".^[34]

There is an ongoing rumor that there is some form whereby new members recite to the society their sexual history, and although there has been no corroboration of this by any reliable source, the rumor lives on.^[35]

Members are assigned nicknames. "Long Devil" is assigned to the tallest member; "Boaz" goes to any member who is a varsity football captain. Many of the chosen names are drawn from literature ("Hamlet", "Uncle Remus"), from religion and from myth. The banker Lewis Lapham passed on his nickname, "Sancho Panza", to the political adviser Tex McCrary. Averell Harriman was "Thor", Henry Luce was "Baal", McGeorge Bundy was "Odin", and George H. W. Bush was "Magog".^[36]

In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican nominees were alumni. George W. Bush wrote in his autobiography, "[In my] senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society; so secret, I can't say anything more."^[37] When asked what it meant that he and Bush were both Bonesmen, former Presidential candidate John Kerry said, "Not much, because it's a secret."^[38][39]

Each Skull and Bones class meets every Thursday and Sunday night during the senior year.^[40]

Crooking[link]

Skull and Bones has a reputation for stealing keepsakes from other Yale societies or from campus buildings; society members reportedly call the practice "crooking" and strive to outdo each other's "crooks".^[41]

The society has been accused of possessing the stolen skulls of Martin Van Buren, Geronimo, and Pancho Villa, but this has never been proven.^[42][43]

Geronimo[link]

Skull and Bones members supposedly stole the bones of Geronimo from Fort Sill, Oklahoma during World War I. In 1986, former San Carlos Apache Chairman Ned Anderson received an anonymous letter with a photograph and a copy of a log book claiming that Skull & Bones held the skull. He met with Skull & Bones officials about the rumor; the group's attorney, Endicott P. Davidson, denied that the group held the skull, and said that the 1918 ledger saying otherwise was a hoax.^[44] The group offered Anderson a glass case with what he believed was not the skull of Geronimo, but rather a skull of a ten-year-old boy, but Anderson refused it.^[45] In 2006, Marc Wortman discovered a 1918 letter^[46] from Skull & Bones member Winter Mead to F. Trubee Davison that claimed the skull was "exhumed" from Fort Sill by the club and was "safe" in the club's headquarters.^[47]

In 2009, Ramsey Clark filed a lawsuit on behalf of people claiming to be Geronimo's descendants, against, among others, Barack Obama, Robert Gates, and Skull and Bones, asking for the return of Geronimo's bones.^[44] An article in The New York Times states that Clark "acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true."^[48] Alexandra Robbins, author of a book on Skull and Bones, says this is one of the more plausible items said to be in the organization's Tomb.^[49] Cameron University history professor David H. Miller notes that Geronimo's grave was unmarked at the time.^[47] Investigations conducted by journalists such as Cecil Adams and Kitty Kelley have concluded this story is wrong.^[50][51] A Fort Sill spokesman told Adams, "There is no evidence to indicate the bones are anywhere but in the grave site."^[50] Jeff Houser, chairman of the Fort Sill Apache tribe of Oklahoma, also calls the story a hoax.^[45]

The 1918 letter "adds to the seriousness of the belief [that the theft took place], certainly," says Judith Schiff, the chief research archivist at Sterling Memorial Library, who has written extensively on Yale history. "It has a very strong likelihood of being true, since it was written so close to the time." She points out that Members of a secret society were required to be honest with each other about its affairs. The yearbook entries for Haffner, Mead, and Davison say that they were all Bonesmen. (The membership of the societies was routinely published in newspapers and yearbooks until the 1970s.) Haffner's entry says that he was at the artillery school at Fort Sill some time between August 1917 and July 1918.^[41]

Pancho Villa[link]

Pancho Villa's skull has been alleged to have been stolen shortly after his death.^[42] While Robbins originally wrote in her book that the Bonesmen had the skull, she has since retracted the claim, saying that the story that the Bonesmen paid $25,000 for it in the 1920s is implausible.^[42] Writer Mark Singer, a Yale graduate, also rejects the story in a New Yorker article about the myth.^[52]

Conspiracy theories[link]

Skull & Bones is a regular feature in many conspiracy theories, which claim that the society plays a role in a global conspiracy for world domination. It is true that some prominent families had one or more members as Bonesmen. The theorists such as Alexandra Robbins suggest that Skull & Bones is a branch of the Illuminati,^[32] or that Skull & Bones itself controls the Central Intelligence Agency^[53]; the conspiracy theorists relying on supposed personal connections and coincidences^{[citation needed]}. Others who have written about Skull & Bones were economist Antony C. Sutton, who wrote a book on the group titled America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones.^[54] and Kris Millegan, who wrote a book on the society in 2003.^[55][56]

References in fiction[link]

Skull and Bones has been satirized from time to time in the Doonesbury comic strips by Garry Trudeau, Yale graduate and member of Scroll and Key; especially in 1980 and December 1988, with reference to George H. W. Bush, and again at the time that the society went co-ed.^[57]

In The Simpsons, the character Montgomery Burns attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones.^[58]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Hodapp, Christopher; Alice Von Kannon (2008). Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN 0-470-18408-6. 
• Klimczuk, Stephen & Warner, Gerald. "Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries: Uncovering Mysterious Sites, Symbols, and Societies". Sterling Publishing, 2009, New York and London. ISBN 978-1-4027-6207-9. pp. 212-232 ("University Secret Societies and Dueling Corps").
• Robbins, Alexandra. Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Back Bay Books, 2003. ISBN 0-316-73561-2.
• Sutton, Antony C. America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Walterville, OR: Trine Day, 2003. ISBN 0-9720207-0-5.
• Tedford, Cody. Powerful Secrets. Hannover, 2008. ISBN 1-4241-9263-3.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Skull and bones

Wikinews has related news: Apaches accuse Prescott Bush of robbing Geronimo's grave

External links[link]

• Yale University archives of Skull and Bones

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Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt is an American freelance writer who served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education during the first term of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and staff employee of the US State Department (South Africa, Belgium, South Korea).^[1][2][3] She was born circa 1930. Her father and grandfather were Yale University graduates and members of the Skull and Bones secret society.

She is known for writing the book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America The book claims that changes gradually brought into the American public education system attempt to eliminate the influences of a child's parents (religion, morals, national patriotism), and mold the child into a member of the proletariat in preparation for a socialist-collectivist world of the future.^[3] She alleges that these changes originated from plans formulated primarily by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education, Rockefeller General Education Board), and details what she says are the psychological methods used to implement and effect the changes.^[3]

In an interview^[2] concerning secret societies and the elite agenda she disclosed that in the early 1980s she had a chance to meet with Norman Dodd who had been the chief investigator for the United States House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations commonly known as the B. Carroll Reece Committee. In the video she claims that Dodd discussed a 'network' of individuals including Carnegie who planned to bring about world peace by means of rapid changes in society. These changes would be brought about by involving the populace in various wars and military conflicts. She further claimed that Dodd had discussions with Rowan Gaither, the president of the Ford Foundation in which he revealed that directives from the President of the United States compelled foundations related to the Ford Foundation to direct their funding into bringing about the merger of the USA with the Soviet Union.^[4][5][6]

Mr. Dodd, all of us here at the policy making level of the foundation have at one time or another served in the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA) or the European Economic Administration, operating under directives from the White House. We operate under those same directives… The substance of the directives under which we operate is that we shall use our grant making power to so alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.

— Rowan Gaither, President Ford Foundation - 1953, Norman Dodd - friend of Iserbyt^[7]

Filmed interviews of Iserbyt have her detail her story that lead her from school board trustee/administrator to becoming a Ronald Reagan administration staff in the U.S. Department of Education, and discovering further to her complete disbelief how these policies of a socialist-collectivist nature originated all the way to President Reagan, Vice President George H. W. Bush, and their policy advisers.

Up until 1960 Reagan, a leading member of United World Federalists (whose purpose was to merge America into a world government), was a charter member of Americans for Democratic Action. Reagan was also a member of the National Advisory Council of the American Veterans Committee^[8] that was supposedly "under communist influence."

Not listening to warnings provided to her in a book about Ronald Reagan (as California Governor, written by United Republicans of California (UROC)) given to her by friend, Iserbyt dismissed the seemingly outrageous claims made in the book a short time prior to her accepting and leaving for the government position. 1982 Reagan relieved her of her duties after leaking an important technology grant for computerized learning--Project BEST: "Better Education Skills through Technology"^[9] brought about by the scholarly writings and a large study by an education specialist named Dr. John I. Goodlad at the Center for Educational Renewal at the University of Washington originally from British Columbia, Canada.^[10] One book Iserbyt was critical of was "Schooling for a Global Age" edited by Charlotte C. Anderson, James M. Becker, Institute for Development of Educational Activities, New York 1979, that Iserbyt cited as having less to do with fostering learning and mainly to do with psychological manipulation of students possibly against the teaching of the child's parents, for example, in arts classes.^[11]

Parents and the general public must be reached also. Otherwise, children and youth enrolled in globally oriented programs may find themselves in conflict with values assumed in the home. And then the educational institution frequently comes under scrutiny and must pull back.

— Dr. John I. Goodlad, Schooling for a Global Age-1979

And again later...

Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now... Parents and the general public must be reached also, otherwise, children and youth enrolled in globally oriented programs may find themselves in conflict with values assumed in the home. And then the educational institution frequently comes under scrutiny and must pull back.

— Dr. John I. Goodlad, "Guide to Getting Out Your Message," National Education Goals Panel Community Action Toolkit: A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Education Renewal (September 1994); 6.^[12]

Through her father Charlotte Iserbyt was able to gain possession of the complete listings of the members, living and dead, of the Yale University Skull and Bones secret society, fashioned into a three-volume set: living members, deceased members, and complete listing of both^{[citation needed]}. She cooperated in the writing of Dr. Antony C. Sutton's book America's Secret Establishment - The Order of Skull & Bones by providing the list of members obtained from her father.^[13]

Fifteen Yale juniors are invited to join the Skulls each year in a process called "tapping". A couple of thousand Yale graduates have been Skulls--WASP males from wealthy Northeastern families: Bush, Bundy, Cheney, Dodge, Ford, Goodyear, Harriman, Heinz, Kellogg, Phelps, Pillsbury, Rockefeller, Taft, Vanderbilt, Weyerhaeuser and Whitney were among its membership.

Iserbyt believes that the Bavarian Illuminati hid inside the Freemasons, and that the Skull and Bones Secret Society is derived from these Illuminati-degree Freemasons from Bavaria whose goals were documented in an original edition 1798 book Proofs of Conspiracy by John Robison in Iserbyt's possession that she claimed was originally owned by the first president of the United States of America, Freemason, George Washington. The ideas of a ruling elite date back prior to Plato's writings about the hierarchical plutocracy. Among the goals of the Order of the Illuminati were to destroy religions, and governments from within, merge the destroyed countries, and to bring about a one world government, a new world order, in their secret control.^[14][15]

In the secret societies interview she states that virtually all of the Carnegie Foundation agreements with the Russian education system were still in place, as well as the U.S. Department of Education programs that Iserbyt claims brought about the downfall of American prosperity since the turn of the century, especially post World War II.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Norman Dodd
• Antony Sutton
• John Taylor Gatto
• Judith Reisman^[16]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Back to Basics Reform, or OBE: Skinnerian International Curriculum (1985)
• The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail (1999) ISBN 978-0-9667071-0-6

Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle, 2007
Birth name	David Khari Webber Chappelle
Born	(1973-08-24) August 24, 1973 (age 38) Washington, D.C., U.S.[1]
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1987–present
Genres	Satire/political satire, improvisational comedy, observational comedy, surreal humor, sketch comedy, black comedy, blue comedy
Subject(s)	Racism, race relations, American politics, African American culture, pop culture, recreational drug use, human sexuality, morality
Influences	Richard Pryor,[2] Eddie Murphy,[2] Mel Blanc,[2] Chris Rock[3]
Spouse	Elaine Chappelle (2001–present) 3 children
Notable works and roles	Himself and Various in Chappelle's Show Himself in Dave Chappelle's Block Party Achoo in Robin Hood: Men in Tights Thurgood Jenkins in Half Baked
Signature

David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle^[4] (/ʃəˈpɛl/; born August 24, 1973)^[1] is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His first lead role in a film was in Half Baked in 1998. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show, which ran until his abrupt retirement from the show in 2005. Chappelle is ranked forty-third in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.^[5]

Early life[link]

Chappelle was born David Khari Webber Chappelle in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1973.^[1][2] His father, William David Chappelle III, was a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.^[2] His mother, Yvonne (née Reed), was a professor at Howard University, Prince George's Community College, and the University of Maryland and is also a Unitarian Universalist minister.^[6][7][8] Chappelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Woodlin Elementary School.^[2] During young Chappelle's formative years, his comic inspiration came from various comedians, particularly Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor.^[2]

After his parents separated, Chappelle stayed in Washington with his mother while spending summers with his father in Ohio. In 1991, he graduated from Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts where he studied theatre arts.^[2]

Chappelle moved to New York City to pursue a career as a comedian. He gathered the courage to perform at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in front of the infamous "Amateur Night" audience. The performance resulted in him being booed off the stage. Chappelle has described the experience as the moment that gave him the courage to continue his show business aspirations.^[2] He quickly made a name for himself in the New York comedy circuit, even performing in the city's parks. At the age of 19, Chappelle made his film debut as "Ahchoo" in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights. In the same year, Chappelle was offered the role of Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in Forrest Gump. Concerned about what seemed to be a racially demeaning character, he turned down the part; the film would go on to win Academy Award for Best Picture that year. He has since admitted to regretting the decision.^[9] Chappelle played another supporting movie role in 1994's little-seen Getting In.

He attracted the attention of TV network executives and developed numerous pilots but none of them were picked up for series.^[2][10] In 1995, he made a guest appearance in an episode of ABC's highly rated sitcom Home Improvement. The storyline had Chappelle and real-life friend comedian Jim Breuer ask Tim Taylor for advice on their girlfriends. The characters' single outing in the episode proved so popular that ABC decided to give them their own spin-off sitcom titled Buddies. However, after taping a pilot episode, Jim Breuer was fired and replaced with actor Christopher Gartin. Buddies premiered in March 1996 to disappointing ratings. The show was cancelled after only four episodes out of thirteen that were produced. Nine years later, in May 2005, ten of the episodes were released on a single-disc DVD to capitalize on Chappelle's new-found fame.

After the failure of Buddies, Chappelle starred in another pilot. According to Chappelle, the network was uncomfortable with the African-American cast and wanted white actors added. Chappelle resisted and subsequently accused the network of racism. Shortly after this incident, Chappelle's father died. Chappelle returned to Ohio and considered leaving the entertainment business.^[2][10]

He later appeared as a nightclub comedian in the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy, one of his major comedic influences. He also had a minor role in 1997's Con Air. He and Neal Brennan co-wrote the 1998 cult stoner film Half Baked, Chappelle's first starring role, about a group of marijuana-smoking friends trying to get their friend out of jail. That same year, he appeared in "Pilots and Pens Lost", a 1998 episode of The Larry Sanders Show's sixth season, in which he and the executives of the show's nameless television network satirized the treatment to which scriptwriters and show creators were subjected, as well as the executives' knee-jerk tendencies toward racial stereotypes. In December of that year Chappelle appeared as Tom Hanks' friend and confidant in You've Got Mail. In 1999, he appeared in the Martin Lawrence film Blue Streak.

In 2000, Chappelle recorded his first HBO special, Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly, in Washington, DC.^[11] He followed this up with an appearance as "Conspiracy Brother" in the 2002 racial satire Undercover Brother.

[edit] 2003–2006: Standup and Chappelle's Show

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly sketch comedy show on Comedy Central called Chappelle's Show. The show parodied many aspects of American culture including racial stereotypes, politics and pop culture. Along with comedy skits, the show also featured musical performances by mostly hip-hop and soul artists.

Chappelle's pointed social and political commentary quickly helped the show garner critical and commercial success as well as controversy.^[10][12] Richard Pryor, one of Chappelle's comedic influences, was a fan of the show and stated that he had "passed the torch" to Chappelle.^[10] Chappelle received two Emmy nominations for the show.^[13] Additionally, the DVD set became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date, overtaking the previous best-selling, The Simpsons first season DVD. It had sold over 3 million copies.^[14] Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $55 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects. Chappelle had stated that sketches are not his favorite form of comedy, and that the characteristics of the show's format were somewhat like short films.

In June 2004, based on the popularity of the "Rick James" sketch, it was announced that Chappelle was in talks to portray Rick James in a biopic from Paramount Pictures (also owned by Viacom).^[15] James's estate disagreed with the proposed comical tone of the film and put a halt to the talks.^[16]

In 2004, Chappelle recorded his second comedy special, this time airing on Showtime - Dave Chappelle: For What It's Worth, at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium.^[17]

Season three turbulence[link]

In a June 2004 stand-up performance in Sacramento, California, Chappelle walked off the stage after berating his audience for constantly shouting "I'm Rick James, bitch!," which became a catchphrase from the popular "Rick James" sketch. After a few minutes, Chappelle returned and continued by saying, "The show is ruining my life." He stated that he disliked working "20 hours a day" and that the popularity of the show was making it difficult for him to continue his stand-up career, which was "the most important thing" to him. He also told the audience:

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.^[18]

Season 3 was scheduled to air on May 31, 2005, but in that month, Chappelle stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show and took a trip to South Africa. Chappelle has since stated that he was unhappy with the direction the show had taken.

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.^[19]

Return[link]

In June 2005, Chappelle performed impromptu stand-up shows in Los Angeles.^[20][21][22] He then went on a tour that began in Newport, Kentucky, not far from his Ohio home.^[23] He also made a surprise appearance on HBO's Def Poetry where he performed two poems, titled Fuck Ashton Kutcher and How I Got the Lead on "Jeopardy!."^[24] He was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005 at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered on February 12, 2006.^[25] Chappelle stated that the death of his father in 1998 had an impact on his decision to go to South Africa. By throwing himself into his work, he had not taken a chance to mourn his father's death. He also said the rumors that he was in drug or psychiatric treatment only persuaded him to stay in South Africa.^[2]

He continued:

I would go to work on the show and I felt awful every day, that's not the way it was. ... I felt like some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad, why keep on showing up to this place? I'm going to Africa. The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching.

Chappelle also said that he felt some of his sketches were "socially irresponsible."^[26][27] He singled out the "pixie sketch" in which pixies appear to people and encourage them to reinforce stereotypes of their races. In the sketch, Chappelle is wearing blackface and is dressed as a character in a minstrel show.^[28] According to Chappelle, during the filming of the sketch, a crew member was laughing in a way that made him feel uncomfortable and made him rethink the show.^[26][27] Chappelle said, "it was the first time I felt that someone was not laughing with me but laughing at me."^[26]

During these interviews, Chappelle did not rule out returning to Chappelle's Show to "finish what we started," but promised that he would not return without changes to the production, such as a better working environment. He also stated he would like to donate half of the DVD sales to charity.^[29] Chappelle expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying that to do so would be "a bully move," and that he would not return to the show if Comedy Central were to air the unfinished material.^[27] On July 9, 2006, Comedy Central aired the first episode of Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes. An uncensored DVD release of the episodes was made available on July 25.

The show still plays in syndication on several television networks despite the relatively small number of episodes compared to most American syndicated television programs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The site of Dave Chappelle's Block Party in Brooklyn.

Chappelle was the star and producer of the Michel Gondry-directed documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which chronicles a Chappelle-hosted concert in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn on September 18, 2004. Several musical artists, including Kanye West, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Dead Prez and Jill Scott are featured in the movie both performing in the concert and in conversation off-stage. The most surprising highlight of the event was the "last minute" reunion of popular 1990s hip hop group The Fugees. Chappelle toured several cities in February and March 2006 to promote the film under the moniker "Block Party All-Stars featuring Dave Chappelle". Universal Pictures' genre division Rogue Pictures released the film in the United States on March 3, 2006.

2007–present[link]

In April 2007, Chappelle set a stand-up endurance record at the Laugh Factory Sunset Strip comedy club, beating comedian Dane Cook's record of 3 hours and 50 minutes. In December of the same year, Chappelle broke his own record with a time of 6 hours and 12 minutes. Cook reclaimed the record in January 2008, with a time of 7 hours.^[30] On November 19, 2009 Chappelle performed at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where it was speculated that he would aim to take back the record. However, he was disqualified according to the club owner, after he left the stage, five hours into his routine.^[31]

Chappelle again appeared on Inside the Actors Studio and in celebration of the show's 200th episode, he humorously interviewed the show's usual host, James Lipton. The episode aired on November 11, 2008.

Personal life[link]

Chappelle lives with his wife Elaine, two sons,^[28] Sulayman^[32] and Ibrahim,^[33] and daughter Sonal, on a 65-acre (260,000 m²) farm,^[2][10] just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio.^[23] He also owns several houses in Xenia, Ohio. Regarding his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Chappelle says, "Turns out you don't need $50 million to live around these parts, just a nice smile and a kind way about you. You guys are the best neighbors ever," he stated at a blues and jazz festival in the town in mid-September 2006. "That's why I came back and that's why I'm staying."^[34]

Chappelle is a Muslim, having converted to Islam in 1998. He told Time Magazine in a May 2005 interview, "I don’t normally talk about my religion publicly because I don’t want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is beautiful if you learn it the right way."^[35]

Filmography[link]

This section requires expansion.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Chappelle

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dave Chappelle

• Dave Chappelle at the Internet Movie Database
• Video of Anderson Cooper 360 Interview
• Fresh Air Interview in 2004