NEW YORK CITY, NY – Following the controversy of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly, Dave Chappelle’s infamous Kelly parodies have understandably gotten a lot more attention.
Though 15 years have elapsed since they first aired, there seems to be a newfound criticism of the skits, as working to make light of serious allegations and — in effect — normalize Kelly’s actions.
According to co-creator Neal Brennan, Chappelle’s Show was just doing what it was meant to do: good comedy.
“I don’t think people understand what comedy is supposed to do,” Brennan told The Breakfast Club. “We will observe things, we will make fun of things. Did people want us to round up a posse and go arrest R. Kelly?”
As Brennan continues, he explains that Kelly was less than amused about skits and wanted to fight Chappelle. “His goons stepped to Dave in Chicago and Dave’s goons intervened. The goons negotiated,” he joked.
During a 2017 interview with Ebro In The Morning, Chappelle recalled, “I was going to cut it, but when I watched it, it was so funny.” Following the revelation, Peter Rosenberg touted that the skit helped define the collective perception of R. Kelly for years to come.
According to a TMZ report, the executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly has claimed that Chappelle was among a list of celebrities who declined to appear in the docu-series.
Source: hiphopdx.com
