On February 4, 2004, Chappelle’s Show introduced a segment called “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories.” The subject of that night’s story was the infamous “Super Freak” singer Rick James. With the help of reenactments, Murphy recalled a couple of instances where he’d gotten into physical altercations with James as a result of his wild behavior. It was during one of those reenactments that Dave Chappelle (as James) spoke the immortal words, “I’m Rick James, b—h!”
Little did anyone know at the time that this sketch would hurt a politician’s upcoming campaign. A year after the episode first aired, a Mississippi city council candidate named Rick James noticed that his campaign signs were being stolen and defaced with a specific catchphrase. People would also yell that exact phrase at him when he was dropping his daughter off at school. James hadn’t seen the show before and was confused about what prompted all this until a friend told him about the sketch later on.
All in all, James estimated that $600 worth of signs had been stolen, with some being found as far as 100 miles away from where they were initially placed. College students had also apparently been hanging them in their dorm room windows. “It’s gotten so bad, I can put out a sign, and the next day, sometimes the same day, it will be gone,” James said in 2005. He tried writing to Comedy Central to recoup some of the money he lost, but only got a statement in response saying they felt “bad about the signs being stolen.”
Another person who had to deal with the repercussions of the famous catchphrase was Chappelle himself. His stand-up performances in 2004 were reportedly interrupted constantly by people in the crowd yelling, “I’m Rick James, b—h!” On one occasion, it even caused Chappelle to walk off stage. “This show is ruining my life,” he told the audience after returning that night. “This is the most important thing I do, and because I’m on TV, you make it hard for me to do it. People can’t distinguish between what’s real and fake. This ain’t a TV show. You’re not watching Comedy Central.”
As for Rick James, the singer? His appearance on Chappelle’s Show actually sparked a brief career revival before he died in 2004. So somebody at least benefitted from the popularity of Chappelle’s sketch—for a short period of time, anyway.
The post How a ‘Chappelle’s Show’ Skit Ruined a 2005 Political Campaign appeared first on VICE.
