Dave Chappelle vs Chris Rock FITE

"better"

Chappelle, not even close. Chris Rock's I AM YELLING delivery is awful. It's not that Dave has a wider range or anything, he's pretty limited too - he can do "uptight white guy" and "crazy yelling man" and that's pretty much it - but there's literally NO range to Chris Rock's routine.

Chris Rock no contest. He's got the delivery which bests Chappelle's slight edge in canniness.

xpost lol

i feel like chris rock is maybe a little more consistent (or was back in the day, haven't seen anything from him in years), but chapelle is also consistently funny, and at his best just annihilates anyone else. so chapelle.

I love Chris Rock -- I mean his voice can be hard to tolerate after an hour, but his delivery often has me in stitches. I prefer Dave though - I think some of Chris's jokes have more insight and weight to them, but Dave says things that are instant quotables...plus I think he understands the mechanics of comedy a bit better.

besides...he's Rick James, bitch.

xxxpost

Chappelle.

I like Chris Rock. Smart guy. Funny guy. He's been playing the same note for about 15 years, though. Chappelle's sets are so staggeringly genius, though, that he really has no equal imo. Rock beats you over the head with (albeit funny) jokes. Chappelle is a master of nuance and misdirection operating under the guise of a mainstream comic. Killin' Them Softly is one of the finest hours ever recorded.

I think he understands the mechanics of comedy a bit better.

yeah this is key. Rock is not subtle, and he never inhabits any other persona except the shouty one he's devised for himself. He can't paint a picture with his routine, he can't even really tell a story. It's always I AM YELLING JOKES AT YOU and yeah sometimes they're funny, but it's very monotonous.

Killin' Them Softly is one of the finest hours ever recorded.

"Sorry Officer...I didn't know I couldn't do that".

yeah I mean the bit about going to the projects and seein a baby selling weed at 3am, there are a lot of layers to that bit and it unfolds pretty slowly with a lot of little details and asides (like rolling down his window lol). Chris Rock would just come out and yell I SAW A BABY! SELLING WEED! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TODAY!

Some lucky motherfuckers at the Comedy Cellar last night didn't have to take sides:
http://gawker.com/5987464/chris-rock-and-dave-chappelle-performed-together-last-night-discussed-going-on-tour

the first seven minutes of bring the pain are fucking unbelievably great and remarkably fresh 20 years down the line

I hope one day Chris Rock understands the mechanics of comedy as well as the posters on this thread

I watched all of the Chris Rock specials a year or so ago and they were all great.

lol sym

I kind of don't see the purpose of the comparison other than they are the two major recent black stand-up comics that most white people seem to like? But I like both of them a lot, they just scratch different itches. Chris Rock's style is a little more visceral and he's more of a classic stand-up, and Chappelle has a quirkier style and delivery.

Also I think this

Chris Rock would just come out and yell I SAW A BABY! SELLING WEED! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TODAY!

is totally RONG

I recently read Judd Apatow's book in which he interviews a bunch of comedians and comedy writers, young and old. Many of them, when asked, said Chris Rock was the best standup working today, bar none.

He's more prone to write jokes for mass appeal. Occasionally I think this takes unfortunate turns, and a lot of his race jokes get coopted by the wrong people for the wrong reasons. I think there's a subtle way in which stuff like the "niggaz/black people" routine is really written for a black audience with white people only as a secondary audience -- if you're white you can laugh but you can't be like "yeah, exactly!" It's criticism/humor from inside a group that takes on a different meaning when adopted from without.

I think there's a subtle way in which stuff like the "niggaz/black people" routine is really written for a black audience with white people only as a secondary audience

This is Chris Rock's entire modus operandi.

fwiw I like Chris Rock a lot more after the one-two punch of Top Five + his SNL hosting set

I liked his Oscar speech. He can be subtle when he wants to, or at least he has a way of sucking the audience in and then socking them.

Er, not speech, but routine I guess

rock is one of the best standups, and everything else he's done takes a backseat to that, even though he's done a fair share of good things outside of standup. chappelle is a very good standup but i'll take the sketches or even half baked over his best standup set.

this poll wasn't restricted to standup afaict

when someone says "comedian" i think of standup, whether they meant that or not. i don't call someone who does comedic acting on SNL or in movies but doesn't tell jokes onstage a "comedian." but either way, that's how i break down their respective strengths/weaknesses.