April 7, 2004

Chappelle again decided to send a message through his show’s material by opening
with a sketch called “Dave Quits Chappelle’s Show.” The sketch had him doing
exactly what his antagonists wanted him to do: stepping down from the show.
In the sketch, executives at Comedy Central replace Dave with Wayne Brady. The
show ended with a sketch that has Wayne Brady acting like the thugs Chappelle’s
characters often portray on the show, with Wayne killing police officers, beating
Chappelle, and partaking of copious amounts of drugs. Dave, after this episode’s
production, reached out to Brady, who he knew was a close friend of Oprah, to
see if he could intercede on his behalf. Brady acted like he didn’t know what
Chappelle was talking about and as Dave recounted later