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Chocolate News Could Fill Chappelle Void

Grier counters Comedy Central's 'vanilla' news satires

By Ambreen Ali,  Newser User

Posted Oct 15, 2008 3:42 PM CDT

(Newser) – Comedy Central may have found a Dave Chappelle-worthy replacement in David Alan Grier, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post. His Chocolate News is a “wholly inappropriate—and riotiously funny” 60 Minutes-style program in which Grier offers the news in “Lou Dobbsean rant” and mocks such figures as rappers and Maya Angelou, he observes. The “wittily produced” sketches echo Chappelle's “shockingly honest commentary on racial mores.”

But while tonight’s pilot for the Daily Show’s “melanin-enriched” partner has potential, it's “not a great debut,” James Poniewozik opines in Time. The sketches about rap aren't of the moment, and others could have used some editing. But if Barack Obama wins, Grier “could be riding a zeitgeist tsunami.”

Grier fills the Manhattan-size hole Dave Chapelle left in Comedy Central's lineup three years ago.
Grier fills the "Manhattan-size hole" Dave Chapelle left in Comedy Central's lineup three years ago.   (AP Photo/Nickelodeon, Michael Courtney)
David Alan Grier offers a counterpart to Comedy Central's more-vanilla news satires, Poniewozik writes in Time.
David Alan Grier offers a counterpart to Comedy Central's "more-vanilla news satires," Poniewozik writes in Time.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
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David Alan Grier argues why even White America should vote for Barack Obama by voting for his "white half."   (Wiredsetvideo)

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