Dave Chappelle In A Mental Facility

NEW YORK -- Comedy Central star Dave Chappelle has checked himself into a mental health facility in South Africa, the magazine Entertainment Weekly reported on Wednesday.

The comedian's whereabouts and condition have been unknown since Comedy Central abruptly announced last week that the planned May 31 launch of the third season of "Chappelle's Show" had been postponed and production halted.

Chappelle flew from Newark, N.J., to South Africa on April 28 for treatment, said the magazine, quoting a source close to the show it would not identify. Entertainment Weekly said it had corroborating sources for its story.

Originally posted by RANT
[...] He's way overpaid. He's knows he's overpaid. And he didn't want to go on season 3 and prove how overpaid [...] Money made Dave Chapelle crazy? That's what they want you to think for some reason [...] Why don't CEO's go check into mental institutions? They're overpaid. I don't know [...]

Dave Chappelle has refuted claims originally published in Entertainment Weekly that he admitted himself into a South African mental health institution. The comedian said he fled to stay with friends in Durban because he was not happy with the direction of the show, which is behind only "South Park" as Comedy Central's most watched program.

"I'm not in a mental facility," said Chappelle, who also said he did not have a drug problem but had consulted a psychiatrist for one 40-minute visit.

Chappelle admits to being stressed out and disappointed in the direction of the new shows and insisted that he needed to take a break. "If you don't have the right people around you, and you're moving at a million miles an hour, you can lose yourself," he said. "Everyone around me says, 'You're a genius, you're great, that's your voice,' but I'm not sure that they're right."

www.nobodysmiling.com...

Drudge Report claims that Dave Chappelle, comedian and recent recipient of $50 million to continue producing Comedy Central's popular Chappelle's Show, has spoken out amidst speculation that he winged off to South Africa for drug treatment or psychiatric care.

"I figured, Let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone-stop a speeding car by using my feet as the brakes. I am surprised at what I would do for $50 million. I am surprised at what people around me would do for me to have $50 million," Dave Chappelle tells TIME's Christopher John Farley in an exclusive interview.

CHAPPELLE tells TIME he's not in mental hospital or drug rehab, debunking earlier reports in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and elsewhere.


Dave Chappelle has always struck me as a laid back yet sharp-witted performer. The audio commentary on the DVD version of the first season of Chappelle's Show reveals a lucid, ambitious, and highly intelligent artist who was very careful about how he presented his material on camera.

So while Chappelle likes to play up his enjoyment of marijuana, my guess is that his sojourn to South Africa was more of a getaway than a get-me-away-from-drugs / mental health trip.