The way he broke down how America uses language to dehumanize victims of the War On Terror in the Middle East back in 2008. It was like the veil was lifted, and the rest of us saw beyond the antics to what he had been saying his whole career. The performance is hilarious, tragic, somber, exhilarating. “Someone who everybody knew is smart but ended up being a know-it-all fuck up that just let shit ‘happen’ to him.” Willy doesn’t fire back he just lets out a “damn” and walks off. “What I’m scared of is being you,” Earn says to him during a tense standoff. The second season’s premiere episode featured Williams in a surprise cameo, playing Earn’s uncle Willy, a washed-up loser who’d let his potential pass him by. Getting arrested with Suge Knight for allegedly fighting five women and stealing their phones. Assaulting a tractor driver in California. The outburst telling a Latinx heckler to “ go back over there.” The multiple videos of him getting into fights at shows. There was the viral video of him getting beat up by an eighth grader. Much of the 2010s was spent with Katt in the middle of one bizarre arrest or altercation after another. After spending much of the previous five years as the biggest comedian in the world, having put out two monster cult classic comedy specials, starring in movies like Friday After Next and being one of those rare comedians who reach megastardom like the Kevin Harts and Eddie Murphys of the world, a Pimp Named Slickback would basically throw his career away. To be fair, by the time Talking Funny rolled around, it was easy to dismiss Williams. Maybe Katt Williams was more gimmick than brilliance? 1 and It’s Pimpin Pimpin, playing the specials at kickbacks and reciting “this shit right here” and “don’t worry, I’ll wait.” But it was easy to see him as his “pimp” persona, catchphrases, and little substance. Sure, like the rest of the world, I’d laughed at his Pimp Chronicles Pt. So much of the laughs he garnered came from the way he executed the lines. “But it’s gotta have jokes under this weird persona and your crazy glasses and this crazy voice.” I don’t know who Rock was talking about specifically, but I read his comments as an indictment of Katt Williams, who had made his name as a permed faux-pimp with a squeaky voice. “So many of these young guys, they think it’s all attitude,” Rock said. A phantom punch that knocks you out while you’re looking at his offhand swinging in the air. That’s his brand: physical comedy mixed with astute observation and a political analysis that sneaks up on you. One of the parts that always stood out to me was a discussion about the difference between jokes and “a bit,” the latter being just a series of gimmicks comedians do for attention and cheap laughs. It’s a fascinating show to watch in hindsight. The show, which went viral in 2018 after people rediscovered a clip of Louis and Ricky dropping N-bombs while Chris Rock laughed along, was little more than four legendary comedians talking about the art of stand-up. In 2011, HBO aired a one-off show called Talking Funny, a conversation between Louis CK, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ricky Gervais. Whatever the case, it’s past due time to acknowledge the man’s genius. That could be due to our own preconditions about his voice and gimmick, or his own tarnishing of his legacy over the past decade. All of it was a reminder that Katt Williams is one of the most brilliant comedians to have ever lived - which is a fact that we’ve too often disregarded. At one point, Williams said that “civil unrest is what happens every time a place is ruled by the people and the people’s needs are not being met,” which was so astutely put I had to Google to make sure that he wasn’t quoting someone else. Much like Dave Chappelle’s recent special, 8:46, the stand-up routine was short on jokes even when there were punchlines, there was no crowd to laugh at them. But this one hit different: comedian Katt Williams, his signature perm dyed and plaited into a Tekashi 6x9ine Fruit By the Foot spectacle, doing a six-minute monologue about everything from the “perfectly suitable clown” in the White House to Black Lives Matter. It wasn’t the first days after the killing of George Floyd, the hypebeast favorites posted a clip of jazz legend Pharaoh Sanders playing sax in a box-logo tee, next to a boilerplate corporate statement about standing with victims of police brutality. This weekend, clothing label Supreme dropped a promotional video that Spoke To the Moment.
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