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One of the brighter lights to shine from the late-'90s
Saturday Night Live cast permutation, Chris Rock successfully made the jump to his own HBO series and snagged a couple of Emmy Awards along the way. Part
Saturday Night Live and part Arsenio Hall-style show (with a raucous studio audience), this best-of video shows that Rock has definitely grown into his own style and matured as a comedian. The segments from Rock's early shows tend to suffer from that
Saturday Night Live malady in which a one-joke skit is stretched out for an excruciating period of time (see: Mike Myers). Rock's penchant for beating a dead horse is most apparent in his parodies of Fox-style reality-based shows ("When Animals Attack in High Speed Chases II"), which are genuinely clever but run on a little too long. However, when Rock sticks to live-action comedy, he proves he's one of the funniest (and most satirical) comedians around, playing with issues of politics, race, and gender mercilessly. Hands down the most hilarious segment is a CNN-style "panel" on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, hosted by Rock and featuring "Black Guy," "White Dude" and "Sista." Most attempts at lampooning this Presidential faux pas have fallen flat on their faces, but Rock and his cast take no prisoners as they skewer the players, the media, and the "man-on-the-street" mentality surrounding the hype. Other highlights include a male version of "The Rules" as interpreted by Ike Turner, continuing coverage of the rising career of rapper Pootie-Tang and his unique brand of urban slang, and Rock's petition to rename a street in Howard Beach after Tupac Shakur (one of the few pre-filmed segments that keeps its momentum going). Rock definitely proves he's one
SNL alumnus who won't be wearing out his welcome anytime soon.
--Mark Englehart
