The Root DC's Clinton Yates says that the troubled comedian's management company is doing him a disservice if it doesn't end his tour right away and get him to the nearest available facility.
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Williams’s act has always revolved around pimping. His stage persona of drug use, sexual proclivities and racial observation has come to define who most people think he is. But his latest antics have seen art imitating life a bit too closely.
I hope Williams can find a way to deal with his issues, because with his penchant for violence, I fear the consequences of actions. It’s too easy to laugh when a comedian is in a psychological space that most of us are not familiar with.
When Dave Chappelle walked away from his Comedy Central show and spent time in South Africa, people sat back and laughed at him. He was smart enough to leave the country before he potentially unraveled.
But Williams is unraveling now, right before our eyes. And it reminds me of an episode of the television cartoon show Black Dynamite. In the episode, a fictionalized version of comic genius Richard Pryor complains that no one takes him seriously. All anyone does is laugh, no matter what he may say. At one point, Dynamite interjects and booms “Shut the [expletive] up when grown mens is crying!”
And while Pryor’s issues were their own monster, I think the point remains. It’s not time to laugh at or with Katt Williams. This man is out here practically begging for someone to come to his aide.
Read Clinton Yates' entire piece at The Root DC.
The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.
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