You may remember the night of Feb. 11, 2004—if you were watching Comedy Central, you definitely remember that night. Chappelle's Show, which was in the midst of its second season, aired an episode entitled "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories," in which Eddie Murphy's brother Charlie regaled the world with tales of hanging out with Rick James.
That episode, to put it mildly, set a lot of things in motion. As what is arguably the first TV comedy sketch to go viral, it paved the way for SNL's digital shorts like "Lazy Sunday." It gave us more catchphrases than we could slap while wearing a ring that said UNITY. It catapulted the show—and Charlie Murphy, and even Rick James once again—into the mainstream spotlight. And finally, sadly, it began the commodification of Chappelle's Show by the people who would be interrupting Dave's comedy act with catcalls of "I'm Rick James, bitch!" for years to come. (And make no mistake: We blame them for the show's ultimate unraveling.)
But on the night of Feb. 11, 2004, we didn't know any of that. We just knew that we had witnessed something special. If you know it by heart, watch it anyway; if you've never seen it before, then what are you waiting for? First half is above, second half is below.
