Chappelle Show

I know we’ve got a lot of huge Dave Chappelle fans around here, including me, and every time we talk about comedians we love or things that make us laugh, Chappelle invariably comes up and someone wonders what the heck is going on with him. So here’s the most recent news, bitches:

[Comedy Central] revealed Sunday that it will air previously-recorded sketches from the funnyman as part of what is being billed as season three.

The sketches will be shown first on Comedy Central's online broadband network, Motherload, and later broadcast on the cable network, a spokesperson said. The broadcast will take place sometime in 2006.

Chappelle has been on an open-ended hiatus for about ten months, with taping of the third season of his "Chappelle's Show" suspended indefinitely. Sources close to the skein were recently quoted that they did not believe the funnyman would ever return to the program.

Chappelle signed a two-year deal with Comedy Central shortly before he decided to suspend taping. No reason for the hiatus has ever been given by the comedian, though some have speculated that exhaustion played a part.

At a Los Angeles taping of its year-end special "Last Laugh '05," Comedy Central showed a preview of what it will air as part of season three, which included send-ups of MTV skein "Cribs" and the Morgan Spurlock docu "Super Size Me."

While a spokesperson confirmed that all the bits were taped before Chappelle went on hiatus, they declined to say whether the decision to air them meant the network was acknowledging that Chappelle would not return.

It’s like he’s pulling a J.D. Salinger on our asses. I guess we’ll always have Catcher in the Rye and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories.