Sure, there are probably more meaningful metrics of character, but a person’s go-to song when the liquor is flowing and the karaoke machine is hauled out can say a lot about them. Their taste in music, to give an obvious example, or their age, or even their political views. You can even get a feel for how confident they are—and whether that confidence might be just a tad misplaced—by how difficult of a song they choose to sing. And if they won’t do karaoke at all, not even drunk and/or in a private room, well, they’re either very shy or no fun.
Now let’s apply this metric to Dave Chappelle, who regaled a room of partygoers with his rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep” at a Saturday Night Live afterparty last weekend. “Creep” is a savvy choice, because it has some showy sustained notes in the chorus that make it sound like you’re a great singer. But they’re not all that hard of notes to hit, really, so you can be an okay singer and still pull it off with the right attitude. And “Creep” peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard charts in September 1993, when Chappelle was 20 years old and an up-and-coming young comedian in New York City. He also doesn’t appear to have any of the lyrics in front of him, and doesn’t appear to need them, so he’s clearly done this one before—like in this clip of him at Erykah Badu’s birthday party earlier this year. Also, make note of of the time: 5:22 a.m.
So, basically, if you had zero idea who Dave Chappelle was, based on this Instagram video you could deduce that he’s in his early-to-mid-40s, probably fairly liberal, and willing to cut loose and act silly, but on his own terms. Now if only someone would post a video of Thom Yorke yelling Chappelle’s Show catchphrases backstage at some gigantic European music festival, the whole thing would come full circle.