Tackling issues from racism to R. Kelly to slavery reparations and drugs, comedian Dave Chappelle butchers every sacred cow rife for slaughter on the uproariously funny and ribald “Chappelle’s Show.” With the release of season one, the Comedy Central program is now saved for posterity with a slew of extras and background information, adding depth and context to one of the funniest shows on television today.

Since the show’s inception almost two years ago, Chappelle has prided himself with lampooning not only current culture, but social mores and modern senses of decency. With a ribald sense of style standing in firm opposition to the bowdlerization of modern television, “Chappelle’s Show” may be the only program on cable determined to exist as a permanent iconoclast.

Skits like “National Geographic’s Third World Girls Gone Wild,” “Ask a Gay Guy with Mario Cantone,” “Tyrone Bigsby: The Black White Supremacist” and a host of others offer the perfect foil to much of major network television. The DVD package also offers selected commentary and a pair of featurettes that greatly complement the show’s 12 episodes.

Features like “Ask a Black Dude with Paul Mooney” and the show’s gag reel are not only funny, but offer insight into the mind of Chappelle and his writing partner Neal Brennan. While the show itself is reason enough to own the DVD, the extras are a necessary addition in giving the show context within the culture Chappelle is so successfully mocking.

Some may contend Chappelle is merely out to offend, but they’re simply missing the point. Chappelle is the modern equivalent to comic geniuses like Eddie Murphy (before he started churning out children’s drivel like “Dr. Doolittle,” “Shrek” and “Daddy Day Care”) or Richard Pryor. And while such comparisons are undoubtedly a bit premature, the social and cultural relevance of the show and its ability to push the boundaries of television is undeniable.

Other sketch comedy programs like “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad Television” became painfully dated after only a few years, but “Chappelle’s Show” should avoid that pitfall rather easily.

The show occasionally slips into bouts of childish scatological humor and trite stereotyping, but the humor is typically insightful, thought-provoking and largely hilarious.

Time will tell, however, whether the brilliance of “Chappelle’s Show” will not only stand the test of time, but become the comedic benchmark it has the potential to be.