Dave Chappelle had the option to live a quiet, wealthy, incredibly comfortable life as essentially the lord of a small Ohio city. He would have been, at the very least, a name that comes up in greatest of all time comedian discussions. Instead he chose this. Dumbass.
At the risk of saying something negative - no.
I watched the last one twice just to be sure there was subtext and it was pretty astounding the disconnect between article writers, commenters, and the actual comedy.
Did he say āIām team terfā? He did. Yeah he did say that and that was fucked up. Agreed. (In whatever way context could be added, he was discussing the idea that one specific set of internal organs was currently capable of gestating a human. He said the terfs were saying that and he agreed with them on that point but he also discussed NCās bathroom bill and talked at length about how itās a bad law. He also defended trans rights at some length. But the āDave hates transā article writers donāt include those points)
But the other 99.99% of the special was objectively pro-trans. Including āAll trans people deserve love and respectā. The main point is you canāt get what heās doing from text. Standup has a bunch of moving parts: voice, inflection, setup, arc, theme, silliness, parody, jokes-within-jokes, and many other aspects that arenāt available in a text-only format like a comment or an article.
It seemed to me that he was making several really good points about being in a marginalized, oppressed minority, and the way the larger society talks about it. He used language to do that that wasnāt straight-on, direct, and clear because heās a comedian who tells jokes and so his way of doing it is building an elaborate framework around a topic or topics, and by talking about them heās getting across a larger message. Itās densely layered discussion underneath simple stories. Heās really good at it, fwiw, but thatās often immediately ignored and intentionally misrepresented to light him up for whatever the author wants to project.
Iām just saying if you watch his specials with an open mind, heās not anti-trans at all. And whenever it gets down to it, the people accusing him of it havenāt understood his show; often they havenāt watched it at all.
Now Ricky Gervais? Fuck. That guyās seriously anti-trans, ignorant and malicious, and putting Chappelle in with him is just wrong. Thank you for coming to my TEDx talk.
Imagine jumping to the defence of this guy š¤Æš¤®
He then addressed the controversy surrounding his anti-trans material, saying, āIf you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that Iām going to make fun of those people again, youāve come to the wrong show. Iām not fucking with those people anymore. It wasnāt worth the trouble. I aināt saying shit about them. Maybe three or four times tonight, but thatās it. Iām tired of talking about them. And you want to know why Iām tired of talking about them? Because these people acted like I needed them to be funny. Well, thatās ridiculous. I donāt need you. I got a whole new angle coming. You guys will never see this shit coming. I aināt doing trans jokes no more.ā
He then said he was going to transition to joking about āhandicappedā people instead because ātheyāre not as organized as the gays. And I love punching down.ā
A few minutes later, Chappelle revisited the topic, saying, āTo be honest with you, Iāve been trying to repair my relationship with the transgender community cause I donāt want them to think that I donāt like them. You know how Iāve been repairing it? I wrote a play. I did. Cause I know that gays love plays. Itās a very sad play, but itās moving. Itās about a Black transgender woman whose pronoun is, sadly, n***a. Itās a tear-jerker. At the end of the play she dies of loneliness cause white liberals donāt know how to speak to her. Itās sad.āThis joke is fucking hilarious
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This just comes off as whiny. āIām getting cancelled again by being given another special, boo hoo.ā
And then uses literally the āone jokeā conservatives have about pronouns. Thereās nothing funny or creative about that joke. Itās been told a billion times by conservative talking heads.
Thereās an entire subreddit dedicated to it. r/onejoke
And heās a fucking genius. Because, as far as I can tell, all of his trans jokes are really funny or nuanced. But his handicap jokes, some of them are just downright lame and insulting.
And everyoneās coming after him for his trans jokes, not his handicap jokes.
You canāt punch down on transpeople, their propaganda reach is massive. People are AFRAID to say the littlest bit negative about them.
Thatās why the handicap jokes. He wanted to show what actually happens when you punch down: nothing. No one gives a shit.
Anyway, thatās my headcanon. Otherwise, some of these handicap jokes are completely inexcusable and donāt live up to the standard set by his trans jokes.
I saw it, first 30 minutes are lazy jokes about trans people and disabled people in wheel chairs.
The ending story is about being a dreamer and how life can change you. Mainly in the style of a TED talk, then doing a flip calling lil nas X super gay dreamer joke.
Curtain closes.
Thatās the special. Saved you an hour.
Cancelled my Netflix today
The thing about Dave Chapelle is that getting twisted over his jokes makes you the punchline
If the rest of his routine was as funny and direct as his opening joke I can see why so many people got mad, I heard that he made fun of everybody during the show.
Remember when he was funny?
I used to love Chappelle. These past couple years donāt offend me, they just bore the fuck out of me. Which is not what I look for in entertainment.
Iām absolutely fine with trans jokes or dead baby jokes or literally anything, just make sure and not to forget the joke part
Yeah, these arenāt even jokes, more like some weirdass gross power fantasy.
āGod forbid I ever go to jail. But if I do, I hope itās in California. Soon as the judge sentences me, Iāll be like, āBefore you sentence me, I want the court to know I identify as a woman. Send me to a womanās jail.ā As soon I get in there, you know what Iāmma be doing. āGive me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherfucking teeth out. Iām a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl dick I got. Donāt make me explain myself. Iām a girl.'ā
I am trans, and itās hard to not take the insults personally, especially since this āedgy comedyā is coming from a comedian I used to admire and respect. What the fuck, Dave?
