Dave Chappelle has released a new Netflix special, The Dreamer, which is full of jokes about the trans community and disabled people.
“I love punching down!” he tells the audience, in a one-hour show that landed on the streaming service today (31 December).
It’s his seventh special for Netflix and comes two years after his last one, the highly controversial release The Closer.
That programme was criticised for its relentless jokes about the trans community, and Chappelle revisits the topic in his new show.
He tells jokes about trans women in prison, and about trans people “pretending” to be somebody they are not.
It’s amazing how many snowflake comedians start crying about being cancelled and then go on to have numerous netflix specials about it. Almost like they were never actually cancelled in the first place but they learnt that if they said they were enough times, the terminally dim people who enjoy their material will pay money to see their bully fantasies played out on stage by an old rich guy.
‘cancelled’ is now simply “people were mean to me on shitter”. Their right to express vile horseshit is obviously intact.
Same as it ever was. They always roll out these new words to convey their shock and disgust at the fact that they have to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Every Edgy Millionaire Comedian – roughly the same joke but the Columbus thing makes me chuckle every time
Love this bit and will upvote it every time.
As seen in these very comments 😂
“Oh sure we can’t joke on trans people but you get to swing at Dave Chappelle!?”
This is a good point. These jokes aren’t just bad, they’re boring. Why not just tell jokes about airline food?
I am so sick of his comedy of grievance. Every act he does over the past few years is about how unfair the world is to him and how people don’t acknowledge how great he is.
He’s riding out the glory of an okay sketch show that he made two seasons and then torpedoed 20 years ago.
Yeah, I’m reminded of Jerry Seinfeld. Some comedians are great for life, most have a time and a place and excel then and there. I’m the 90s Seinfeld was bigger than big, in the 10s he was telling college campuses they’re too pc for not laughing at jokes about trans people. In the 00s Chappelle left on a high note and was a popular icon of comedy who quit too soon. In the 20s he was a raging bigot who should’ve stayed quit. Meanwhile Larry David is still making tv and fairly popular, but that’s because he mostly sticks to punching himself in the face.
Meanwhile Larry David is still making tv and fairly popular, but that’s because he mostly sticks to punching himself in the face.
I’ve got a love-hate thing with his writing. David is a master of unconventional suicide by words. He’s very funny but so good at causing intentional cringe that I suspect that his humor could be weaponized in the event of another world war.
Full agree. I think Jason Alexander did an amazing job of playing him in a way that didn’t hurt as bad to watch as when David plays himself. I tried curb your enthusiasm and it was funny but I just couldn’t watch more than one episode the cringe was so intense.
Seinfeld is a groomer
I remember in “The Closer” he said "now Key & Peele are on Comedy Central, doing my show."
Like dude, you did not invent the sketch comedy show. SNL had been going on for decades before he even thought of doing his own spin on it. I used to like his comedy, but not so much after that special, and definitely not after this.
I grew up with (and loved) the Chappelle Show but Key & Peele is sooo much better. I rewatched some of his show a few years ago and most of the skits don’t hold up well at all. It’s mostly just black stereotype caricatures that are only “not racist” because a black guy wrote them
The fucked part is one of the reasons he stopped doing Chapelle Show was (according to him sometimes) because he recognized a good chunk of his audience was laughing at the black stereotype shit instead of with him about how ridiculous it was. And now he’s cashing in on punching down at other groups and cares not a bit about it.
Yeah. I like some edgy humor but the show was an invitation for racists to be more public with their opinions…which they did
And misogyny. I can’t remember a woman on that show that wasn’t eye candy or the butt of a joke.
It was a joke you absolute donkey.
Jokes are meant to be funny and that is just whinging on his part, you bloody walnut.
Dude is a multi millionaire in his 50s who does nothing but bitch about how other rich people “stole” his money. Sooooo relatable Dave, wow!
I mean, yeah, he’s a piece of shit, and yeah he’s still riding on that old fame, but come on. That was a great sketch show, not merely an ok one. The fact that he has turned into Clayton Bigsby should not distract from the fact that the first episode of his show featured a faux documentary about a black white supremacist. That was some amazing television. I’m all for bashing Dave for the many, many shitty things he’s said and done in the past few years, but let’s not rewrite history here.
It’s far from the worst, but great? I guess there’s no accounting for taste. I’d prefer Mr Show, Monty Python, In Living Color, Key & Peele, Portlandia… does Robot Chicken count?
What. The. Fuck.
I’ve never been the biggest Chappelle fan, but years ago, before he started going down this path, I had basic respect for him as a comedian. Now he’s actually promoting punching down? And he didn’t feel like he was punching down enough with trans people, so he had to be an ableist as well as a transphobe?
And Netflix would not have put this on their site sight unseen, so they 100% knew that this was a celebration of attacking vulnerable people.
Christ, even when I was in high school I knew that the guy who pushed the kid in the wheelchair over onto their side was a shithead and so did almost everyone else. So basically Chapelle wants his fan base to be the little weasel kid who stands behind the bully with a grin on his face because someone else is getting it when it could have been them.
I wonder if anyone will come in here and defend him with some mumbo jumbo about free speech?
Here he is introducing (and inadvertently humiliating) his friend Elon, who he shares a shocking amount of awful views with:
Chappelle still tries to act like he’s one of the disenfranchised black people, while living in a mansion and hanging out with Elon Musk.
Money literally rotts the brain. Study after study shows wealthy people become more sociopathic as they accumulate more wealth and power. We shouldn’t cap wealth just because it’s morally right, it also prevents those in power from becoming all consuming sociopaths.
and chris rock! i was just thinking how these 2 used to be very funny, if not somewhat irreverent… i get it. but now theyre both on this conservative soap box its so weird!
theyve become the anti-carlin!
I haven’t heard about Rock. That’s disappointing. It’s a common thing with comedians these days to get upset if their comedy either goes to far or just isn’t funny and blame it on people being too sensitive. It feels like that’s been pushing some of them to the right even though that’s not really the issue they are being confronted with.
At least Chris just told rich people jokes about his kids in college. Wasn’t relatable, but it felt honest.
Wait, Chris Rock too!? WTH!!??
nothing quite as egregious as chappelle, but his recent special was completely class tone-deaf, and boring. ’ i dont enjoy politically correct terminology’, ‘i am rich, entitled human’, ‘will smith sucks’ were the main tones i remember from watching his last special… that and thinking, ‘when did chris rock get boring’?
For me, the dividing line when he became unfunny was when he started being in every Sandler movie. It was somewhere along the way that all of those comedians in those movies just lost it.
A lot of transphobes, white-supremacists, and similar ideologues would support eugenics for disabled people so that isn’t a far off description. Whether comedians like him realize it or not, they are normalizing social darwinism essentially.
I wonder if anyone will come in here and defend him with some mumbo jumbo about free speech?
At this point I feel like Netflix is encouraging this kind of content.
Netflix is a bunch of suits. In their perfect world they can cater different content to trans people and to transphobic people at the same time, in order to make maximum money.
And on top of that they know that outrage fuels views. They keep making inflammatory content that will outrage one side and get the other to spite-view it. Of course inflammatory content to left wingers tends to be bigotted and hateful, while inflammatory to right wingers tends to just be anything not overwhelmingly white, straight, and patriarchal.
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I read a view that not punching down is offensive and not right.
See it’s based on everyone being equal and there is nothing wrong with being disabled (the person mentioning this view was disabled). So if you rip on all your friends for whatever, but then don’t rip on your disabled friend for being disabled then that is treating them like that can’t handle it or that they aren’t equal.
Honestly it’s comedy, some isn’t but most is offensive. Comedy doesn’t have to be for everyone but I don’t think it should be stopped just because someone doesn’t like it. The whole punching up, punching down thing is just weird. It’s a self imposed rule people treat like law.
“Everyone is equal, so it’s offensive to punch up at a bully without also punching down at their victim” …is a weird take.
If you think comedy largely has to be offensive and that ribbing your friends is the same as somebody going on TV and saying the same thing, you’re missing out on a lot of good comedy. There’s so much comedy that doesn’t just come down to “saying something offensive for the shock factor.”
See it’s based on everyone being equal and there is nothing wrong with being disabled (the person mentioning this view was disabled). So if you rip on all your friends for whatever, but then don’t rip on your disabled friend for being disabled then that is treating them like that can’t handle it or that they aren’t equal.
This comes off like “I can say the N word because I have a black friend and he finds it funny when I say it.” Ribbing your friends has the implicit understanding between you and them that it’s not ill intentioned or mean-spirited. You could make a joke about your friend’s wheelchair, but you wouldn’t walk up to a random person on the street in a wheelchair and make fun of them for it. You can make a racist joke with your friends because everybody there knows you’re not being serious and you’re probably making fun of the people who would actually make a joke like that, but if you go up in front of a bunch of strangers and do the same joke, they don’t know that you’re not being serious about it. It just sounds like you’re being racist.
Punching up and punching down are very specific things, not just joking about a minority group or not; and they’re not laws or rules, they’re labels for a concept. Calling something a square isn’t some self imposed rule - it’s just the label for a rectangle that has 4 sides of identical length.
Punching down is specifically when you make jokes at the expense of a minority, rather than making jokes about a minority. It’s the comedy equivalent of kicking a kid in the balls because your friends think it’s funny. You can make trans jokes without it being yet another “I saw a chick with a dick and that’s gross and I vomited” kind of joke. Punching down would be going on TV and making jokes about how black people aren’t as intelligent as white people and that’s why they’re poor and do drugs and end up in prison. Not punching down would be making a joke about how all day people kept coming up to you and telling you how proud of you they are for being brave enough to be yourself and wishing you well in your transition…but you’re not trans, you just forgot to put on makeup that day.
Punching up is when a joke is a criticism of a common minority experience at the expense of the people who perpetrate that experience. Like making a joke about how you know that a new black guy moved into town because suddenly everybody is calling you by his name; and when you finally meet the guy, it’s like you’re already best friends because you already know everything about each other. And then a random black guy you don’t recognize shows up drunk in front of your house so you bring him over to your friend’s house because you assume he’s a friend of theirs - but they had brought him over to your house first because they assumed he was your friend.
Basically, if you have to be an asshole to be funny, then the only people who are gonna laugh are other assholes.
Comedy is funny. That’s what it is.
It doesn’t have to be offensive. But it can be offensive.
It’s just a joke and being overly sensitive about something that isn’t true can mean you miss a lot of good quality humour because you find it more important to be offended than to laugh.
It can be offensive, and offensive comedy can be absolutely hilarious. But, it’s often rather lazy comedy and “it’s just a joke” is also used by bigots to hide from the consequences of their awful opinions in the same way that bullies do after they get caught. It’s important to know the difference between somebody making a joke and somebody telling you what they really think but are too afraid to say.
I dunno, there’s a couple problems there. You can still punch up or punch down while recognizing that everyone’s equal, because we can recognize that status doesn’t have to really do with whether or not someone’s equal. i.e. someone can be lower or higher status, monetarily, socially, while still being of equal worth, in terms of like, their value as a human. So you can still “punch up” or “punch down”, because there’s still problems in society, we don’t live in a kind of totally equal utopia, or what have you, and to not recognize that and say that we do, and then use that as a justification to be able to punch down, you know, that would be bad.
Oftentimes, the reason people find ire with “punching down”, is that it makes fun of people from the perspective of their lack of status and their lack of worth as a human. It’s fine to make fun of disabled people, in general, but it’s not really funny to make fun of someone who’s in a wheelchair, for the fact they’re in a wheelchair, most especially if you’re not in a wheelchair, because that’s punching down. You also see this thing where people who occupy minority positions, like being in a wheelchair, will try to ingratiate themselves to the majority, sometimes with some degree of success, by basically punching themselves in the face socially. “Oh, I’m in a wheelchair, isn’t that so funny guys?”, but unironically, which negatively impacts, in this example, the disabled, especially as it is used as evidence for being like “hey disabled people are okay with it” or “hey this other guy’s okay with it, so if you complain, you’re just lame and don’t have a legitimate grievance”. Now it’s their “choice” to punch themselves, but we can also recognize it’s arising from their need to try and improve their situation, and the extenuating circumstances, and so it’s kind of not that funny in the broader picture, and we also try not to blame them for it on the basis that it’s as a result of their circumstance.
You would probably get better laughs and better comedy out of it anyways, if you tried to point out the kind of existential insanity of being someone in a wheelchair, and moving through the modern world, which has not been crafted for you. People in wheelchairs have difficulty using the restroom, for example, because restrooms aren’t really laid out for them, so you could maybe come at it from the angle of “why do we still have urinals”, or “what the fuck is up with asian squat toilets”, or something to that effect. Maybe make fun of everyone wanting you to cut off your legs, and give you robot legs, when really all you wanted was to have a wheelchair that lets you piss and shit, and like, an elevator that isn’t broken. The reason chapelle’s modern shit isn’t that funny, imo, is because he doesn’t understand the perspective of trans people enough to make effective jokes out of it. Which, to be fair, is pretty hard to do, if you’re not trans. Which is sort of why most comedians don’t try it, the same way most white comedians don’t try to do racial comedy about black people.
That’s not all to overcorrect and say that all his shit in “the closer” was bad, because it wasn’t, and he had a handful of good points, but the problem is going to kind of arise when those good points also come with a handful of pretty bad points and pretty bad jokes. Just like his actual show. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say that a good amount of dave chappelle’s popularity comes from the double tradeoff of it being extremely popular in the 2000’s to kind of be more comfortable with being “edgy” and making fun of black people, on the basis that they’re equal, and “I’m not a racist, so it’s okay” type shit. People laughing at him, rather than with him, but on the basis that we live in a harmonious post-racial society, barring all of the “weird racists”. He even ended up saying as much, as to why he wanted to quit his own show, that he felt people were laughing more at him. The double tradeoff I’m talking about, there, is that he was using the same platform, out the other side of his mouth, to make funny and insightful comedy that pushed the buck. He could attract white people looking to laugh at the minstrel and misogyny, but then turn around and give some good shit on top of it. Even just to portray the reality that black people were still oppressed. Is that tradeoff worth it? It maybe is, if you’re able to give good enough insight to kind of balance the rest out, but if the insight is lacking, if the perspective is lacking, then obviously people are gonna be more likely to get very frustrated with it. That’s all me talking out my ass, though.
I said it in his last special, a comedian doesn’t punch down. Apparently he heard this criticism from others and decided to double down. He’s truly become a piece of shit of a guy and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s jumped on the Maga train.
I said it in his last special, a comedian doesn’t punch down. Apparently he heard this criticism from others and decided to double down. He’s truly become a piece of shit of a guy and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s jumped on the Maga train.
it’s essential to consider the broader context of oppression when discussing the dynamics of ‘punching up’ or ‘punching down’ in comedy. historically, black people have faced systemic oppression, which continues to impact their lives in various ways. this systemic oppression isn’t just about individual experiences of racism but also about the overarching power structures that disproportionately affect black communities.
when a black comedian addresses topics related to race, they are often speaking from a place of personal and collective experience with these systemic issues. their humor might be a way to cope with or highlight the absurdities and injustices of these systems. therefore, even when their jokes might seem to target groups traditionally seen as more powerful, it’s not the same as ‘punching down.’ ‘punching down’ implies attacking those who are less powerful or oppressed, and given the historical and ongoing context of racial oppression, a black comedian making jokes about race or related societal structures isn’t an act of punching down but rather a form of social commentary or critique.
That doesn’t work against groups that are even further behind in their quest for civil rights. Trans people are still fighting to use bathrooms or participate in sports the Black people fought for 60-70 years ago.
the comparison between the struggles of black individuals and transgender individuals is valid, yet it’s important to understand each community’s unique challenges. while both groups share a common goal of equality and fair treatment, they face distinct battles rooted in different forms of discrimination.
black people have historically dealt with segregation, police brutality, voter suppression, housing disparities, and many other racially motivated issues. they’ve made significant progress in terms of civil rights over the past few decades, thanks to the efforts of activists, organizations, and legislation. however, there’s no denying that these issues persist, requiring continued work towards eradication.
transgender individuals, on the other hand, primarily struggle with gender identity and expression. they fight against misconceptions, prejudice, and bias, which often manifests as restricted access to facilities, employment, healthcare, etc. trans people also experience higher rates of violence compared to the general population, which illustrates the severity of their plight.
while both groups have experienced similar periods where the right to basic services was denied based on an inherent characteristic, their journeys are not identical. this isn’t about pitting one group against another; rather, acknowledging that the battle for equal rights is ongoing for everyone regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other aspect of human diversity.
The whole notion of you can’t punch down never made sense to me. A group of people that you can’t criticize or make fun of is not a group below you.
What do you mean “can’t”? There’s no law or anything, you can insult whoever you want just like Dave.
Then what’s all the outrage about?
I’m not sure why people are surprised.
He’s always held these opinions, he just hid them among other opinions that weren’t as noticeable because he spread the hate around, and mostof the jokes were funny.
This is the same guy that got on his show, and had a segment where a white girl sang his words for him. If you can find the clip without using a service he profits from (I can’t right now, it’s only available in little “shorts” on YouTube), the whole thing is just him saying shit he doesn’t like, that would get his ass “cancelled” if he said them. And the longest segment is about gay sex being gross. Trans issues weren’t as visible back then, but the guy has always said this type of thing.
But for some reason, he’s stopped doing it to everyone, which is what made it acceptable. He didn’t spare any group, but he also didn’t target any single group more often than others, except perhaps black people. And it’s always acceptable to joke about your own group.
Now, he’s just being a douche. The jokes aren’t at all funny unless you find it funny to just bash people with no attempt at humor. It has gone far past the kind of abrasive, but exaggerated hate he used to use, but it isn’t something new.
But for some reason, he’s stopped doing it to everyone
That’s what always happens. It turns out when you’re an asshole to “everyone”, eventually you’re just an asshole to minorities.
As usual, the algorithmic media machine is trying to drum up anger and emotion because that gets clicks and ad views. There were definitely a few transphobic jokes that I was not okay with, but to say he the special is “filled” with them is a bit much.
Also the quote “I love punching down” was clearly not sincere the way he delivered it. I didn’t like the special, but the outrage over it is overblown especially considering that putting it in the news will only get more people watching it.
Dave Chappelle is the Clarence Thomas of comedy.
Anybody who’s followed Chris Rock since the 90s will be familiar. It starts out as an “edgy” black comedian with an overwhelmingly white audience. It ends with your core audience using you as a black voice, that one black friend, who justifies regressive politics. I don’t know if Dave is in on the joke, laughing all the way to the bank. Either way, he’s playing the clown.
I thought the whole reason he abandoned his successful show was in part a refusal to shuck and jive. Kinda disappointing that he’s putting on a minstrel show now.
This is an absolutely brutal takedown of Dave Chappelle
Wow.
Reminder that Reid Hastings the Netflix founder is a prolific anti union and anti public school pact funder. He is a piece of shit outside of giving chapel a platform
He also literally said “Netflix is not in the business of speaking truth to power” when he censored The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj for Saudi Arabia.
What’s a “public school pact”? I went to public school and no one ever informed me of any pact!
Fuck! When I saved that orphan from the nobles and someone chanted, “remember the pact” was that what they were talking about‽
I must’ve been sick that day.
They most likely mean PAC (political action committee), which is just another name for a lobbyist group.
Oh, you must’ve taken study hall as an elective instead of that Commune With the Old Ones class. I heard it was mislabeled as “Gym Class” so it’s understandable.
He’s running out of content
“I love punching down!”
When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
I’m not sure how many of you watched this based on the comments here
But his jokes really were not transphobic in this special at all
Watch the thing with context and see
But as it was happening… I was very disappointed. Because I wanted to meet Jim Carrey, and I had to pretend this n*gga was Andy Kaufman… all afternoon. It was clearly Jim Carrey. I could look at him and I could see he was Jim Carrey.
Anyway, I say all that to say… that’s how trans people make me feel.
That’s extremely transphobic and not even an attempt at being funny.
Edit:
“Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherf*cking teeth out. I’m a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl’s dick I got. Don’t make me explain myself. I’m a girl”
Also very transphobic, and there’s more.
Here’s the complete transcript of his new program.
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/dave-chappelle-the-dreamer-transcript/
Could you give some context? I’m definitely not going to watch it based on just a “take my word for it” argument. He’s been known to toe the line and get rude when people call him out on it. At this point I have to assume he is being transphobic simply because that’s been a problem for him in the past.
I gave him some context above and he’s full of shit. The new program is very transphobic and not just mildly.
Here’s the complete transcript of the show
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/dave-chappelle-the-dreamer-transcript/
It’s awful and not even remotely funny, just offensive. I think he lost his marbles and drank too much conservative koolaid.
You’re wild he’s hardly conservative
Did you watch it or just read it?
I didn’t say he is conservative, just that he drank their koolaid. He’s mirroring their talking points and rethoric, pandering to the Conservative crowd, and not in a sarcastic way at all.
What do you mean by “just read it”. Are you implying the transcript is wrong?
I do believe that a transcript leaves out tone, intonation, and that sort of context to the words that are printed and said.
Could you give some context? I’m definitely not going to watch it based on just a “take my word for it” argument
Are you actually asking someone else to provide you with a reason to watch the thing you’re pretending to have an opinion about?
He basically says, as most comedians have, that you should be able to make fun of everyone.
He says (paraphrasing here) Im not making fun of trans people, they have a lot of representation, I’ll punch down on handicapped people instead
It’s not about handicapped or trans people, it’s about the fact that no matter what you joke about, someone will be offended, and you can’t live your life not offending everyone
Also, most of the special was about his dreams as a child, and how other people are dreamers too
He also goes on to give Lil Nas X a lot of props in the special, which if he hated lgbtq people, he probably wouldn’t.
The bits about trans people, which were few and far between, were mostly about how people.took and misconstrued his jokes about trans people in previous specials.
I’ve seen all of them, not once do I think he was specifically targeting and being dismissive of trans people
You can make fun of people without discriminating against them. Dave has pretty consistently made fun of everyone.
He makes fun of himself and his wife for being black and Chinese in this. I don’t see everyone screaming that he’s racist against black or Chinese people
fuck this “making jokes about everyone” defense. why do all these “I mAkE jOkEs aBoUt eVeRyOnE” Mf’ers ALWAYS make jokes about minorities and punch down? if your “comedy about everyone” is literally 90% about you asserting power and dominance over minorities, you’re just a hack. the power of comedy is so great. you can do so much with it. why use it to make people feel small who feel small all their life
OK. You’re entitled to your biases and unfounded opinions as much as the next person. Doesn’t mean we need to respect them.
Today in bizzaroworld, asking for context demonstrates bias and unfounded opinion.
fuck off and read the book/watch the show, then decide.
Did you miss the part about how he’s not going to watch it himself but already has an opinion based on his own assumptions?
Did you miss the part where you told him asking for context meant he was biased? And they’re only assumptions if this was the first time this comedian had ever done a netflix special making trans people the butt of his jokes. Once someone has form for it, and we know he’s done it again, they’re no longer assumptions, they’re a reasonable inference.
Sounds to me like there’s no context to be had and you’re just getting called out for lying. 🤷
Lil bro just incinerated any good faith interpretations of his original comment, one comment later. Why post at all if you can’t control your emotions?
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Last time he came out with a special, I watched it blind, not knowing anything about it. The dude “joked” for 30 minutes about trans people. I cracked a smile once or twice toward the beginning. After a couple of minutes, it no longer felt like he was trying to joke. It was just an old man venting anger. These were not even trying to be jokes.
So why would I give him another chance? Dude sucks now. I’m sure you can tell some jokes about trans people and be funny. But he wasn’t trying. And he has a token trans “friend” he uses to justify it all. What a fucking hack. No, I won’t give him another chance. He lost me.
Thank you
Context is everything. It’s a very well written special especially if you consider the last two.
He’s a comedian. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. It’s not hate speech, just comedy. These headlines are trash
Nah, we need to provide rage bait for overly sensitive people
Personally, even if it’s not transphobic, it’s pretty lame to make that your topic for the entire special.
It really wasn’t at all That’s why I don’t get this article or the reactions from people in the comments about this article.
That wasn’t the main topic for the entire thing it was a fairly small part
Because everybody loves to act offended.
Because rage sells ads. Period. And most people are sheep who need to belong to a flock.
It’s not the topic for the entire special. You’d know that if you watched it.
I watched both his and Gervais’ latest last night out of morbid curiosity. Both were profoundly unfunny. To be fair, Chappelle was marginally funnier than Gervais, whose act seemed like a barely-disguised checklist of right-wing talking points spouted off by a narcissistic man-baby who constantly laughs at his own “jokes” (and seemed like he had a laugh track or just poor audio editing) Chappelle, at least, elicited a few chuckles when he was willing to make himself or th, insanely wealthy (pretty lackluster running bit about the submarine implosion) the butt of the joke. His constant making “joking” about trans, gay, and bisexual people was just not funny.
I think that the root cause of their shifts is that they were always in life for themselves, looking up at the rich and powerful thinking “I want that”. So, when they were getting established, the underdog thing was useful. But, they never saw themselves as underdogs but the temporarily-embarrassed millionaires. Once the got their piece, they’re right there next to the boomers with the “fuck you, I got mine” attitude to court the favor of those that will reduce their need to give back to the society that they benefitted from. I’m pretty sure neither of them are actually discriminatory in their private lives (they both basically say as much); either they just absolutely lack scruples and are happy to play a shithead to make money and powerful friends or, their pride and ego doesn’t allow them to publicly acknowledge fault and not understanding that context and nuance matter (odd to think as they are professional wordsmiths).
I agree to some extent although both of their bits have long been about shock humor and I think they both think this kind of thing is just an extension of that. That doesn’t make it funny tho. Shock humor is stale at this point.
It’s not that it’s stale, it’s that they aren’t in the same spirit as his older specials.
I haven’t seen this one, the last I saw was was his first 2 specials. The jokes fell flat because it didn’t feel like they were trying to spread awareness of social issues the same way the older specials did about the police beating negros like hotcakes.
Same with Chris Rock and Luis C.K. Sooooooo not funny. It’s like they got infected by some unfunny virus when they did “Talking funny” with Seinfeld. Or it’s just really hard to stay funny as you get older. Carlin was amazing all his life but who else? Maybe comedians are like boxers? They don’t have an old timers day…
I’m shocked that Dave Chappelle not only went down this route but has doubled down, especially since he walked from his own show nineteen years ago due in part to the negative racial stereotypes being pushed by the show’s execs and the lack of creative control Comedy Central gave him.
And I’m more shocked that Netflix thought it was wise to release another special filled with transphobic drivel, especially since the last one generated so much negative press for them.
If you actually watch it he’s not transphobic in it at all
Idk what this article is talking about
The pasted quotations in another thread seem to suggest otherwise.
You’re shocked that he did a thing that was incredibly successful and then doubles down on that success? Your being shocked feeds into that success.
do you have stats on these netflix shows? Are they at all successful?
This is of his previous Netflix special: https://tvline.com/ratings/tv-ratings-dave-chappelle-the-closer-nielsen-top-10-streaming-1234739959/
Also, I don’t think Netflix would buy another show with almost identical premise if it didn’t piss money.
He walked because he had a mental breakdown…
In his own words a white crew guy laughed at a comedy skit they were filming. Lots of white people watched his show and laughed at the skits
Dave got famous real quick. He played a likable character in Half Baked and next thing you know he was a household name with a giant TV show.
No one really knew anything about what kind of person he was, good chance he was always shitty.
his jokes were always heavily “black people be like this, white people be like that” so he was always a bit overrated. It just sucks he learned so little from his experiences.
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He’s a bought-and-paid-for sellout. Always was. He just never had anyone show him where the money was.
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He’s gone around the bend. He does photo ops with people like Lauren Boebert. It’s the Kanye West and Elon Musk thing. They get criticism for their bad takes and instead of correcting themselves they double down because they can’t handle criticism. And then they find comfort in the right wing grifter sphere because those people kiss their ass. And then it’s just a downward spiral.
He does photo ops with people like Lauren Boebert.
Wow. You weren’t joking. Not just photo ops, but photo ops specifically to pass on a bigoted message.
But sure, he’s an equal-opportunity offender and besides it’s just a joke, bro.
What evidence do you have that he knew how this photo would be used? He doesn’t exactly look like he’s excited to be in the photo.
He said during his standup act at Capital One Arena in Washington that he granted the photo request by Boebert for a human moment to bridge the political divide but felt “blindsided” by her, according to a progressive influencers’ blog.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dave-chappelle-poses-lauren-boebert-164759657.html
Oh no! She tricked him by having identical views and saying so!
But he’s excited to collect millions from netflix for his yearly “transphobe comedy hour”. He knows who the fans of that comedy are…
Narcissists
I used to believe this, because I truly believe that we should be able to joke about everything and anything.
But when you have photo ops with right-wing nutters, run exclusively in circles with conspiracy nuts, and placate the likes of Elon Musk at your shows, it shows that even the great Dave Chappelle isn’t beyond being sucked into the anti-woke brigade.
When your act starts to focus almost solely on certain subjects, you become typecast, and that’s what’s happening to Chappelle and Gervais. When you’re putting out more material on trans people than what you were initially known for covering, something has changed in you. Most comedians that strike a nerve or hit gold on a specific topic don’t make their entire identity about it, like Jim Jeffries and the infamous gun routine. They reference the impact, and move on. IMO, Chappelle and co should have moved on maybe one or two specials ago…
We should be able to home about everything and anything. But the more politically incorrect your humor is, the funnier (and more true) it needs to be. His new material just isn’t funny.
You can joke about everything and anything. Dave Chapelle wasn’t arrested and put in jail. The conflation of what’s legal and what’s in the etiquette of society is troubling. You can have shitty views and be entitled not to be arrested for having them. You can have shitty views and not be entitled for anyone to pay you or listen to you say them. I have the same right to complain to Netflix about promoting this asshole as he does being that asshole.
What is the difference between ‘pushing buttons and boundaries’ and trolling? I don’t think i can tell. It all seems designed to generate emotional responses and controversy.
I would say pushing boundaries (and maybe to a lesser extent just pushing buttons) is categorically different than trolling.
Trollings sole purpose is the reaction, to rile people up. You dont have any intention behind your words besides that. Or heck maybe you even lie to do it. “What if I post pictures of sad looking polar bears to Greta Thunbergs twitter account? Wouldnt that make her mad!? hahaha!” Thats a troll - Nothing is gained, nothing is learned, nothing is advanced.
Pushing boundaries is something different. You can have intent, social movement, and a message with it. Star Trek pushed boundaries when they had an interracial kiss, it wasnt just for shock value or trolling white people. Ellen coming out on TV pushed boundaries without trolling people.
Boundaries are generally placed by people for the purpose of holding certain groups back, and they deserved to be pushed and in fact broken. Trolling does none of that. Trolling is putting a flaming bag of shit on someones porch and ding-dong-ditching just to watch them get their shoe dirty. If they are old, fall over, and break their hip when they do it thats all the more fun to the troll.
Pushing buttons… more on the trolling end of things, but probably done in a more playful way, maybe even to someone you know and hope to have a positive relationship with afterwards. But really its a more mild form of trolling
Nothing. ‘Pushing buttons’ is a mother way to say trolling.
Ya know, even with the typo, it’s accurate. 🤪
lol, oops. I’m going to leave it, because you’re right!
He’s a sellout. Nothing more. And it’s painfully obvious. He was barely relevant before this bullshit- now look at him.
He might be a sellout but to say he was “barely” relevant before he made trans jokes is just false. Before the trans jokes he was considered the GOAT stand up comedian and it was pretty much uncontested. If you aren’t a comedy fan then I get why you wouldn’t have heard much about him before the jokes but that’s just your little bubble, bud.
Do you wanna give me a source on that uncontested claim because that sounds like it was pulled out of your ass.
ROFL! Comedy isn’t a competition. You’re either funny or you aren’t. And if you’re only funny because you are controversial, then you’re not funny- you’re just popular.
He WAS funny. Then he became relevant. Now he’s just controversial.
Chappelle was never controversial before this though. He was just recognized by his peers as the FUNNIEST. SMH
He was recognized by his peers as FUNNY. Because comedians are funny. Again, it’s not a competition. Grow the fuck up.
Lmao I like how you changed the argument. All I’m trying to express is that he was VERY relevant before the trans shit. You have a lot of unprocessed anger huh?
No, he wasn’t:
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-male-stand-up-comedians-of-the-2000s/ranker-comedy
He didn’t even make the list on a site that’s widely known for making lists.
Even if we consider comedy to be a competition/ he still lost.
If it were truly about comedy, wouldn’t he at least try to be a bit funny while doing it?
Why is it all or nothing? I am not sure how that was established. What experiments were conducted to show that result?
Wait, I thought he already released a special full of trans jokes… Is this another one?
He’s released multiple at this point. Guess it really is the hill he wants to die on.
Its probably because people told him not to do it, and he’s not gonna let anyone tElL hIm wHaT tO dO.
someone has a fixation…
He doubled down with this new one, and is appealing to the bottom of the barrel. Wouldn’t be surprised if Dave is a low key Trump supporter
