What do you make of the controversy over Dave Chappelle?
Yep, Dave Chappelle is making headlines again. For all the same reasons as before.
Netflix employees are walking out and quitting over the streaming service’s airing of Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special in which he makes jokes about trans people, something he has done before. He also talks a lot about cancel culture and how he predicts he will be canceled for his controversial statements.
Do you think the left has only itself to blame for making comedians whine about cancel culture rather than actually tell jokes?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
25 Answers
I haven’t seen the Netflix special. I do know he can be raw but he’s a comedian. That’s what they do.
Why is this the Left’s fault?
I do not have citations. I read just yesterday that hate speech such as he uses in his special directly lead to violence against trans people. In the article I read, they had citations to academic studies.
If you’re offended, don’t watch him. Quit Netflix.
Wokeness does not stop people from thinking.
I saw the Netflix special. Some parts were pretty funny, but the jokes about the trans community were lazy and unfunny. Didn’t find them particularly offensive though. I can tell that Dave is simply exaggerating for comedy, and not trying to be hateful.
He mentioned Jews in his latest special, are they demanding its removal from Netflix also?
@Patty_Melt I watched it. I think he is on point, admitting he doesn’t fully understand trans people, but treats them with dignity and respect regardless. And I think he is absolutely right about the ways the LGBT community frequently eats its own. I think these things make people uncomfortable. But the way to deal with it is not to cover your ears and pretend it doesn’t exist. The one who cancels/censors/bans is almost never on the right side of history.
I don’t watch many programmes on Netflix but Dave Chappelle would be one reason for keeping my subscription going. His show is humourous and not at all hateful. The only effect it will have on people is to make them laugh at life’s absurdities. That is its intention anyway, and let’s face it, life is full of absurdities.
I think his other specials were better constructed, and frankly this one just made him seem pretty out of touch, which is never a good look for a comedian. A couple solid jokes, but it was mostly Chapelle boilerplate to construct a narrative.
Generally, I love his boldness, but celebrity has a corrosive effect on authenticity. If you want to be loved, you’ll always have a hard time being a genuine comedian, on the cutting edge of comedy. I think he’s going been beating the “you make me uncomfortable” horse for far too long, and only keeps it up because it sells, unfortunately. It was big of him to resolve not to joke about the queer community anymore, but it honestly hadn’t been that funny.
I’ve loved his past specials, for the most part.
I haven’t watched this one yet. I did read the New York Times article about it. I read that people are speculating that it can be the cause of violence against the trans community, but there are no incidents as of yet.
Jerry Seinfield, in his Netflix series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” pointed out in one of the episodes that in the past, censorship came from the Right (Blacklists in the 50’s, Anita Hill in the 70’s), but now, censorship comes in the form of wokeness which, ironically is driven by the Left. Now, the Right seems to be all about being unfiltered, while the Left seems to be all about sensitivity.
Crying about “political correctness” and “cancel culture” is a business model for many comedians. Since they’re not really going to say anything controversial about power, they are able to punch down and pretend that they’re trailblazers and brave. They need the pushback to continue their narrative, but they need the pushback to be relatively powerless.
This really is the monetizing of “get off my lawn”. It’s not brave to target misunderstood trans people along with Ben Shapiro and the rest of conservative culture. It’s pathetic, lazy, and transparent.
So, he’ll get his controversy-inspired clicks and views. And he’ll pick up solidarity with other bigots. He’ll also probably get some confused people to say, “yeah, if Dave was right about race, maybe he’s right about trans people.”
The trans community can never catch a break and this has been comedian isn’t doing them any favors.
I saw his special. I’ll be honest, he didn’t really trash trans people. In fact, he spoke extremely highly of one…a friend of his that had died. He made a big deal about the character of this person. If the LGBTQ community can’t stand jokes about themselves, it is really their problem, not Chappelle’s. There have been many, many jokes about just about every other division of society and there is not the outrage about a couple about trans people. Get over it or don’t watch the special.
^you don’t understand how difficult it is to live as a trans person. It’s attitudes like yours and others here that makes life even harder for them.
@tent I probably don’t understand how difficult it is to live as a trans person. I’m not a trans person. But I am a human. I recognize the silliness in every one. I can laugh at myself and at others…not in a mean and derisive way, but in an expression of humor.
I will say that watching the Chappelle show did expose his take on trans people in general, but also exposed his take on one specific individual as well. You do know that he has been attacked (verbally) by trans people, for a long time, right? In his show, he showed how this attitude of lack of humor exposes more about those attacking him than about him. But when he started talking about the individual, he exposed more of his own innate expectations of how a trans person would treat him and his lack of openness. That specific trans person didn’t kiss his ass, didn’t attack him for trans jokes and didn’t buy into the views of others. That specific trans person was a horrible comedian. Horrible. But loved comedy and refused to give up trying to do comedy because it was something that was loved. Chappelle recognized the strength of character and steadfastness of self this person exhibited and truly respected it.
I would recommend you watch the special and try to see it not through eyes closed by opinion, but through eyes open to what is actually being said.
^He is now making demands towards the trans community to listen to him. He says he will only talk with them IF and WHEN they watch his special. This is a publicity stunt that hurts the trans community. His fans are now siding against trans people.
I used to love the guy but he’s using the trans community for $$$.
F*ck Dave. I will not watch his special.
Squid Games is fun. I’ll watch that.
@tent So let me get this straight. You won’t watch his special yet you have all kinds of opinions about it? No wonder he doesn’t want to waste his time dealing with people that have taken no time at all to get to know him. If I approached you with all sorts of pre-conceived ideas about your thoughts, applied them to you, and then held you accountable for them and refused to listen to anything else you had to say, would you say I was fomenting a good or a bad relationship or that I was open or closed minded? Think communication would work between us? And if I made demands of you to change based on my views of your thoughts (which I don’t know) would you see that as fair? Would you run out and try to change?
^I wasted my time watching his previous special where he bashed trans people. I’m not going to subject myself to his transphobia. I’ve watched this man for decades. I’ve not missed one piece of work he’s done until now. Can you say the same? It’s not as if I don’t understand the man.
Do you live in fear of people doxxing you and calling you a child abuser because you accept your trans child as who they are? Do you live in fear of people reporting you to child protective services? I’ll wait for that answer.
I don’t support cancel culture. I still enjoy Louis C.K.’s comedy. I still enjoy Kevin Spaceys work. What I won’t support is a has been comedian using a marginalized community for his own financial gain.
The topics for a question about trans people and humor: comedy, politics, humor, jokes.
You are better than this @Demosthenes
@Demosthenes Trans people don’t have the luxury to cover their ears and pretend hate doesn’t exist. Speaking of the LGBT community eating its own. You must have a full stomach.
@tent Let me help, since you won’t watch his special and you can only hold onto your uninformed ideas of him. This is probably one of my favorite of all Chappelle outputs.
@tent Chappelle has hit pretty hard on black people throughout most of his career. Do you have any hatred for the black community?
@tent I wouldn’t read too much into the topics.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
