Dave Chappelle fills Netflix special with jokes about trans and disabled people
Dave Chappelle fills Netflix special with jokes about trans and disabled people
It’s the comedian’s first special for the streamer since 2021’s highly controversial ‘The Closer’
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.
In one of Dave’s early Netflix specials he talks about Bill Cosby and how complicated his crimes were for a black standup who was both inspired and influenced by Cosby as regardless of how shitty he is as a person is a giant of that medium. I sort of feel that way about Dave now, his show and early standup sets were so fundamental to how my sense of humor formed that I can’t completely divorce myself from them, but who he’s become is shameful and i can’t ride with him anymore.
Like fuck him for being so shitty and bigoted in general, but an extra fuck him for letting down the people he inspired and influenced. He’s become the very thing he should have destroyed
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
My takes are - He's doing this on purpose. He's doing this for what he believes in, comedy, and the freedom to say what one wants no matter how distasteful, especially in comedy. Either everything is ok to be made fun of or nothing is. Pushing buttons and boundaries.
Or he's a Troll and he's out to top South Park.
Or he's gone around the bend. Like bye bye ...
I mean out of all the groups & things taking place in American and the World there's a fuck tonne better people and groups to be taking the piss out of, and other boundaries that could use the pushing. Regardless of reasons the direction and optics are abysmal.
Well that sucks. I like a lot of Dave Chappelle’s comedy and I remember in the special I had watched it a couple or few years ago he was talking about how members of the trans community expressed their thoughts to him as that he was punching down and he ended it with saying he would stop because the trans community is busy fighting for their rights to exist and until he was sure that “we are all laughing together”. I thought that was a very admirable thing to say and for him to see the effect his commentary can cause. I guess that was just him stringing words together that sound good for the product he sells.
And then after every joke he does that thing where he slaps the mic on his leg to make a sound to indicate that it’s now time to laugh.
Punching down is never funny. Picking on people who have been marginalized or attacked for being who they are winds up being cruel, not humorous. Maybe a skilled comedian could punch down in such a way that it's funny, but it would be an extremely rare event.
If you want to punch and be funny, you have two options. The first is to punch up. Hit the people in power. Hit the people who have luxury. For example, a joke making fun of poor people isn't likely to be funny. A joke making fun of wealthy people, though? That has a much better chance of being funny.
The other punch style is the self punch. This is where you make fun of yourself or your own "group." For example, I'm Jewish. If a non-Jew makes a "Jews run the world" joke, it'll likely come across as highly anti-semitic. If I were to make that joke, I'd stand a decent chance of getting a laugh. (Well, assuming that I had basic comedy skills.)
When the right complains that the left has ruined comedy, what they really mean is that they can't make fun of people who are suffering without being called cruel.
Not surprised he has all the self reflection of a bigoted comedian being told not to use a slur.
He will be remembered with an asterisk to anything positive he did.
Stephen Fry once said that comedy is about punching up. Anyone can punch down, it takes real talent to punch up, you have to make fun of your betters, because they think they are your betters.
Beating on people who are already incredibly socially ostracized is not comedy, it's bullying. If you think it's comedy then you're a bully.
Well, I’m glad I’m closing my Netflix account.
Old man that's not funny and becoming irrelevant got a lot of attention from right wing chuds, so decided to pander to the right wing chuds to try and stay relevant.
He's got a really niche audience. People who think they're all cool just for being "politically incorrect." Like other comedians in the american scene.
I used to like his comedy – great storyteller and all. But lately, it's like his specials follow this routine: some jokes on how racism's still an issue, mixed with a bit of him claiming he's the top comedian alive. And let's not forget the bits where he suggests making fun of people's choices is all in good fun.
The crowd at these specials? Feels like a bunch of yes men, laughing and clapping at every word from Chappelle. It makes watching his stuff on Netflix a bit of a struggle for me.
Don't get me wrong, the guy's talented. Awesome timing and storytelling. But nowadays, being a badass doesn't mean being a bully, and it seems like that shift bugs him and his entourage of yes men. That's probably why his specials come off a bit too harsh, at least in my book.
Yeah that's like all he does these days. The guy is out of material. Like the third or fourth special where that's the main Crux of it. Washed up
I knew this clown was on the decline since his first Netflix special where he has that bit about child molestation and how if its someone like Michael Jackson, it's NBD. Talk about cringe inducing.
His comedy has always been about making fun of essentialism in the way only comedy does (Men are like, Women are like, White people are like, etc).
His problem is that he got mad people were calling him mean and his bloated ego decided the solution was to double down and be mean on purpose. Then he decided he was smart enough to understand the entire project of personal identity (something humans have been concerned about since the beginning of writing and which likely isn’t getting much further without a solution to the mind-body problem) and did some internet research and, after generalizing the experience of two trans people and committing erroneously to the fact that most people would claim to be internally consistent in their beliefs, he decided he’s not even being vindictive anymore, he’s simply understood something true and so he’s allowed to use his (formerly anti-racist) platform to say it.
Anyone reveling in "punching down" is a piece of shit.
Like a shitty band that can't make it, going "christian" for a guaranteed captive audience. If you find yourself not culturally relevant anymore, the bigots will always pay for validation.
I saw it come up and thought I’d wait for reviews. Fears confirmed.
Must be nice to have "fuck you money" and just say insane shit but I won’t support it.
At this point I feel like Netflix is encouraging this kind of content.
You can't even make a real argument, and just use sarcasm and personal attacks.
Be angry at me all you want.
But next time you see such an obviously baiting headline, like this "article"... ask yourself if it's a real article or just clickbait that wants to trick you into scrolling through 40 ads to read something that doesn't expand on the headline AT ALL.
And then wonder if there is a lot of "news" floating out there meant to make you angry just so you drive traffic to the source.
If you question this kind of nonsense even once, moving forward, then these last 10 minutes was well worth the effort.
Even funnier than the special is how 90% of the commenters here obviously haven't watched it (or his previous special) and are literally just regurgitating opinions from shitty clickbait headlines like this article.
I love his trans jokes.
I haven't seen the special yet but making fun of trans people is not on the same level as making fun of disabled people. Trans is a choice made due to lack of proper mental health care, a disability is not.
Haha Dave tickles my funny bone and gets it raging hard
Think what you like about Dave Chappelle but he only had one joke about raping women. Come on people.
Edit: this comment is so perfectly controversial I can't even guess which people are down voting and which are upvoting.
This makes his losses even funnier to me. I remember when this moron never got paid for his first show because his lawyers fucked him over on his contract.
I’d had felt sorry for him if he wasn’t such a vile racist.
What a clown.
The Independent knew what they were doing.
They take a couple of his lines completely out of context, put it in a headline, and people can't wait to post a comment about how much they hate him.
I wonder how many of you have been given your opinion of him and never actually watched him?
I will definitely admit this latest special was "meh". But man, I'm pretty confident most of the commenters here have strong opinions of this special without ever watching it.
This thread reads like a bunch of Boomers were given a headline that "Biden paid for coke that Hunter snorted off hookers butt, in the Whitehouse.", and couldn't wait to post how much they hate Biden and that he's a criminal, or whatever.
Dave Chapelle was never funny. I hope he does something actually funny like drive his car into a telegraph pole.
Ha, yeah Dave's great.
yeah it's called comedy
Dave Chappelle is funny because he's a POS. That's the punchline to every single one of his jokes, and always has been. He occasionally says something genuinely insightful and deep, just to make the undercut 5 seconds later that much more jarring. There's nothing different now except who it's most controversial to joke about.
ITT: People who suck out all of the context and humor out of a joke and then insist it was never funny (even though the dude sells out arenas and everyone laughs and he's widely considered by comedy fans and other comics to be a living GOAT). Comedy is democratic. You can't say the stand up comedian is this or that, because he is telling jokes.