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.
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.
okay, so you watched him and i didn’t (got rid of netflix a few years ago).
did he make a bunch of jokes about trans people and people with disabilities? what’s the context you got that i need to more accurately understand this performance?
edit a word
I’m not going to defend or attack him.
I would have to do half his routine for the context to work and I am not interested in doing that.
But just think, for a moment, about all the stupid shit boomers say, believe, and respond to, from just a headline. When they do it, you get frustrated and angry for them going off, half cocked, over nonsense.
Then realize, you are responding the same way. Not the same beliefs, mind you, but letting yourself get riled up about what someone else said about a third person.
Crap like this article is written solely for people to have an emotional response to it. They are monetarily motivated to do it. Revenue is driven by Internet traffic and ad clicks.
The reason data is so valuable is because they know what you react to. They see what generates that visceral response and then generate/tailor content because it drives viewers and clicks.
Take it a step further and you can see how it is used to generate political support and sales.
Don’t let yourself get manipulated by an online article.
I am NOT telling you to like Dave Chappelle or that he’s a good guy. I am telling you that the responses here, on this post are exactly why it is being done. Both his standup AND the way the article is written.
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.
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.
This is a good point. These jokes aren’t just bad, they’re boring. Why not just tell jokes about airline food?
Every Edgy Millionaire Comedian – roughly the same joke but the Columbus thing makes the edge of my mouth slightly curve upward 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!?”
‘cancelled’ is now simply “people were mean to me on shitter”. Their right to express vile horseshit is obviously intact.
Dave is just a weak, hateful little guy now
He found out that getting bad press is better than no press. Like the original thing that got him caught up in the headlines was crass but that’s sort of his humor. This one, he’s just being a gigantic penis about it and banking on the follow up outrage.
The thing is the anti-politically correct shtick only last so long. At some point it just becomes noise and then you have to up the ante which in turn alienates more people. Rise and repeat till it’s difficult to get a booking anywhere but FoxNews.
Like much of anything. It’s his career, far be it for me to tell him how to run it. But his comedy routine as of late has just turned resentful and aiming to get as many people to gasp “Oh my, he’s such a bastard!” And in reality it just comes off as a big yawn.
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 chappelle a platform
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.
Comedy is the last bastion for free speech. Our constitution’s first amendment protects free speech regardless of how sensitive your feelings are or how much it has triggered your fabricated anxiety issue.
Who was suggesting that the government censor him?!
My point exactly. Thanks to the Bill of Rights, the people have certain reserved and protected rights. These rights which we take for granted are not guaranteed in other countries and can lead to charges of blasphemy.
I’m pro trans but I do respect the first amendment. Be who you want to be. He has an audience who loves him… BUT… Hate should not be promoted in order to protect others… So I guess I’m mixed on this.
It is the first amendment which allows you to make your statement freely without fear of state-sponsored reprise.
Netflix offers choices for entertainment. I don’t like most of the content on Netflix, but I don’t think it should be canceled just because I dislike it.
The First Amendment shields you from government reprisal. It is not a shield from private critique or consequences.
Public cancellation or being cancelled by a sensitive sub section of the population threatens free speech.
No it doesn’t full stop.
Public “cancellation” is free speech by the public and it always will be
Public cancellation costs people their jobs, livelihoods, and even their lives because a sensitive, loud, and naive sub section of the population felt “triggered” by someone else’s right to free speech. This, in turn, makes others wary of the things they say and inhibits their free speech.
People are presumed guilty without due process and are forced to grovel and apologize for otherwise meaningless acts which elevated the anxieties of the super sensitive. This is a witch hunt and has happened before in the US in Salem and during the McCarthy era. Both periods are seen as sore spots in our history.
This is convenient when your opinion is with the majority. It a threat and unsustainable when your opinion is no longer the majority opinion.
“Full stop”.
Comedy is the last bastion for free speech
Really? There’s literally no other free speech in the entire country? Guess those idiots on newsmaxx aren’t still lying about jewish space lasers then.
With cancel culture being so sensitive, free speech is under attack. I disagree with NewsMax and Nazis, but they have a right to express themselves without being cancelled.
What does getting canceled have to do with the 1st amendment? You want the government to force companies to employ nazis?
I think you’ve missed the point or the intent of the first amenmdebt itself if you are asking that question.
As for your second question, that is a straw man argument.
I think you’ve missed the point of the 1st amendment if you think it has anything to do with private entities canceling people. And if you don’t want nazis to get canceled but think that it’s unrelated to employment, who exactly is canceling them?
Your argument about free speech and the first amendment is hopelessly convoluted with cancel culture.
Anyone reveling in “punching down” is a piece of shit.
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).
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…
Looks like he’s found a more wealthy audience to be relevant to.
He’s running out of content
Next special:
“What’s the deal with Ovaltine? The jar is round!”
“They should call it Round-tine.”
As someone who watched the special I think his greatest crime is just not being funny and thinking he’s brave for doubling down. He’s a boomer with a fan base and tons of money. If anything, this thread is proof that cancel culture is fake. He’s Elon musk if Elon musk used to be funny.
Well said
It was pretty weak if you ask me. I’ve read worse reddit comments
That’s the bar?
No. Reddit is milquetoast and complaining about Dave Chappelle’s sense of humor is the ultimate redditor POV. Only butthurt fascists get bent out of shape about what comedians are saying, we all know he said things like that 20 years ago so why do you care now? People have different taste in comedy just like they have different genders so I don’t see why he’s not allowed to have an opinion according to internet users. Is it because he’s black?
Nah
Chappelle hasn’t been that funny for me for a while, but I’m guessing he has found a pretty sizable niche in the trans thing. The more you clutch your pearls about it, the more he’s going to joke about it, that’s for certain. If people would stop being such religious fundies about all this, he wouldn’t have an audience for these jokes.
Trans people aren’t the fuel of these jokes, the dumbass fundies (such as the author of this article) are.
It’s a fine line. I do believe that making fun of something does make it mainstream and even approachable in a certain way. But people need to understand that there’s a difference between a shock comic telling jokes to a consenting audience, and your cousin who secretly tried to kill himself before coming out last year.
Really the way this works is if the comedy is an avenue for empathy instead of hate, that’s ok. If you tell a dark joke, and someone says “hey man that’s not cool” then you should defer, and seek understanding, rather than getting defensive, because you are a brother or a mother or an uncle who has real impact on people close to them, not Dave Chapelle. So if that starts a conversation which makes you and those around you better people, then fine. If it creates a framework for exclusion and bullying, it’s not fine. This seems very simple, but so many people struggle with it even on much lower stakes topics.
Trans people aren’t the fuel of these jokes
Have you heard the jokes? He absolutely hates us. He loves punching us. He brags about it.
You can be a chapelle fan or you can be a trans ally. You cant be both (gaslighting not accepted).
Have you heard the jokes? He absolutely hates us. He loves punching us. He brags about it.
Not the current ones yet, admittedly. Ironically enough, this article informed me that it even exists. I did watch the earlier one, and found it rather mild.
You can be a chapelle fan or you can be a trans ally.
I’ll take C) neither, but will both pirate&watch this show and support equal human rights for everyone.
Actually supporting human rights for all is being a trans ally. Getting some laughs in at the expense of trans folks is not being a trans ally. There is a transitive property mental exercise here.
Are you calling me an empty set?
I’ll be a Chapelle fan then.
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.
You can’t say the stand up comedian is this or that, because he is telling jokes.
Yes you can lol
He wasn’t hired to read a script. He wrote and rehearsed the jokes he chooses to tell
… its … not ok… to … tell… jokes… about… certain… people ?
Punching down is the problem.
Also the whole “my brother is an asshole but if you call him that I’ll punch you” thing.
If he was making jokes about a community he was involved with at all, great. If it was a trans comedian making these jokes, (probably) great.
But this is just another old out-of-touch rich guy making fun about people who are already having a shitty time (on average).
Also, notice how anyone has yet to actually forbid him from doing it. He’s not being “cancelled/consequenced”.
A lot of people just find it extremely distasteful. (It hasn’t slowed him down in the slightest.)
If it was a trans comedian making these jokes, (probably) great.
Honestly, I’d be disappointed even more in a trans comedian. If, after transitioning, they went with such uninspired jokes when there’s a wealth of more humorous things to joke about in transition, I’d question their sense of humor.
in the quiet, the real quiet of it all, after the yelling and flaming on the internet, we have two types of thought. One that thinks that people have both the ability and the freedom to say what they think, out loud, and even to entire groups of people. And we have a group of people that thinks we are all safer and happier if we don’t let them. That group also thinks we have to agree (with them), they say one word a lot, ‘tolerance’ but curiously they mean that in one direction: the direction they identify with. In the same way, they falsely equate :“disagreeing with me” to “hating me”.
Depends… on… whether… the… joke… is… malicious,… of… course.
