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.
I watched the show and I can provide some context.
He did make some jokes but they weren’t about trans so much but about his relationship with the community.
The handicap jokes were about making fun of himself and his comedy and how he is viewed by the trans community. It was expressed for shock value too. Said in a way to show he doesn’t care who he makes fun of, that no people are safe from his humor. It fell kind of flat for me but it did not “fill his routine” as the article states.
The punching down joke was clearly sarcasm.
That being said, I found his standup to be as you described. Kind of tired and old.
He told a story about meeting Jim Carrey, while he was filming Man in the Moon. Jim was immersed in his role and everyone was talking to him, as if he was Andy Kaufman, even off set. Dave compared that to trans. Like he knew he was talking to one gender but he had to pretend they were another gender. He didn’t explicitly say it that way, but that is what I inferred.
I have been a huge Chappelle fan. I have seen him really highlight hypocrisy and double standards in a cutting, but hilarious and insightful way.
But, I felt this latest standup was not particularly witty or insightful. At least when his set invloved LGBTQ. I felt he was just poking the bear to have the last word kind of thing.
His Jim Carrey story just made me feel sad because it made me believe that he really doesn’t understand. Jim Carrey was trying to become someone he truly wasn’t. Someone, whom is trans, is trying to become the person they truly believe they are.
He had some good insight, for me, about what it meant to him, when Wil Smith hit Chris Rock and he segued that into people’s dreams and the underlying theme of the show. But then he taked about them both being men and it just reminded me that toxic masculinity is a real thing, but his set did not address it.
He talked about Lil Nas X and even though it was meant to come across as supportive, it felt forced.
But overall, I felt the jokes that involved trans were low hanging at best, and baiting at worst.
However, this “article” and the response to it, is exactly why he told those jokes the way he did. The Independent doesn’t care, they are just playing the game to get clicks.
The most passionate response to Dave’s routine shouldn’t be more than, “That was it?”
True, news platforms definitely know how to game these controversies, thank you for giving me an idea of what the thing actually is hah. I’m not surprised it wasn’t a hate-filled tirade, as people might be inclined to think with this headline.
Like you said though I feel more sad than anything usually in relation to this sort of thing. Even if he is saying offensive things, I think you are right that he genuinely doesn’t understand what being trans really is and that ignorance can be hard to separate from more malicious bigotry. Even supportive people can come off as “oh what’s the harm, they can be a woman if they want to pretend” at times.
If a person isn’t queer or trans, or good friends with people who are, it can probably be hard to understand how much hate still exists. A comedian might think these people just need tougher skin, not realizing the potential harm, so I don’t usually blame them much.
It made you sad because it’s anti-trans.
Chapelle, in that cute little anecdote, is literally denying the existence of trans identity and claiming they’re just acting and it’s a choice. That is the way that the right is trying to erase trans identity, and it’s the same playbook they used when attacking the gay community (i.e by claiming it’s a lifestyle choice and not an issue of identity).
As for him not “understanding”, bluntly, that is a choice. He’s not some misguided poor soul. He has access to all the information you and I do. He could educate himself. But he’s made a decision, and that decision is to deny the existence of trans people.
Frankly, it seems to me your fondness for Chapelle is leading you to downplay his beliefs and his behaviour.