Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special premiered on Netflix Sunday. In the opening of this one he tells a story about meeting one of his comedic heroes, Jim Carrey, well sort of.
Live your life so as not to be a punchline.
— Benjamin👋Boyce (@BenjaminABoyce) January 1, 2024
Naturally, that is setting people in the media off again. Here’s Variety:
Maybe it’s time for Dave Chappelle to try some new material.
The comedian’s newest special, “The Dreamer,” debuted on Netflix on Dec. 31, and largely focuses on his early years in entertainment and how he manifested his success. But he floods the first 12 minutes of the set revisiting his favorite target in recent years: Transgender people.
And Rolling Stone isn’t mad just disappointed:
It’s unfortunate that Chappelle’s The Dreamer is, like some of his prior Netflix specials, obsessively fixated on the trans community, because it’s not an area he particularly excels at, resorting to puerile premises and punchlines. There are, of course, ways to artfully tell a trans joke — take Michelle Wolf’s recent Netflix specialIt’s Great to Be Here — but Chappelle is apparently incapable of having most of his bits extend beyond mocking genitalia or pronouns. It’s not just tired but uninspired…
The frustrating thing about Chappelle’s preoccupation with the trans community is that he’s still capable of spinning a devilishly funny, layered yarn when he wants to that will have you in stitches. But he just can’t help himself.
But Chappelle really does move on to other things for the majority of this special, some of them clearly mocking himself as kind of comedic monster.
He said, “If you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m going to make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show. I’m not f—— with those people anymore. It wasn’t worth the trouble. I ain’t saying s— about them. Maybe three or four times tonight, but that’s it. I’m tired of talking about them. And you want to know why I’m tired of talking about them? Because these people acted like I needed them to be funny.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous. I don’t need you. I got a whole new angle coming. You guys will never see this s– coming. I ain’t doing trans jokes no more,” Chappelle added.
Then, he declared that he was going to switch to making jokes about “handicapped” individuals as “they’re not as organized as the gays. And [he loves] punching down.”
It sounds like there were only a few jokes like this in the special. Much of it really was about other topics.
Chappelle switched gears, dedicating a significant amount of time in “The Dreamer” to discuss the infamous moment Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the 2022 Oscars ceremony.
“I was offended. I wasn’t just offended he got slapped. That was only half of it. The real offensive part was after the slap Will just sat down and enjoyed the rest of his evening,” Chappelle said.
Is it time to try to cancel Chappelle again? Will the left succeed this time or are they tired of trying? Your guess is as good as mine but it feels like Chappelle is probably going to win this round too if only because a lot of people really can relate to what he’s saying, even if they know they’re not supposed to say it out loud.