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.
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.
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
… its … not ok… to … tell… jokes… about… certain… people ?
This is just NotTheOnion territory at this point
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.
To be fair, Just because poeple Like it doesnt mean it is good. Hitler was elected too. Im Not saying he is a bad comedian, i dont know him. I Just think the Argument “it is good because its popular” ist Bad.
I see. My argument here is more like “many diverse groups of people basically unanimously had the same involuntary reaction to the jokes, therefore the jokes are funny.”
If I show a steak to a room full of people and 99% of their mouths water, we can safely say that the steak is appetizing.
My other point is when you strip away from a joke the context, innuendo, voice, and attitude, or you go in prejudging the comedian, you have so altered the material that it cannot be fairly judged.
I’ve seen all the specials and he’s never struck me as any sort of bigot.
As a queer who has watched essentially everything he’s released in his career, he has always had material that came off as bigoted against queer and trans people, and I’ve still been a fan of his until recently but I don’t have a strong judgement on what his actual views might be, comedians always try to be controversial. What are the diverse groups you are talking about? Has there been some kind of objective study on the average response to his comedy? It’s always been popular among a decent number to make fun of queers and trans people, women, disabled people, other groups, does that mean we can’t still say “wow fuck that guy” when they do it?
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Pretty much. Look at Kevin Hart.
Is there a more boring comedian? I have not found a single joke of his even mildly funny.
He did try to coup in 1923, but that failed and which ended him in “jail”,where he wrote Mein Kampf. And He was appointed as “Reichskanzler” in 1933. The nsdap got about 17.4 Million votes that year. Wikipedia page
Hitler was appointed not elected. Please read a book
You want me to read a book, but you cant even read my other comment in which i wrote he was appointed. My Point was that his ideology was widely supported.
Comedy is part of a conversation, all art is, an artist is using their medium to say something. He has a massive platform and he is choosing to encourage even more hate against trans people. Even if his jokes about it weren’t so played out and dumb there are endless things he could joke about. It’s an asshole move and he chooses this topic probably because he knows it riles people up, because he is lazy and has nothing better to joke about.
He is one of the GOATs if you look at his history and he probably can still make good jokes about better topics if he chose to. Massive assholes have had huge crowds plenty throughout history, it just proves that plenty of people are dicks too.
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
Does that mean Anthony Jeselnik is a literal Nazi because he wrote jokes about the Holocaust and being the grandson of a Nazi? Or that Don Rickles was really an asshole for being an insult comic?
I do think Dave is bigoted, but I don’t agree with this particular argument since insult comics and offensive comics don’t have to believe the dark shit they write for the sake of humor. It’s what Dave says and does off stage that shows he actually believes the shit he says.
I wouldn’t call him a literal Nazi but I can still get an idea of who he is as a person by the jokes he chooses to tell
You couldn’t possibly be more wrong about Jeselnik or the style of black humor that he does so well.
This is boomer-tier missing the plot.
I have always found him to be obnoxious even at the height of his fame. It’s bro “aren’t I so edgy?” humor. Those kind of jokes just became boring for me after freshman year
I’m not missing the plot at all - I get what he’s doing. I’m just not his target demographic because I matured past high school
because I matured past high school
I don’t believe you.
If you had, you’d be able to recognize that his style of humor isn’t yours and that’s ok. You wouldn’t think “man this guy must really be a Nazi.”
Are you replying to the right person? My comment - that you replied to - said the following:
I wouldn’t call him a literal Nazi but I can still get an idea of who he is as a person by the jokes he chooses to tell
I’m not sure how you could have possibly read that and thought, “this guy thinks jezelnik is a Nazi!”
I haven’t heard Jesselnik’s routine, but the Rickles comparison is not apt because Rickles was an insult comic, which is a form of doing a character, and Chapelle is a topical comedian in the vein of Pryor and Carlin. Much like Pryor and Carlin, his comedy is also a platform to express his actual views. Unlike Pryor and Carlin, he is using that platform to specifically express bigoted views. I don’t think anyone would expect you to divorce Carlin’s or Pryor’s jokes from their politics. They make absolutely profound statements with their jokes. Listen to Pryor talk about why he won’t say the N-word anymore. It’s funny, and at the same time it will make you want to cry because it’s so insightful.
So I think you absolutely can associate the character of a topical comedian with the content of their comedy. Because the best topical comedians out there make their comedy about their personality and opinions.
By that logic, your comment having more downvotes than upvotes means it’s a bad take.
He sells out arenas because there are a lot of assholes who think his bigotry is funny. Or people who didn’t realize he was gonna keep on that line and left disappointed.
considered by comedy fans and other comics to be a living GOAT
I hope someday people go back and look at all of these goats in their writing that aren’t referring to farm animals and wind up with the greatest cringe of all time.
EDIT: Seriously, “GOAT” is a stupid acronym that I blame crappy sports punditry for…people sound like idiots saying it.
Well, I’m glad I’m closing my Netflix account.
Wait, I thought he already released a special full of trans jokes… Is this another one?
He’s released multiple at this point. Guess it really is the hill he wants to die on.
Its probably because people told him not to do it, and he’s not gonna let anyone tElL hIm wHaT tO dO.
someone has a fixation…
A fetish, if you will.
He doubled down with this new one, and is appealing to the bottom of the barrel. Wouldn’t be surprised if Dave is a low key Trump supporter
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.
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.
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I’m not sure how many of you watched this based on the comments here
But his jokes really were not transphobic in this special at all
Watch the thing with context and see
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Ha, yeah Dave’s great.
Chapelle and Gervais seem stuck on hitting people who really can’t hit back. Fucking Chapelle brags about it, Gervais is now pretending its all an act. Fuck both of them.
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Oh I understand who he is. He used to be funny. Now he is just another bad act.
Did he used to be funny?
Karl and Stephen were funny. Ricky was always kind of insufferable.
Case in point: the number of times Karl’s musings turned out to be true, and Ricky had berated him for those musings. Such as Karl positing “most ants don’t do much,” turns out that is true.
I was fine with his cringe when basically the joke was on him. He seems to have lost the thread of his humor.
Tell me. Tell me now!
Dave is just a weak, hateful little guy now
