Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer”

Not sure who has watched, but Chappelle’s latest Netflix special has caused plenty of blowback, particularly from the LGBTQ community, and garnered him plenty of support.

I am a fan of Chappelle and, while I have seen valid criticism of his show, I’ve also read at least two critiques from authors who admittedly didn’t watch it in its entirety because it so offended them. Certainly it is their right not to watch something they find offensive, but it’s hard to take seriously the criticism from someone who didn’t stick around for the end.

It’s like they jumped out of an airplane during turbulence, only to stop at the Pearly Gates and complain about the pilot’s flying while they missed the landing.

Anyway, here are a couple of articles that I think make some valid points about the show.


Dave Chappelle’s Rorschach Test





This is one of the articles written by someone who didn’t watch the whole show. I should note, I don’t discount everything the writer says. He makes valid criticisms. I just think the article would be stronger if he had the entire context of the show.
Dave Chappelle’s Betrayal

 

Chappelle's in a difficult spot.

He was elevated to some sort of pedestal for his often very insightful, poignant commentaries about the experience of being a Black man in the US. It's led him to be viewed as something of a philosopher and commentator as much as a comic, and he seems to enjoy that very much.

At the same time he's a guy that doesn't like women much and really fucking hates anyone connected to the LGBTQ community. He loves to punch down with material that's mean, ugly, bullying, and just not funny at all. And that's when it turns into "I'm just a comic! You gonna cancel me?" He'll get plenty of support in the comedy world, which has a disturbing alt-right crazy dipshit lean to it... but if I was Netflix I'd be looking to move away from this.

 

Also helps give Chapelle cover that the much of the black community isn't exactly tolerant of non-straight people.

 

There may be something to that, but I've noticed some Black voices on Twitter who used to celebrate loudly every time Chappelle released something new are going just dead silent on this one. If he wants Joe Rogan's audience he can try for it... but I think most of his own audience will jump overboard in the process.

 

I thought that his TV show was ground breaking and super smart. He comes across in interviews as bright and interesting. But I have to say that I don’t get his standup. Occasionally funny, but a lot of him laughing at how hilarious he is and bragging about how good he is.

And he clearly has some sort of fixation with trans people.

 

It is kind of wild that he doesn't seem to realize that the audience that caused him to quit Chappelle's Show is now the same one that's really in his corner. Or, he just doesn't care at this point. He seems to firmly be in his "Lenny Bruce ranting about censorship" portion of his career.

 

Black America is still trying to win-win at a consistent level with the same level of respect afforded to LGBTQ.

You can shit on a black person but few will rise up to defend the black person's honor the way cancel culture destroys anyone who dares shit on a LGBTQ.

So I think Dave is jealous and angrily so. It's an interesting dynamic.

 

I think Dave is misguided. From my perspective, cancel culture rises up to destroy anyone who shits on Black America with as much vigor as it defends LGBTQ honor.

 

Does it?

Take Gruden, for an anecdotal example. He was going to be fine after the DeMaurice Smith email came to light. Then they leaked the homophobic and misogynistic emails and, boom, he gone.

 

They released the Smith email first so he could keep his job. First. DeMaurice got to keep his job because of this. And that happened first.

Then the homophobic and misogynistic emails ended whitey's career.

That's as win-win as win-win gets for Black America and LGBTQ.

 

I think this is pretty spot on. Also, let’s not forget that there are no sacred cows in comedy, and Chappelle is deft at making you laugh even as you’re cringing at his offensive jokes. I think he revels in doing so, which is why he tells the audience right from the beginning, “Oh, it’s going to get worse. I’m going all the way.”

There does seem to be more of an edge and anger to his comedy the past few years, which seems to be a byproduct of his admitted jealousy of the progress made by other marginalized groups. He sees “them”making progress while race relations are deteriorating. And when you consider that his brand of comedy has always come through the prism of a marginalized, brutalized and oppressed identity, that jealousy makes sense.

He doesn’t acknowledge that black people are a part of those marginalized groups as well, but I do wonder if that’s a product of comedy craft, rather than a lack of understanding on his part. In other words, to keep the jokes clean and the message on point, he forgoes the nuance and muddied waters of mixing together the groups he speaks about.

 

But you have to admit, the public by and large did not exactly rise up to defend DeMaurice Smith’s honor. If anything, that email was dismissed pretty readily as “something someone said a decade ago in a private conversation.”

When the rest got leaked, that’s when the sporting public decided he had to go. To paraphrase, you can make fun of a black man’s lips, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings.