At this point, Dave Chappelle making anti-trans comments in his latest Netflix stand up special isn’t breaking news. His commitment to attacking an already marginalized community is basically his brand now. In “The Dreamer,” which premiered on Netflix on Sunday, the comedian continued his streak of mocking the trans community with more offensive “jokes.”
“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 fucking with those people anymore. It wasn’t worth the trouble,” Chappelle said. “I ain’t saying shit about trans people. 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. You guys will never see this shit coming. I ain’t doing trans jokes no more.”
Chappelle then revealed that his new angle was to make jokes about “handicapped” people, because “I love punching down.” He then proceeded to do multiple “jokes” about disabled people. Apparently, if you’re Dave Chappelle, being in a wheelchair is absolutely hilarious.
Here’s the thing: Not only are his jokes not funny, they’re not clever. Honestly, the way he keeps working so hard to make this controversy happen during every special is kind of tired and sad. He says that he’s mad because transgender people claimed he “needed them to be funny.” Based on his most recent attacks, it seems like he does.
After he had a fun time at the disabled community’s expense, he decided to target incarcerated transgender people, by joking that he would identify as a woman if he were sent to jail. He then launched into a tasteless bit about being in a women’s prison.
“God forbid I ever go to jail. But if I do, I hope it’s in California,” he said. “Soon as the judge sentences me, I’ll be like, ‘Before you sentence me, I want the court to know I identify as a woman. Send me to a woman’s jail.’”
“As soon as I get in there, you know what I’mma be doing. ‘Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherfucking teeth out,” he continued. “I’m a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl dick I got. Don’t make me explain myself. I’m a girl.’”
Seriously, this is the best the man behind “Chappelle’s Show” could come up with? When the sketch show premiered in 2003, it was hailed as a groundbreaking, visionary comedy series. Twenty years later, he’s basically your inappropriate, unfunny uncle who doesn’t understand why he can’t make certain jokes anymore.
The Emmy-winner has shown on multiple occasions that he’s not going to change and he has zero interest in trying to understand why his words are so hurtful. To that end, it’s time we move on from this controversy and focus on more important battles. There comes a time when you realize you can waste energy arguing with your inappropriate uncle, because you have more important things to do with your life. This isn’t letting Dave off the hook, it’s self preservation.
Dave Chappelle has admitted that he is a tired, 50-year-old comedian, who makes money by “punching down.” Do the raucous laughs from his audience hurt? Yes, of course they do. However, it’s time we stop doing this dance every time he premieres a new special, because the attention is what he wants. He doesn’t actually care about how many people he’s hurting.