Dave Chappelle fills Netflix special with jokes about trans and disabled people

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.

TomMasz,
TomMasz avatar

Anyone reveling in "punching down" is a piece of shit.

galloFino, (edited )

He’s got a really niche audience. People who think they’re all cool just for being “politically incorrect.” Like other comedians in the american scene.

I used to like his comedy – great storyteller and all. But lately, it’s like his specials follow this routine: some jokes on how racism’s still an issue, mixed with a bit of him claiming he’s the top comedian alive. And let’s not forget the bits where he suggests making fun of people’s choices is all in good fun.

The crowd at these specials? Feels like a bunch of yes men, laughing and clapping at every word from Chappelle. It makes watching his stuff on Netflix a bit of a struggle for me.

Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s talented. Awesome timing and storytelling. But nowadays, being a badass doesn’t mean being a bully, and it seems like that shift bugs him and his entourage of yes men. That’s probably why his specials come off a bit too harsh, at least in my book.

Son_of_dad,

It’s crazy to me that he bitches about racism still being an issue, while he spreads hate and bigotry on another minority group.

galloFino,

He is right about racism, and it’s fine if his cause involves fighting it. But you’re right, bigotry and hate on others is BAD.

mindbleach,

God, do I wish that audience was niche.

echodot,

Stephen Fry once said that comedy is about punching up. Anyone can punch down, it takes real talent to punch up, you have to make fun of your betters, because they think they are your betters.

Beating on people who are already incredibly socially ostracized is not comedy, it’s bullying. If you think it’s comedy then you’re a bully.

pope,

Haha Dave tickles my funny bone and gets it raging hard

icepick3455o65,

ITT: People who thought it was ok and punching up when he made fun of ghetto black people early in his career but today have an objection when its trans white people being the topic of 3 jokes out of an hour special

Dkcecil91,

ITT: Dave Chapelle, man who left his hit show abruptly because he was concerned about the audience he had cultivated comes back to America to live with old white people and cultivate a new audience that’s much worse.

icepick3455o65,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/728e6f04-0355-4c32-b236-55bbaf47bce2.png

He left because his father died, I guess he should have stayed to make grape drank jokes for you? This is his current audience, notice all the black people? I guess that’s “much worse” to you according to your own words. Your racism is showing.

vxx,

Bigots come in all colours. Calling the OP a racist for calling his bigot audience worse than before is pretty low.

mindbleach,

‘He can say anything!’

He can and did.

And what he said makes him an asshole.

weaponG,

Comedy is the last bastion for free speech. Our constitution’s first amendment protects free speech regardless of how sensitive your feelings are or how much it has triggered your fabricated anxiety issue.

mindbleach,

Fuck off.

Or is that too much free speech, bigotry-advocating troll?

SendMePhotos,

I’m pro trans but I do respect the first amendment. Be who you want to be. He has an audience who loves him… BUT… Hate should not be promoted in order to protect others… So I guess I’m mixed on this.

phillaholic,

He’s not Lenny Bruce. This is not a first amendment issue.

weaponG,

It is the first amendment which allows you to make your statement freely without fear of state-sponsored reprise.

Netflix offers choices for entertainment. I don’t like most of the content on Netflix, but I don’t think it should be canceled just because I dislike it.

cannibalkitteh,

The First Amendment shields you from government reprisal. It is not a shield from private critique or consequences.

weaponG,

Public cancellation or being cancelled by a sensitive sub section of the population threatens free speech.

Stoneykins,

No it doesn’t full stop.

Public “cancellation” is free speech by the public and it always will be

weaponG,

Public cancellation costs people their jobs, livelihoods, and even their lives because a sensitive, loud, and naive sub section of the population felt “triggered” by someone else’s right to free speech. This, in turn, makes others wary of the things they say and inhibits their free speech.

People are presumed guilty without due process and are forced to grovel and apologize for otherwise meaningless acts which elevated the anxieties of the super sensitive. This is a witch hunt and has happened before in the US in Salem and during the McCarthy era. Both periods are seen as sore spots in our history.

This is convenient when your opinion is with the majority. It a threat and unsustainable when your opinion is no longer the majority opinion.

“Full stop”.

Stoneykins,

Lmao you don’t really even know what you are talking about.

“Free speech” means the government itself cannot infringe your speech. It doesn’t mean SHIT to anyone who isn’t the government. “The court of public opinion” is not a literal court! And it is a group expression of the free speech you love!

You are just bitching about people being deplatformed off of privately owned websites (which isn’t what happened to this asshole because he is on fuckin netflix) and you want to be dramatic and make it seem like they are all victims and need to be protected based on your misunderstanding of law

tigeruppercut,

Comedy is the last bastion for free speech

Really? There’s literally no other free speech in the entire country? Guess those idiots on newsmaxx aren’t still lying about jewish space lasers then.

weaponG,

With cancel culture being so sensitive, free speech is under attack. I disagree with NewsMax and Nazis, but they have a right to express themselves without being cancelled.

Facebones,

Funny how quickly the “you can’t make me bake for gays” crowd shrieks it should be illegal to not do business with a nazi. 🤔

tigeruppercut,

What does getting canceled have to do with the 1st amendment? You want the government to force companies to employ nazis?

weaponG,

I think you’ve missed the point or the intent of the first amenmdebt itself if you are asking that question.

As for your second question, that is a straw man argument.

tigeruppercut,

I think you’ve missed the point of the 1st amendment if you think it has anything to do with private entities canceling people. And if you don’t want nazis to get canceled but think that it’s unrelated to employment, who exactly is canceling them?

Your argument about free speech and the first amendment is hopelessly convoluted with cancel culture.

youstolemyname,

Who was suggesting that the government censor him?!

weaponG,

My point exactly. Thanks to the Bill of Rights, the people have certain reserved and protected rights. These rights which we take for granted are not guaranteed in other countries and can lead to charges of blasphemy.

linearchaos,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

Ancient comedian desperately struggles to stay relevant, only manages to capture the attention of a few boomers and nazis. news at 11.

Facebones,

Nazis, the last bastion for failed celebrities everywhere.

People aren’t interested in you anymore? Failing to find work? Blame it on liberals and sell out a stadium to whine about being canceled for two hours with an occasional break to claim your life is ruined by somebody with a haircut and outfit you don’t like.

icepick3455o65,

What have you ever done except take the culture war personally?

linearchaos,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

I mean I have blocked a metric shit ton of trolls

Illuminostro,

What a hero…

Alwaysfallingupyup,

poke the bear…

negativeyoda,

Nah. More like the bear poking something smaller and less able to defend itself

butt_mountain_69420,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    itslilith,
    @itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    I’m not sure if I’m missing some joke or if you’re being transphobic

    butt_mountain_69420,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    itslilith,
    @itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    okay, raging transphobe then. blocked, have a nice life

    butt_mountain_69420,

    mmmokay.

    TrickDacy,

    Is your complaint that the independent is not transphobic enough or what?

    butt_mountain_69420,

    My complaint is IF this ever was news, it’s old fucking news, reported poorly.

    chocolateo,

    Rage bait

    EdibleFriend,
    @EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

    He rages…but he saves.

    rbesfe,

    As usual, the algorithmic media machine is trying to drum up anger and emotion because that gets clicks and ad views. There were definitely a few transphobic jokes that I was not okay with, but to say he the special is “filled” with them is a bit much.

    Also the quote “I love punching down” was clearly not sincere the way he delivered it. I didn’t like the special, but the outrage over it is overblown especially considering that putting it in the news will only get more people watching it.

    Alwaysfallingupyup,

    thank you!

    phillaholic,

    So he is punching down and is telling Trans jokes still? It’s not a percentage issue.

    GaMEChld,

    Let’s not bemoan specificity. If anything, we need accurate, fine details more than ever.

    All the guy said what he disagreed with the portion of the title which stated that the special was “filled” with specific jokes. That particular claim IS indeed a percentage issue.

    If you are taking the point further and saying that percentages shouldn’t matter, even 1% is too much, that’s a SEPARATE claim. It doesn’t address the original claim.

    phillaholic,

    They’re last sentence apologizes for the content, so let’s not waste our time pretending that’s the real disagreement. The Andy Kaufman bit is 100% transphobic but OP won’t acknowledge it that way.

    GaMEChld,

    Perhaps you’re just seeing what you want to see. I don’t do mind games. Words mean what their definitions are. Anything else is opinion, not fact. Cite me what words exactly you are referring to that would be objectively defined as an “apology.”

    moitoi,
    @moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    It’s called cognitive capitalism. They use the cognitive capacities of the human to grow the capital.

    vxx,

    Only 10% of his special transphobic, it’s okay guys!

    Illuminostro,

    “I’M TOO STUPID TO RECOGNIZE SARCASM, TOO! WHO SHOULD I HATE NOW, I NEED YOU TO TELL ME!”

    vxx, (edited )

    I don’t hate Chapelle, but he clearly hates trans people.

    Edit: And before you get back at me, here’s my reasoning. Trans people are already victims as they get targeted by Neonazis for years now, and made the boogeyman of their whole movement (plus woke people, but that’s a majority, not minority), and he as a minority himself with that giant audience makes several specials that preaches on all the Neonazi talking points to a crowd of millions.

    He’s deliberately supporting Neonazis at worst and is an unknown tool of them at best.

    You know, shit stops being funny when there’s actually victims as an outcome to this.

    His old jokes didn’t make Neonazis think “He’s one of us now”.

    Illuminostro,

    You should call your therapist. You clearly need help.

    vxx,

    Any counter arguments from your side or only dumb insults?

    dodeca,

    Why does he think about trans people so much? Hmmm.

    TrickDacy,

    This is a very valid question. Let the downvoters be mad

    ExhibiCat, (edited )

    Yeah i wonder this too. One of my ‘friends’ is constantly spamming trans hate (he’s currently on timeout, blocked on my contacts due to this) and recently mentioned that he never actually met one… What did they do to him??

    I know many trans people and with some of them people aren’t even aware they are trans. Guess what, they’re just normal people.

    KpntAutismus,

    that’s what fearmongering an propaganda does to a gullible person. constantly being told a group of people “are pedophiles” makes you believe it.

    i am generally an advocate for free speech, but hate speech like this has nothing to do on the internet.

    kinther,
    @kinther@lemmy.world avatar

    If you are disgusted by this and still subscribe to Netflix, you should consider canceling. Vote with your money and hit them in the share price.

    butt_mountain_69420,

    Anyone still paying for Netflix after their last round of price hikes is a fucking moron.

    100_kg_90_de_belin,

    Or they just don’t care about anyone who isn’t like them, which is even worse

    phillaholic,

    “Vote with your wallet” doesn’t really work.

    mindbleach,

    Beats throwing money at assholes.

    Laereht,

    As someone who watched the special I think his greatest crime is just not being funny and thinking he’s brave for doubling down. He’s a boomer with a fan base and tons of money. If anything, this thread is proof that cancel culture is fake. He’s Elon musk if Elon musk used to be funny.

    butt_mountain_69420,

    Yeah, he’s just another disgustingly rich paranoid angry has-been.

    echodot,

    The funny thing is I have literally no idea who he is. I have to assume he’s some American “comedian” who, like most of his ilk, is utterly irrelevant/unheard of outside the United States.

    Ozone63,

    He’s one of the greatest comics to ever fucking do it, and this thread is full of fucking morons like yourself.

    Dave is in contention for the GOAT. His body of work speaks for itself, and because you’re too fucking ignorant to have heard of it doesn’t make it any less true.

    This place is a fucking shithole. Absolute cesspool of broke stupid panzy fucks.

    echodot,

    Na mate, your at your much better at it. The way you completely refuse to break character is hilarious.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    well said. on all points.

    Dkcecil91,

    Maybe if you were a bit less defensive and aggressive someone would’ve informed you that it’s actually spelled “pansy fucks” and you would be able to more successfully insult and fear those you don’t understand.

    negativeyoda,

    He was insightful and hilarious 2 decades ago.

    Last thing of his I watched didn’t make me laugh once and just felt forced and gross

    phillaholic,

    He was a famous comedian who stopped doing his popular sketch show because he didn’t like the way white people where laughing at his race jokes who came back after about a decade and now makes money by making white people laugh the wrong way at Trans people and other disenfranchised people.

    darki,

    Well said

    tigeruppercut,

    He’s a boomer

    Don’t forget there are Xers with these views as well, because chapelle’s one of them.

    Heisenburner,

    You’re right, Dave was born in '73, long past the Boomer cutoff point. Boomer is just another easy target to blame this mindset on but like you say this is something that defies generational gaps. I’ve met quite a few transphobic millennials/gen z-ers and from what I’ve seen on youngpeopleyoutube, really young kids are already being poisoned by transphobic social media subcultures.

    Raz, (edited )

    “Boomer” has basically become slang for things like conservative, old-fashioned, technologically illiterate, homophobic, racist, etc.

    Depends on the context, but barely anyone I know uses the word literally anymore.

    duffman,

    Generational targeting is really fucking old.

    ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

    they’re just sexual preferences. don’t kink shame, bro.

    Smoogs,

    Yup. I have a millennial brother who adopts these same views. Meanwhile I have boomer hippy aunts and uncles far more liberal. I think it would be an error of judgment to just isolate it to a generation. Bad brains is a human trait.

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