(Btw I don’t care about internet points so don’t worry about it)
I think it sounds all over the place because I recognize that Hollywood is something that’s a significant thing in our society BUT I don’t think it should be.
More to the point, Chappelle barely talks about trans people at all (edit: used to, before the attempt to cancel him over it), except to point out the extreme unfairness of it all.
Seems like a downward spiral to me. So he’s making more and more of his routine based not on making the funniest jokes possible, he’s making his routine about spite. Sorry I don’t find spiteful people all that funny.
I think there’s too much focus on whether or not Dave Chappelle has a right to say what he’s saying that there isn’t enough consideration given to whether or not what he’s doing is actually right. He’s bullying people in his show. Creating a culture where it’s normalized to denigrate people that are already has a big target on them.
While everyone has a right to say something that is wrong, trying to keep the discussion focused only on the right to say something is just avoiding the fact that Chappelle is in the wrong here.
I love Norm MacDonald’s (RIP) take on this. Something like “yeah I might be just joking around about trans people but then someone takes it the wrong way and beats the shit out of a trans person.” Norm was one of the most fearless comedian of all time but he stopped making trans jokes. Not because he was afraid of being cancelled (it’s Norm, c’mon) but because he understood that an old joke isn’t as important as someone getting the shit kicked out of them. Even if there’s only a possibility of that happening is it worth it? It’s just entertainment, it’s not really worth that much.
Sometimes jokes just expire. Old jokes that just aren’t funny anymore just have to be retired.
So I was a teenager when the movie Ace Ventura Pet Detective came out. Prime demographic for that movie. At the end of the movie there are a lot of trans jokes. I laughed at these jokes. But in the thirty years since that movie came out, I’d like to think I learned a few things. One of the things I’ve learned in the decades since seeing that movie was that trans people are people. Those jokes were mean spirited. And if I see that movie again, the ending only reminds of what a stupid shit I was when I was a teenager. I’d be cringing too hard to be capable of laughing at those jokes. So I’ll probably not be watching Ace Ventura again because I know the cringe that’ll be having at the end of the movie. Cancelled.
In my town many years before I was born there were minstrel shows. You know shows, where guys put on blackface and pranced around like fools. My parent’s generation had a discussion about this one time. People would pack up the kids go to these shows and have a good time. But then at some point people realized “wait this is super racist.” and everyone started going to the shows. So the people that did the shows made some changes. No more black face. From that point forward it just be a show with clowns. Same basic show, but no more blackface. You know what happened? Nobody went. People just didn’t feel good about buying tickets, packing up the kids and going to the show even after the blackface element was removed. When it’s an entertainment product, it really doesn’t take all that much to decide “nah I’m not going to make effort to go to something I don’t feel completely good about.” The show was shut down permanently. Cancelled.
Culture changes, what was funny in the past is no longer funny now. So why is Dave Chappelle still making trans jokes 30 years after Ace Ventura? Is there a link there to the anti-trans politics happening now?
Dave Chappelle isn’t worth watching now. If Netflix doesn’t want their brand associated with Chappelle’s downward spiral into bigotry (which isn’t funny to a lot of people), they have the right to disassociate themselves from him. He has a right to say what he wants to say, but there is no right to have a comedy special on Netflix. If that’s the case, I want to star in a comedy special on Netflix, I think I’m a funny guy. If Netflix denies me a comedy special, will you be angry about them denying me my rights?
Or is it because Dave Chappelle is famous he has the right to be on Netflix? And we’re back to that para-social relationship with celebrities that makes people feel they deserve special treatment and they have the right to things we don’t have a right to.
Dave Chappelle has the right to say what he wants even when he’s wrong. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t wrong. Netflix has the right to cancel his show, it’s their streaming site. People have the right to petition Netflix to cancel Chappelle.
None of this would’ve happened if Chappelle had a better awareness of the shifts in cultural norms. Which is part of his job. He didn’t do his job very well, and anyone
But the whole country is getting up in arms over all of this - to the point of checking people’s literal genitals, bathrooms, in sports, and on and on. Both sides are pushing on this hot-button topic
And is Dave Chappelle making things better? Perhaps it’s better for Netflix to stop showing his specials until people settle down a little?
Also it’s not quite a both sides kind of thing. One side wants to take away people’s right to live their lives how they want. The other side wants everyone to continue to have that right. It’s not so much pushing the issue, it’s more like pushing back against people that want to take away rights from a group that’s a convenient target. Trans people have been around my whole life. Why all of a sudden all this urgency about this? Could it be something fabricated by people that want to take away rights, and this happens to be the group that a lot of people would tolerate losing rights? Call me paranoid, but I don’t know if the people that want to take away the rights of one group of people will stop there.
And these are actual rights. not Hollywood “rights” which seem to be all about the “right” of famous narcissists to remain famous even when people don’t like them anymore. Don’t worry so much about Chappelle, he’s a millionaire, he’ll be fine. Trans people though… I’m not sure if they’ll be fine if things keep going the way they are.