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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

MoonRaven ,
@MoonRaven@feddit.nl avatar

I hate that Netflix keeps recommending this to me. No. I don’t want this kind of shit.

njm1314 ,

Yeah that’s like all he does these days. The guy is out of material. Like the third or fourth special where that’s the main Crux of it. Washed up

TechyDad ,
@TechyDad@lemmy.world avatar

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.

AlfredEinstein ,

When is your Netflix stand-up special going to be released?

escaped_cruzader ,

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

You mean to say that the Jews that run the world have access to exclusive jokes?

Wogi ,

There’s a whole space laser corps you’re missing out on

AlfredEinstein ,

חחח

dangblingus ,

He’s such a culture warrior hack now. Trans jokes? It’s getting old bro. Your material sucks.

Facebones ,

“I love punching down!”

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Cannacheques ,

He’s running out of content

PoliticalAgitator ,

Probably.

Comedians doing stand up usually joke about themselves or their lives. Black comedians make jokes about being black. Lesbian comedians make jokes about being lesbian.

Usually when they start joking about other people’s race, gender or sexuality, they’ve run out of material about their own lives and started punching down to keep their career going.

fosforus ,

Chappelle hasn’t been that funny for me for a while, but I’m guessing he has found a pretty sizable niche in the trans thing. The more you clutch your pearls about it, the more he’s going to joke about it, that’s for certain. If people would stop being such religious fundies about all this, he wouldn’t have an audience for these jokes.

Trans people aren’t the fuel of these jokes, the dumbass fundies (such as the author of this article) are.

ersatz ,

Trans people aren’t the fuel of these jokes

Have you heard the jokes? He absolutely hates us. He loves punching us. He brags about it.

You can be a chapelle fan or you can be a trans ally. You cant be both (gaslighting not accepted).

fosforus , (edited )

Have you heard the jokes? He absolutely hates us. He loves punching us. He brags about it.

Not the current ones yet, admittedly. Ironically enough, this article informed me that it even exists. I did watch the earlier one, and found it rather mild.

You can be a chapelle fan or you can be a trans ally.

I’ll take C) neither, but will both watch this show and support equal human rights for everyone.

dangblingus ,

Actually supporting human rights for all is being a trans ally. Getting some laughs in at the expense of trans folks is not being a trans ally. There is a transitive property mental exercise here.

fosforus ,

Are you calling me an empty set?

utubas ,

They are jokes. He is a comedian. Or should we cancel every comedian that is not 100% PC?

No need to answer though, I am pretty sure I know what is your stance on this.

SuddenDownpour ,

There’s a very politically incorrect comedian I follow. There’s one key difference however: he isn’t an asshole.

utubas ,

And why is Chapelle an asshole? The transgender person above is crying because everything is either black or white and make everything about them, and this constant woke persecution is just exhausting. But I guess that is the norm with Lemmy, everything that you say that is not left wing is immediatly downvoted, lmao

SuddenDownpour ,

Dave Chapelle makes transphobic jokes and says he loves punching down

Trans person reacts to that

You: “them transgenders make everything about themselves”

Alternatively, you could have just also said: “Why don’t you let us joke about you being disgusting freaks in peace?”, but I doubt you have the self-awareness.

utubas ,

You can be a chapelle fan or you can be a trans ally. You cant be both (gaslighting not accepted).

This is what I meant, if you like Dave Chapelle is because you are transphobic evil, no inbetween, everything is black or white.

But here we are, once again. Suddenly I find transgender people “disgusting freaks”.

fosforus , (edited )

Not “disgusting freaks” but freaks for sure. That’s a big reason why this whole thing keeps being a problem because a lot of people have big trouble coping with freaks. I don’t think trying to reprogram them to not think these people are freaks is the answer; the answer is providing them with higher coping capabilities.

Like myself, I can cope with all kinds of freaks due to being around some and perhaps myself being a bit of one, and will happily give or let them have all the same human rights everyone else has. I might even think they’re great people. Doesn’t make me stop thinking they’re freaks though.

Embrace your freak.

SuddenDownpour ,

Save us the displeasure of having to deal with your presence.

dangblingus ,

You can be politically incorrect without punching down.

Source: The Chappelle’s Show.

PoliticalAgitator ,

Bullshit apologism.

They are jokes. He is a comedian

Functionally zero comedians actually think being shitty to minorities is part of their job. It was an excuse invented and adopted by people who think dogshit views are acceptable if you sprinkle humor on them.

Or should we cancel every comedian that is not 100% PC?

Exactly the alarmist, pearl clutching nonsense you’re trying to accuse other people of. Seen any of Jimmy Carr’s standup? He hosts multiple light entertainment shows.

Fuck, this Chapelles second Netflix special so who exactly who has been cancelled for “not being 100% PC”?

The reality is that vulnerable groups can absolutely tell the difference between jokes and elaborate setups for bigotry. Dave Chapelle built an entire career out of it.

The person who apparently can’t tell the difference is you.

nelly_man ,

If he were merely telling unfunny, inoffensive jokes, people would still stop listening. But people wouldn’t call that canceling; they’d just say that he used to be great and place the blame on his shoulders. But because it’s unfunny, offensive jokes, it’s suddenly the audience’s fault for walking away.

Don’t blame the audience for refusing to listen to him. It’s his job to draw people in, and it’s his fault if he fails to do so.

blocker1980 ,

Have you watched it? The actual thing?

Illuminostro ,

No, they haven’t. They just want to belong to a team.

Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug ,

Yeah, I said this when they first started going after him over his material and he just doubled down. I got banned from a sub reddit for suggesting that the louder people complain, the more money it makes him. I said it’s what he wants, is people to continue to screech about it. Apparently saying that people who write these articles and talk about it makes him money is transphobic. (You don’t have to talk about it, btw. You can say his material is wrong and then just ignore him forever after that. The more you engage, the more visibility he gets)

I didn’t even know he had a new special until this article, he’s getting a shitload of free advertising from this.

I personally had to turn the special off, not because I found it offensive, but that it just wasnt funny. It felt forced and like he’s just trying to be as ridiculously out there as possible with his trans jokes. It’s very obvious he’s just trying to press people’s buttons.

fosforus ,

Perhaps that’s what employs trans people? Faking outrage for advertising purposes.

I don’t actually think that’s how it is, but it would probably work.

draedron ,

It was pretty weak if you ask me. I’ve read worse reddit comments

flying_sheep ,
@flying_sheep@lemmy.ml avatar

That’s the bar?

Lutra ,

… its … not ok… to … tell… jokes… about… certain… people ?

Aabbcc ,

It’s absolutely ok to tell jokes about marginalized communities

They just need to be good jokes

youtu.be/ffqvoJZ2HM4

I liked this video

sunbytes ,

Punching down is the problem.

Also the whole “my brother is an asshole but if you call him that I’ll punch you” thing.

If he was making jokes about a community he was involved with at all, great. If it was a trans comedian making these jokes, (probably) great.

But this is just another old out-of-touch rich guy making fun about people who are already having a shitty time (on average).

Also, notice how anyone has yet to actually forbid him from doing it. He’s not being “cancelled/consequenced”.

A lot of people just find it extremely distasteful. (It hasn’t slowed him down in the slightest.)

cannibalkitteh ,

If it was a trans comedian making these jokes, (probably) great.

Honestly, I’d be disappointed even more in a trans comedian. If, after transitioning, they went with such uninspired jokes when there’s a wealth of more humorous things to joke about in transition, I’d question their sense of humor.

sunbytes ,

Ah yeah I should have specified the jokes should be not nasty or uninformed.

But I’d hope for better from someone from within the community.

sunbytes ,

Ah yeah I should have specified the jokes should be not nasty or uninformed.

But I’d hope for better from someone from within the community.

eupraxia , (edited )
@eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

semi-related tangent, I think some people misunderstand this kind of thing as “well if he was trans it would be fine.”

when really, no, a trans comedian would just write different and much better jokes about this subject matter because they’re immersed in it and have a deeper understanding of the community and the experience.

Blackmist ,

I don’t think it would have blown up if the original joke was good.

But it was just “this person called themselves a woman but had a cock”.

And then pulled the “I have a trans friend” card. Like Dave of all people should know better than that. He seems to want to be the Bernard Manning of trans jokes.

charonn0 ,
@charonn0@startrek.website avatar

Depends… on… whether… the… joke… is… malicious,… of… course.

Zoomboingding ,
@Zoomboingding@lemmy.world avatar

This is just NotTheOnion territory at this point

LotrOrc ,

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

Filthmontane ,

Personally, even if it’s not transphobic, it’s pretty lame to make that your topic for the entire special.

LotrOrc ,

It really wasn’t at all That’s why I don’t get this article or the reactions from people in the comments about this article.

That wasn’t the main topic for the entire thing it was a fairly small part

blocker1980 ,

Because everybody loves to act offended.

Illuminostro ,

Because rage sells ads. Period. And most people are sheep who need to belong to a flock.

Illuminostro ,

It’s not the topic for the entire special. You’d know that if you watched it.

Barndog53 ,

Thank you

Context is everything. It’s a very well written special especially if you consider the last two.

He’s a comedian. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. It’s not hate speech, just comedy. These headlines are trash

Entertainmeonly ,

Could you give some context? I’m definitely not going to watch it based on just a “take my word for it” argument. He’s been known to toe the line and get rude when people call him out on it. At this point I have to assume he is being transphobic simply because that’s been a problem for him in the past.

Wrench ,

OK. You’re entitled to your biases and unfounded opinions as much as the next person. Doesn’t mean we need to respect them.

leraje ,
@leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Today in bizzaroworld, asking for context demonstrates bias and unfounded opinion.

Wrench ,

Did you miss the part about how he’s not going to watch it himself but already has an opinion based on his own assumptions?

leraje ,
@leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Did you miss the part where you told him asking for context meant he was biased? And they’re only assumptions if this was the first time this comedian had ever done a netflix special making trans people the butt of his jokes. Once someone has form for it, and we know he’s done it again, they’re no longer assumptions, they’re a reasonable inference.

Facebones ,

Sounds to me like there’s no context to be had and you’re just getting called out for lying. 🤷

vxx ,

I gave him some context above and he’s full of shit. The new program is very transphobic and not just mildly.

Here’s the complete transcript of the show

scrapsfromtheloft.com/…/dave-chappelle-the-dreame…

It’s awful and not even remotely funny, just offensive. I think he lost his marbles and drank too much conservative koolaid.

LotrOrc ,

You’re wild he’s hardly conservative

Did you watch it or just read it?

vxx ,

I didn’t say he is conservative, just that he drank their koolaid. He’s mirroring their talking points and rethoric, pandering to the Conservative crowd, and not in a sarcastic way at all.

What do you mean by “just read it”. Are you implying the transcript is wrong?

LotrOrc ,

He basically says, as most comedians have, that you should be able to make fun of everyone.

He says (paraphrasing here) Im not making fun of trans people, they have a lot of representation, I’ll punch down on handicapped people instead

It’s not about handicapped or trans people, it’s about the fact that no matter what you joke about, someone will be offended, and you can’t live your life not offending everyone

Also, most of the special was about his dreams as a child, and how other people are dreamers too

He also goes on to give Lil Nas X a lot of props in the special, which if he hated lgbtq people, he probably wouldn’t.

The bits about trans people, which were few and far between, were mostly about how people.took and misconstrued his jokes about trans people in previous specials.

I’ve seen all of them, not once do I think he was specifically targeting and being dismissive of trans people

You can make fun of people without discriminating against them. Dave has pretty consistently made fun of everyone.

He makes fun of himself and his wife for being black and Chinese in this. I don’t see everyone screaming that he’s racist against black or Chinese people

TrickDacy ,

I saw “the closer” and what you just wrote about it is full-on bullshit. Before that one maybe you could pass him off as actually joking, but not after that one.

Mighty ,
@Mighty@lemmy.world avatar

fuck this “making jokes about everyone” defense. why do all these “I mAkE jOkEs aBoUt eVeRyOnE” Mf’ers ALWAYS make jokes about minorities and punch down? if your “comedy about everyone” is literally 90% about you asserting power and dominance over minorities, you’re just a hack. the power of comedy is so great. you can do so much with it. why use it to make people feel small who feel small all their life

Soulg ,

Nah, we need to provide rage bait for overly sensitive people

HRDS_654 ,

Look, rage bait is literally what social media runs off. Well, that and cute animal pictures.

The upside to Lemmy is that there is less rage bait in general, but we aren’t immune to it.

vxx , (edited )

But as it was happening… I was very disappointed. Because I wanted to meet Jim Carrey, and I had to pretend this n*gga was Andy Kaufman… all afternoon. It was clearly Jim Carrey. I could look at him and I could see he was Jim Carrey.

Anyway, I say all that to say… that’s how trans people make me feel.

That’s extremely transphobic and not even an attempt at being funny.

Edit:

“Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherf*cking teeth out. I’m a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl’s dick I got. Don’t make me explain myself. I’m a girl”

Also very transphobic, and there’s more.

Here’s the complete transcript of his new program.

scrapsfromtheloft.com/…/dave-chappelle-the-dreame…

Fleur__ ,
@Fleur__@lemmy.world avatar

What the fuck this is awful how can you even defend this

LotrOrc ,

When you pull out specific lines without the entire context of the joke, you can make literally anything sound bad.

vxx ,

I posted the complete context. I just left a bit of how much he loves Jim Carrey.

Read yourself and judge later instead of making up your mind before the fact. You’ll see it doesn’t change for the better but gets worse if you read the whole thing. The part I pasted is pretty much the opener, so you won’t have to dig deep.

Jomega ,

They posted the transcript of the entire special. There is literally nothing they left out.

LotrOrc ,

A transcript can miss the tone, intonation, body language, facial expressions, and all those other cues that give an entirely different interpretation of the words being said cant it? All those other cues make a difference in what is being said. As humans we react to facial and body expressions a huge amount in order to understand the context of a situation

Jomega ,

Oh, so he said it in a funny voice. I’m still not going to watch it.

Stoneykins ,

You are just trying to get people to rage watch it.

The transphobia is obviously, clearly there. It won’t stop being fucked up and shitty because he giggled after he said it.

Katana314 ,

It does seem better to read the full transcript rather than the whole thing (I have more reading time than watching time) but still not so tasteful. He even says he doesn’t want to offend the transgender community anymore, then makes a joke about misgendering himself at a sentencing so he can be the strong man in a women’s prison.

Socsa ,

Yeah, these aren’t jokes which are trying to push a controversial topic mainstream or create a framework for mutual understanding through humor. These are literally just narratives of hate which underpin anti-trans fear politics and actual violence against trans people

kameecoding ,

“Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherf*cking teeth out. I’m a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl’s dick I got. Don’t make me explain myself. I’m a girl”

that’s a bruh moment, lol

JustAManOnAToilet ,

Ha, yeah Dave’s great.

Pratai ,

Looks like he’s found a more wealthy audience to be relevant to.

metallic_substance ,

I know he’s a smart guy, so it’s a bit hard to tell if he realizes that that and is just going with it or if he’s deluded himself I to believing that he’s right. Either way you slice it, it’s pretty sad

Clbull ,

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.

givesomefucks ,

He walked because he had a mental breakdown…

In his own words a white crew guy laughed at a comedy skit they were filming. Lots of white people watched his show and laughed at the skits

Dave got famous real quick. He played a likable character in Half Baked and next thing you know he was a household name with a giant TV show.

No one really knew anything about what kind of person he was, good chance he was always shitty.

Fedizen ,

his jokes were always heavily “black people be like this, white people be like that” so he was always a bit overrated. It just sucks he learned so little from his experiences.

Pratai ,

He’s a bought-and-paid-for sellout. Always was. He just never had anyone show him where the money was.

LotrOrc ,

If you actually watch it he’s not transphobic in it at all

Idk what this article is talking about

fosforus ,

You’re shocked that he did a thing that was incredibly successful and then doubles down on that success? Your being shocked feeds into that success.

Fedizen , (edited )

do you have stats on these netflix shows? Are they at all successful?

fosforus ,

This is of his previous Netflix special: tvline.com/…/tv-ratings-dave-chappelle-the-closer…

Also, I don’t think Netflix would buy another show with almost identical premise if it didn’t piss money.

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