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.
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
That’s extremely transphobic and not even an attempt at being funny.
Edit:
Also very transphobic, and there’s more.
Here’s the complete transcript of his new program.
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/dave-chappelle-the-dreamer-transcript/
What the fuck this is awful how can you even defend this
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
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.
When you pull out specific lines without the entire context of the joke, you can make literally anything sound bad.
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.
They posted the transcript of the entire special. There is literally nothing they left out.
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
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.
Oh, so he said it in a funny voice. I’m still not going to watch it.
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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.
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
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/comedy/dave-chappelle-the-dreamer-transcript/
It’s awful and not even remotely funny, just offensive. I think he lost his marbles and drank too much conservative koolaid.
You’re wild he’s hardly conservative
Did you watch it or just read it?
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?
I do believe that a transcript leaves out tone, intonation, and that sort of context to the words that are printed and said.
Are you actually asking someone else to provide you with a reason to watch the thing you’re pretending to have an opinion about?
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
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
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.
OK. You’re entitled to your biases and unfounded opinions as much as the next person. Doesn’t mean we need to respect them.
Today in bizzaroworld, asking for context demonstrates bias and unfounded opinion.
fuck off and read the book/watch the show, then decide.
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?
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.
Sounds to me like there’s no context to be had and you’re just getting called out for lying. 🤷
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Last time he came out with a special, I watched it blind, not knowing anything about it. The dude “joked” for 30 minutes about trans people. I cracked a smile once or twice toward the beginning. After a couple of minutes, it no longer felt like he was trying to joke. It was just an old man venting anger. These were not even trying to be jokes.
So why would I give him another chance? Dude sucks now. I’m sure you can tell some jokes about trans people and be funny. But he wasn’t trying. And he has a token trans “friend” he uses to justify it all. What a fucking hack. No, I won’t give him another chance. He lost me.
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
Nah, we need to provide rage bait for overly sensitive people
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.
Personally, even if it’s not transphobic, it’s pretty lame to make that your topic for the entire special.
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
Because everybody loves to act offended.
Because rage sells ads. Period. And most people are sheep who need to belong to a flock.
It’s not the topic for the entire special. You’d know that if you watched it.