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Chappelle Refuses to Be Canceled
Dave Chappelle always had the advantage in facing down his critics. Not only is he world-famous and wealthier than a few nations, the comedian has a secret weapon. Chappelle is funny; his critics are not.
Whatever he said in his most recent Netflix special, “The Closer,” the knives were going to be out. Instead of following a bloodless script pre-approved by progressive censors, he speaks his mind and often reveals uncomfortable truths. That makes him dangerous. Woke activists insist that every celebrity bend the knee and Chappelle isn’t one for bending. He wouldn’t knuckle under to Comedy Central suits and certainly won’t bow to midlevel Netflix dresses.
Let’s be honest: the mostly white media has stoked a weeks-long controversy to bludgeon an uppity black man until he agrees with white gender theorists.
Via Instagram, Chappelle responded to his critics from the stand-up stage.
“It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak to the transgender employees of Netflix and I refused. That is not true — if they had invited me I would have accepted it, although I am confused about what we would be speaking about,” Chappelle said in the video. “I said what I said, and boy, I heard what you said. My God, how could I not? You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix. It seems like I’m the only one that can’t go to the office anymore.”
“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that is not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ [sic] community for any of this [expletive]. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say,” Chappelle said. “For the record, and I need you to know this, everyone I know from that community has been loving and supporting, so I don’t know what all this nonsense is about.”
He saved his best line for the end.
Though Chappelle said he was willing to meet with members of the trans community, he jokingly listed off a slew of conditions that would have to be met: “To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands. And if you want to meet with me, I’d be more than willing to, but I have some conditions. First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing at a time of my choosing, and thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny.”
Netflix is the only reason anyone’s heard of Australian anti-comedian Hannah Gadsby. Cultural tastemakers celebrated her unfunny 2017 special “Nanette” because it was unfunny. That didn’t stop her from condemning the streaming service as an “amoral algorithm cult.”
“I would prefer if you didn’t drag my name into your mess,” Gadsby lectured Netflix head Ted Sarandos. “Now I have to deal with even more of the hate and anger that Dave Chapelle’s [sic] fans like to unleash on me every time Dave gets 20 million dollars to process his emotionally stunted partial world view [sic].”
No one was surprised Gadsby’s Instagram post was as unfunny as her stand-up. From my review of “Nanette” at the time:
She complains about her industry. She harangues cis white males. She blasts her fans for wanting even more “lesbian-based content.” And, despite having a hit Netflix special, she complains about her marginalization.
Much of her past work focused on self-deprecating jokes, but that’s now a no-no. “Do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from someone who already exists in the margins?” she says. “It’s not humility. It’s humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak, and I simply will not do that anymore.”
That’s not humility or humiliation, it’s comedy. People quickly identify with comedians who make themselves the butt of the joke. A few punchlines in, the audience realizes how much they have in common with the fellow human on stage trying to figure out life and often failing. Soon, the audience is laughing with the comedian and at themselves.
Growing increasingly angry as her set rolls on, Gadsby repeatedly insists, “I need to tell my story!”
No. You don’t.
The audience isn’t your therapist, it’s a bunch of stressed-out customers paying you to help them forget their own harrowing stories for an hour or so.
Thankfully, Dave Chappelle has won the battle. For an artist to be canceled, they have to 1) have done something wrong, and 2) accept their cancelation. Chappelle has done neither and instead told the humorless Wokies to get stuffed.
Published in General
Nice to see someone not cave, for a change.
I didn’t think the special was very funny, though.
He may refuse to cancel himself but others may take care of that for him. Here he is today, talking about his documentary about his 2020 comedy shows:
I have to say, from under the rock where I live, that I’d never heard of this guy before this Netflix flap and I still can’t figure out who he is. But more power to him.
FIFY
You can’t be cancelled if you reject it.
It helps to have FU money.
Yes, the real intended recipients of the message are other aspiring entertainers who do not yet have the clout of Chappelle (or, as another example, JK Rowling). Who is going to risk their career and livelihood doing anything that might possibly be denounced by the cultural commissars? They have the patter down perfectly – always claim they are the victims but know, in today’s America, they are the ones with the power and the privilege.
No, he’s funny. The fact that he’s black is pertinent inasmuch as the criticism reveals the contemporary positioning on the intersectional victim pyramid, but the most important part is his talent, which annoys the Gadsbys of the world.
Are you being serious because I think that might explain much of her resentment. Gadsby’s from what little I know of her is deeply unhappy at the world. Can’t say I blame here for being autistic and suffering sexual abuse. It’s quite possible for someone to take that suffering and become malevolent. Strangely, when people become malevolent they often seek to destroy what is excellent and virtuousness rather than the evil that caused the suffering.
There was some line in the Silmarillion that said Sauron wanted to pervert and destroy what was made by Tolkien’s benevolent creator god. Chappelle personifies comedic excellence and he also personifies the virtue of working through tragedy with comedy. If you are filled with malevolence, it makes sense to target what something that embodies the goodness denied to you.
I’m not aware of her resentment or problems. The Chapelle Condition is clever because it declines to grant professional respect just because the proper boxes are ticked.
First, I didn’t say he wasn’t funny; it’s just not that relevant. A white guy who was equally funny, or even funnier, would have been canceled by Netflix. Second, his latest special wasn’t that funny. The previous Netflix show, which also got him into trouble, was better.
It’s a given that a comic must have some reasonable level of talent to score such prominent placement. However, victim status, not talent, is the key to surviving the mob’s attacks. The mob does not care a fig about Chappelle’s talent. He blasphemed and must be punished. Fortunately for him, he possesses a powerful amulet to keep the mob at bay — one that is feared and one that is not possessed by Mr Lileks, who must tread more carefully.
Not at all strange: the only thing worth tearing down is that which is good, true and kind. What is the point of expressing one’s rage against evil? Who doesn’t feel that? To be SEEN one must attack where others dare not or care not attack.
I watched the show about a week ago. I did find it funny in places, mainly because what he said had to be said. It was true. This sudden taboo around honest discussion of what is a relatively rare condition, dysphoria, and the need to somehow see the sufferers as entitled strikes me as absurd as the depiction of the reign of Tiberius Caesar in the film Caligula. I have met, perhaps, one person who was transitioning from male to female. I described that in another post some time back. He/she was a substitute teacher sent to cover my class while I attended a manditory workshop on campus. To just briefly review what I wrote earlier, he/she was in transition, but still was very masculine in appearance having long, shoulder length, blond hair and, disconcertingly, boobs I would estimate would fit a “c” cup in a bra. About 6′ tall and broad shouldered, he/she looked like a Viking with boobs. There was a growth of facial hair that was heavier than my rather limited beard would look like if I failed to shave for a week. Frankly, this person looked like a freak to me, and something extremely weird to my class of Emotionally/Behaviorally Disabled middle schoolers. He/she had enough male hormones to be pretty aggressive verbally as well.
I am sorry if it is un-politic to point these things out, but I grew up in a world in which such sights were not cerebrated, at best, pitied, at worst ridiculed. That is not to say that that was an appropriate way of dealing with what is clearly a mental illness. However, the extreme to which it has now evolved is equally absurd and inappropriate. I refuse to be intimidated into perceiving this condition as “normal” in any sense. I find the idea of these transitional people being allowed to declare themselves male or female and demanding the right to participate in sports or to use facilities meant for their “assumed” gender completely idiotic. That Dave Chappelle sees the absurdity of this situation and chooses to discuss it in a mature and rational way, even discussing the tragedy of one such sufferer that he knew, is simply proof that he is deserving of all the wealth and honors he has accumulated. At least there is one adult in the room.
In my last job, I treated scores of trannies. You understand them perfectly. Bravo.
Why did you treat scores while Bastiat has treated very few?
What does one doctor’s roster of patients with specific conditions have to do with another doctor’s patient roster?
Sometimes it is merely geographic. Bastiat’s practice could be removed from any location where people seeking gender alterations congregate. While Dr Robert’s former practice was nearby such a community.
A doctor in Phoenix might deal with people whose lives are impacted by heat stroke issues. A doctor in northern Norway not so much.