Dave Chappelle's, The Closer

I finally watched Dave Chappelle's Netflix special The Closer, and I have some mixed feelings about it. I want to start off by saying that I did watch the special in its entirety as I didn't want to write this with having only read articles about it, I needed to view the actual source material to form my own opinion. I will be discussing each of the jokes that I found to be problematic, and why I understand the contention from the trans community. Perhaps this will also shed some light on how these jokes can be interpreted by someone with the lived experience of being trans. I will also discuss the jokes that I personally found to be, just jokes, as I didn't find any true malice in them. I also want to point out that I won’t be going into detail about other jokes made throughout his act, as this is strictly addressing the trans related jokes. With that out of the way, let’s get this over with.

Joke 1: The first mention of trans people is when Chappelle says that the "transgenders" want him dead, and he has to search the crowd while on stage for adams apples. Now, I will say I was originally going to have a problem with the use of "transgenders" but considering later on he then describes us correctly by saying the trans community and/or trans people, I didn't want to harp on that too much. I have also jokingly talked to a friend before about us "transgenders", when it came to the troubles of dating, so I gave this a pass. Though for future reference, this can be seen as “othering”, Chappelle does it himself later on when he refers to the black community as “the blacks”. Othering is harmful, as ultimately we are all people and the correct language can make a difference. The adams apple joke is the first dig at trans people's appearances, specifically trans women. This is just the first of many jabs at trans women's appearances that Chappelle makes, and obviously this is harmful due to the continued lack of empathy for trans women, especially when it comes to things we can be dysphoric about. I know for the longest time I was fearful of developing an adams apple, as I knew it would make me stand out in a crowd. This is just one aspect of a trans woman’s appearance that we are dysphoric about, but let’s move on to the next.

Joke 2: Chappelle then references North Carolina's HB2, which is the bill that was passed stating that transgender individuals had to use the restroom of their assigned sex at birth. Chappelle says that this is a "mean bill", and even reiterates it after a couple audience members cheer for it. I appreciated this, but he then however goes on to discuss his un-comfortability if a trans woman were to use the urinal beside him, rather than addressing the un-comfortability of said trans woman. This is an issue that we see many times, where the focus of these bills aren't concerned with the feelings of the trans people that these bills will hurt (bathroom bills, sports bills) but is solely concerned with how cis people will be affected. Chappelle starts on the right track denouncing this bill, but then ends up making a joke about a type of trans woman that is more than likely imaginary. Trans women, unless for some reason absolutely necessary, are not going to use a urinal. This is because it makes us uncomfortable, fearful for our lives, and because we also have an understanding that this would make someone else uncomfortable. We are constantly worrying about everyone's comfortability with our existence, but when it comes down to worrying about ours from others; it is a one-way street.

Joke 3: Chappelle goes on to discuss an incident where he meets a woman in a bar who shows him a picture of her daughter. He claims at first that he says the daughter was beautiful, but then finds out that the mother showed him the picture because she knew who he was, and says that her daughter is transgender. He then makes another joke at the expense of trans women's appearances saying that this mother "trapped" him into saying her daughter was beautiful. Now, it is difficult for me to know whether or not Chappelle knows that the word "trap" is a slur given to, trans women primarily, who supposedly "deceive" straight men into having sex with us, as I haven't watched all of his previous specials prior to this one. If he doesn't know then I won't fault him for this usage. What he says next is that this trap didn’t allow him to be honest, and had he been honest he would have mentioned the daughter's "chiseled jawline and thick Joe Rogan neck". This once again plays into the stereotype of how people think trans women look or what trans women may find unappealing about their appearance that they desperately may want to change, but may not be able to do so. It's also another jab at Tran's women's experience with dysphoria. He then says it's annoying to him that he can't be honest with what he thinks even though that honesty would be hurtful and disrespectful to that person's struggles, a struggle that he claims to have empathy for multiples times throughout his act.

Joke 4: Chappelle then discusses another instance where he meets said trans woman from the photo in a bar one night, and she is in the bar with two guys. He recognizes her and they talk after he applauds her for making it to Hollywood (which is what the mother told him previously). His next joke is about potentially blowing her cover while in this bar, he says "I was careful to call her a bitch, cause I didn't want to blow her cover". This ties into the narrative that trans people are simply wearing a disguise, dressing up, or impersonating. Chappelle later discusses impersonation again which is why I find this joke having this message.

Joke 5: Next, Chappelle talks about the cancellation of J.K Rowling, for her statement of "gender is a fact", except that Rowling never actually said this. He is confusing Gender and Sex, which so many people do. The tweet Rowling actually wrote is this:

"Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?"

She wrote this in support of Maya Forstater, whose contract was not-renewed at her place of employment because of not addressing someone correctly by their preferred pronouns, and because of multiple tweets she made regarding her opinion on trans women. Chappelle doesn't quite understand this though, and he then claims the trans community made up the word TERF and began calling Rowling this. TERF was actually created by a cis-hetero white woman name Viv Smythe, and not by the trans community to "win arguments" as Chappelle puts it. He then says what TERF stands for "Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist”, and goes on to say that these women who are TERFs are upset at trans women because we are doing an "impersonation" of them, he then says he is “Team TERF”, and that he agrees. If he is so empathetic to the trans community, and understanding of our struggle, then why would he agree with a group of women who believe us to be playing a role.

Joke 6: Chappelle’s next dig is one that I found a certain meaning in that perhaps not many others do, but it was regarding trans women’s vaginas. Right before talking about trans women’s vaginas Chappelle says “Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact.” He then says that this doesn’t mean trans women aren’t women, but “those pussies that they got…you know what I mean”. He then compares trans women’s vaginas to impossible meat, and for me this is punching down. I interpret this as the impossible situation that trans women are in regarding the inability to have children. I personally have experienced extreme sadness over knowing that I won’t be able to have children the way I want to, and for Chappelle to compare the two is disheartening.

Joke 7: Daphne Dorman, a white transgender woman who Chappelle knew in the comedy scene was part of his final bit. He describes having first met her at one of his shows where she was laughing at his jokes, especially the trans jokes. He claims this was puzzling to him because she was “obviously trans”. Once again another dig at trans women’s appearances. There is already such a misconception of what trans women look like, most of those stereotypes mentioned throughout Chappelle’s act already, that this joke just wasn’t necessary or funny. He tells the story of how him and Daphne became friends and ultimately they shared a bonding moment where Daphne tells Chappelle that she doesn’t need him to understand her, she just needs him to “Believe that I’m having a human experience. I am a person and I’m going through it”. Chappelle acknowledges this and believes her. This is probably the realist part of the act as I didn’t find any malice in his relationship with Daphne, and it seemed to be the most genuine part of Chappelle’s act.

Joke 8: At the very end of his act he discusses that Daphne wrote a tweet about his previous Netflix special Sticks and Stones, in which he once again jokes about the trans community. After the special came out, Daphne tweeted this:

“Punching down requires you to consider yourself superior to another group. Dave Chappelle doesn't consider himself better than me in any way. He isn't punching up or punching down. He's punching lines. That's his job and he's a master of his craft.”

He brings up the tweet and the fact that the trans community apparently dragged her on Twitter, which is almost impossible to find out because the tweet has many new recent comments because of this new special that came out. He then goes on to say six days later, Daphne killed herself by throwing herself off a building, and that the trans community addressing her tweet on twitter probably didn’t help. He then makes a joke about her death saying that “only a man would do some gangster shit like that”. He says that she would have loved that joke, though of course it is really impossible to tell. This also rubbed me the wrong way because it felt as if most of the blame was being placed on the trans community for not agreeing with Daphne’s tweet, almost as if pitting us against one another. What so many people don’t seem to realize is that not all trans people get along, not all trans people share the same views, this is because we are still all human regardless of our trans identities. Despite Daphne thinking his jokes are funny, Chappelle doesn’t seem to understand why the majority of the trans community just doesn’t think so.

Final Joke: Chappelle’s last and final joke is when he mentions that Daphne had a daughter and that he wanted to find her so that he could start a trust fund for her. He said that one day he hopes he’ll be able to see her daughter and give her the money himself and say “I knew your father, and he was a wonderful woman”. This is the final joke of the act and unfortunately it comes at the expense of a trans woman’s death.

There are so many moments in Chappelle’s act where he could have done better to show his support for the trans community. He could have described the un-comfortability trans people face because of HB2, he could have not punched low at trans women’s appearances, he could have mentioned that 2021 has been the deadliest year for trans women, primarily trans women of color, he could have not ended his act with a joke about a trans woman’s death, and lastly he couldn’t have called himself a TERF. I really do want to find the message behind this act, and I do appreciate that Chappelle mentions the quote be Daphne of having a human experience but it just isn’t enough. He once again mentions empathy at the end of his act, but I just don’t see it through the majority of his jokes. It also makes me question the use of Daphne in his final act about the LGBTQ community. At the end he says he will no longer be making LGTBQ jokes a part of his shows, but is this because of her death or because of the backlash? It is difficult to tell. I just hope going forward Chappelle will educate himself further into what it means to be trans and why our community is exhausted at being targeted.