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.
Thanks for giving your perspective! It’s really easy to miss these digs (which are very obvious in retrospect) and catch myself trying to defend Chapelle as a comedian—since I have always thought he’s in the top of his craft.
It’s disheartening to see an idol disregard a group of people, or at least if his intentions are not to disregard and are to “make light,” how he so casually perpetuated biases I didn’t know I had, and that so many others do too.
Again, I’m glad I got to hear someone’s perspective, but I’m sad your community was the butt of the joke. I also wish Chapelle would take the time to fully understand so he could make the trans community “in” on the joke, like he seems to do so well with every other group.
There are so many moments in Chappelle’s act where he could have done better to show his support for the trans community. The purpose of the show was to make people laugh, poke fun at all kinds, rich, poor, black, white etc etc, no mention on the jokes he ran on Jews, Blacks, Whites etc, where’s your outcry for support there.
How about from what you’ve written make your own stand up set? If you didn’t agree with what he said so much don’t watch next time, you watched to complain and have put money in his pocket by doing so.
He’s not doing jokes because he’s not allowed to. Your questioning why he’s not making lgbtq jokes after writing a full blown article criticising every lgbtq joke he made in the set.
If anything it’s brought more awareness to the community no? as someone who knew nothing, after his set I did my research, bettered my understanding and I will continue to do so.
I like your approach. You have nuance in your assessment which is so often absent in conversations about important and contentious subjects.
Thanks for giving your perspective! It’s really easy to miss these digs (which are very obvious in retrospect) and catch myself trying to defend Chapelle as a comedian—since I have always thought he’s in the top of his craft.
It’s disheartening to see an idol disregard a group of people, or at least if his intentions are not to disregard and are to “make light,” how he so casually perpetuated biases I didn’t know I had, and that so many others do too.
Again, I’m glad I got to hear someone’s perspective, but I’m sad your community was the butt of the joke. I also wish Chapelle would take the time to fully understand so he could make the trans community “in” on the joke, like he seems to do so well with every other group.
Thank you so much for writing this critique. Your even-handed approach is phenomenal and expresses the issues with The Closer perfectly.
There are so many moments in Chappelle’s act where he could have done better to show his support for the trans community. The purpose of the show was to make people laugh, poke fun at all kinds, rich, poor, black, white etc etc, no mention on the jokes he ran on Jews, Blacks, Whites etc, where’s your outcry for support there.
How about from what you’ve written make your own stand up set? If you didn’t agree with what he said so much don’t watch next time, you watched to complain and have put money in his pocket by doing so.
He’s not doing jokes because he’s not allowed to. Your questioning why he’s not making lgbtq jokes after writing a full blown article criticising every lgbtq joke he made in the set.
If anything it’s brought more awareness to the community no? as someone who knew nothing, after his set I did my research, bettered my understanding and I will continue to do so.