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Dave Chappelle


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2 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I think it’s possible that some people had their minds made up before they tuned in. I got a lot of laughs. Dave’s a genius. When you’re walking the edge and pushing boundaries, not everything works. Watch it all the way to the end before you judge. 

It's funny that what makes Chapelle seem like a genius is he's just doing what comedy used to be: pointing out the absurdity of the culture and speaking truth to power. It's been so long since we've had those types of comedians it seems outrageous, but he stands in a long line of Fox, Bruce, Carlin, Pryor, etc. That's what comedy is supposed to be not the milquetoast, sanitized propaganda of the powerful we get in most "comedians."

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18 hours ago, troph said:

and all of this "the trans movement and its success" talk ignores the reality:

 

https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/2021-officially-becomes-worst-year-in-recent-history-for-lgbtq-state-legislative-attacks-as-unprecedented-number-of-states-enact-record-shattering-number-of-anti-lgbtq-measures-into-law

https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2021

 

I'm all for telling twitter not to eat their own, or acknowledging that white gay men - especially those that can pass as straight - have seen their civil rights increase at a rate no black man or woman has ever seen is an issue.  but just because woke people in Austin and Seattle have trans friends doesn't mean shit goes well for trans folks.  so Dave can joke about how she (his "friend" Daphne) was a good father all he wants and hide behind some 4-D chess and satire that the trans movement has too much success and the black civil rights movement needs more attention but in the end, it's a stupid joke, based on the fact that he just doesn't want to hear about trannies anymore.  Well fuck me and call me Sam again.  Trans folks have been pushed under a rock for the entirety of western civilization until just recently.  good lord man, this shit's just getting started, buckle up buttercup. 

troph: in all seriousness I agree it's very concerning that anybody (trans or anything else) is the subject of violence. I've seen that stat you've referenced that trans homicides have gone up this year. Can you tell me if there's any data that shows that there's causation and not correlation of some kind? Are they being attacked because they are trans? 

 

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Just now, BHMCruiser said:

he's funny too

 

1 minute ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Sure it is. If you don’t like Chapelle then stick to someone bland and safe like Jim Gaffigan. 

Although maybe his jokes cause violence also in ways Gourmand's wife can explain to him to explain to me. 

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3 minutes ago, BHMCruiser said:

he's funny too

He is. So is Louie Anderson who occupied that same comedic space before Jim Gaffigan. There’s a spectrum when it comes to comedy and it comes in a lot of styles. Louis CK is another comedian on the edgy side. Not everything always works but when it does it’s hysterical.

Now just to tie that together:

 

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2 hours ago, Scary Stranger said:

No, I meant that the offended party won't watch it to the end.  They're offended before they even get started.

Okay, yeah, then we’re in agreement. Their minds were made up ahead of time. I don’t know what Dave’s history is regarding the LGBTQ community in the past but there was a lot of self-deprecating humor in that show. He referenced a time when he was called “transphobic” when he didn’t even know what that meant. When he called himself transphobic in the show, he was poking fun at himself. 

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17 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

So oddly I read this thread before watching The Closer just now. I don’t know how the hell anyone can watch that whole special and come away thinking that DC was denigrating, demeaning, or mocking anything about LGBT. I thought it was fantastic.

 

 

As I said in my first post of this thread, some people are just looking to be offended

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3 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Okay, yeah, then we’re in agreement. Their minds were made up ahead of time. I don’t know what Dave’s history is regarding the LGBTQ community in the past but there was a lot of self-deprecating humor in that show. He referenced a time when he was called “transphobic” when he didn’t even know what that meant. When he called himself transphobic in the show, he was poking fun at himself. 

Pretty sure 99% of the loudest among the outrageratti never even saw the show. "Transphobic" is like "racism" where today it just means "disagrees with me."

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9 hours ago, XYZ said:

WTF is going on here?

You know how you know OU sucks before watching OU? Then, they pull off an epic comeback against your home team which angers the fuck out of you, but they still suck. That’s kind of like what’s going on here.

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Wanton violent attacks are terrible.  Violent attacks targeting a specific group of people are terrible.

But are we supposed to believe people watching the Chapelle standup will be encouraged to attack trans people, or that they will be accepting of when trans people are attacked?

What the fuck are we protesting?  That he can *possibly* be construed as mean? 

 

From Bloomberg:

Netflix Staff Raised Concerns About Dave Chappelle Special Before Release - Bloomberg

Quote

[Netflix] employees expressed dismay that the company continues to release programming with transphobic sentiments, and urged Netflix to offer a platform to transgender comedians and other people from marginalized groups. 

lol, get fucking real.

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On 10/14/2021 at 9:09 PM, Buzzrock said:

So oddly I read this thread before watching The Closer just now. I don’t know how the hell anyone can watch that whole special and come away thinking that DC was denigrating, demeaning, or mocking anything about LGBT. I thought it was fantastic.

I agree.  It takes one (a human, struggling) to know one and empathy is bi-sexual (it goes both ways) were the “punches” he landed most solidly.  

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3 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Wanton violent attacks are terrible.  Violent attacks targeting a specific group of people are terrible.

But are we supposed to believe people watching the Chapelle standup will be encouraged to attack trans people, or that they will be accepting of when trans people are attacked?

What the fuck are we protesting?  That he can *possibly* be construed as mean? 

 

From Bloomberg:

Netflix Staff Raised Concerns About Dave Chappelle Special Before Release - Bloomberg

lol, get fucking real.

You seem insensitive to the plight of the Cishets.

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Watched it last night. Offensive? If so, I just don't get what people expect when people listen to comedians. Isn't part of the job to say offensive/touchy things when you make comedy for adults?

That said, it had funny moments for sure, but struck me as kind of weird. Felt like material that would be workshopped in some small comedy club instead of a polished set for a special. It just had a feeling that the group really got under his skin for some reason and he couldn't let it go. It went from a comedy set to 45 minutes of him trying to argue about LGBT.

And man he seems hurt that other people are getting noticed as having a hard time than just the black community. Like it is a contest or a zero-sum game. 

 

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Watched it and it was funnier overall than I expected. It does feel that he is so focused on the criticisms he received before that it clouds his humor and ordinary intelligence in his comedy. There were just so many logical fallacies and inconsistencies which matters because he was clearly trying to make a serious point, but it fell flat. At one point he jokes that twitter isn't a real place, essentially that it shouldn't be taken seriously. Then he spends half the special railing on people using twitter to criticize. I also don't believe that he gets harassed by gay people in bars, especially in Hicksville Ohio. The last story is probably real since it would be easy to disprove if not real, but he again attributes it to twitter and only vaguely recognizes that there could have been more going on in her life. 

So I think it's probably true that he doesn't have any genuine hate for the trans community, but his focus shows that he has a fundamental problem with it, notwithstanding that he may have had one or more trans friends in his life. The bigger issue is how criticism gets to him. As a comedian who has done edgy comedy his entire career, you would think he'd have thicker skin. It also feels disingenuous since he's fine with criticisms everywhere on anti-black issues, politicians especially. But it bothers him that much that trans people want to be seen and respected? Belittling the pronoun thing is so missing the point, in my opinion. I've always interpreted it as an issue of basic respect. Like asking that old white people not call black people "boy." It's just a word, and some may not put a racist motive to it, but the lack of respect is tremendous, so even if you didn't mean it that way, respect it when someone points out that its problematic and be respectful. Referring to a trans women repeatedly as "he" or "him" is being intentionally disrespectful.

It just feels hypocritical. He wants people to not be so offended on twitter, then rants for half a special about people criticizing him on twitter. If it had been even 1/4 of the special with some jokes about it, fine. But he's so fixated on the criticism. Be a pro, take it in stride, and move on man. 

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On 10/13/2021 at 10:52 PM, BHMCruiser said:

I didn’t think this was his funniest special. I thought he said a lot of thought-provoking things. Anybody who claims his comedy is encouraging violence against the trans community either did not watch the special or is an idiot. 
 

I don’t pretend that there will be an honest discussion here. There are too many competing agendas and preconceived taking points for that. Watch the special and then decide what you think. 

Why did you respond this way?   What does the underlined portion actually mean?   Should I interpret the underlined as a throw away phrase designed to make one feel self-important and above it all.  Please explain it to me.    And why the italicized sentence at all?  It comes across supporting the interpretation of a self-congratulatory statement which kind of seems out of character for you from my recollections.   Did you expect a dishonest discussion?  Who doesn't have an agenda and why is that a problem? 

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38 minutes ago, Nivek said:

Why did you respond this way?   What does the underlined portion actually mean?   Should I interpret the underlined as a throw away phrase designed to make one feel self-important and above it all.  Please explain it to me.    And why the italicized sentence at all?  It comes across supporting the interpretation of a self-congratulatory statement which kind of seems out of character for you from my recollections.   Did you expect a dishonest discussion?  Who doesn't have an agenda and why is that a problem? 

I think that there are basically three camps of people on the transgender issue. There are people who reflexively reject transgenderism or support of it as per se nonsense and everything they say must be viewed through that filter. There are people who think that transgenderism is an unalloyed positive and tend to think that any rejection of that position is the manifestation of ignorance, bigotry, or both. And then there are people in the middle - people who are confused by the issue but don't want to hurt people so are trying to listen. My anecdotal observation is that there are more people in the first two camps, and they tend to be the most vocal and the least likely to be persuaded. Therefore I do not think it will be an honest conversation, because the agendas of the speakers result in people in adverse camps shouting dogma at one another. So I do expect a dishonest discussion. Lots of people have earnest conversations with each other about hard issues without an agenda (though maybe rarely in online forums). 

And while I certainly am self-important and above it all, both in terms of this conversation and in life generally speaking, I was just acknowledging up front that I knew we would likely have a shouting match and not a conversation.  

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On 10/18/2021 at 6:00 PM, 'stache said:

Watched it and it was funnier overall than I expected. It does feel that he is so focused on the criticisms he received before that it clouds his humor and ordinary intelligence in his comedy. There were just so many logical fallacies and inconsistencies which matters because he was clearly trying to make a serious point, but it fell flat. At one point he jokes that twitter isn't a real place, essentially that it shouldn't be taken seriously. Then he spends half the special railing on people using twitter to criticize. I also don't believe that he gets harassed by gay people in bars, especially in Hicksville Ohio. The last story is probably real since it would be easy to disprove if not real, but he again attributes it to twitter and only vaguely recognizes that there could have been more going on in her life. 

So I think it's probably true that he doesn't have any genuine hate for the trans community, but his focus shows that he has a fundamental problem with it, notwithstanding that he may have had one or more trans friends in his life. The bigger issue is how criticism gets to him. As a comedian who has done edgy comedy his entire career, you would think he'd have thicker skin. It also feels disingenuous since he's fine with criticisms everywhere on anti-black issues, politicians especially. But it bothers him that much that trans people want to be seen and respected? Belittling the pronoun thing is so missing the point, in my opinion. I've always interpreted it as an issue of basic respect. Like asking that old white people not call black people "boy." It's just a word, and some may not put a racist motive to it, but the lack of respect is tremendous, so even if you didn't mean it that way, respect it when someone points out that its problematic and be respectful. Referring to a trans women repeatedly as "he" or "him" is being intentionally disrespectful.

It just feels hypocritical. He wants people to not be so offended on twitter, then rants for half a special about people criticizing him on twitter. If it had been even 1/4 of the special with some jokes about it, fine. But he's so fixated on the criticism. Be a pro, take it in stride, and move on man. 

This whole analysis just seems a bit ... off target?

He's a comedian.  He's doing a bit.  It involves loosely threading together a story, anywhere from huge exaggeration to pure fabrication. 

Even if he has a narrative/theme (like Carlin is societal observation and Gaffigan is deprecating), his performance isn't meant to serve as a moral compass for the audience.  And even if it someone was ungrounded enough to look to a comedian for cultural guidance, it's so incredibly tenuous to characterize the bit he did as suggestively anti-xxx. 

 

We're dissecting a comedy stand-up like its a Supreme Court Opinion? 

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On 10/14/2021 at 1:43 PM, Gourmand said:

Aww butthurt because I called out your stupidity in this thread?

You are right that you should definitely listen to troph over me. I'm not white knighting anyone here, I'm not offended by Chappelle, I'm just a hetero dude who can understand the trans argument against The Closer and thinks he parades his ignorance from the jump when says shit like "Gender is a fact" (yes, it is) and then immediately starts yammering about vaginas and birth canals.

I'm sure you don't understand what's wrong with that either. 

 

 

 

 

seriously?

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40 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

This whole analysis just seems a bit ... off target?

He's a comedian.  He's doing a bit.  It involves loosely threading together a story, anywhere from huge exaggeration to pure fabrication. 

Even if he has a narrative/theme (like Carlin is societal observation and Gaffigan is deprecating), his performance isn't meant to serve as a moral compass for the audience.  And even if it someone was ungrounded enough to look to a comedian for cultural guidance, it's so incredibly tenuous to characterize the bit he did as suggestively anti-xxx. 

 

We're dissecting a comedy stand-up like its a Supreme Court Opinion? 

He spends at least half of the show lecturing about being harassed for his prior comments, and accuses trans people of bullying his trans friend into suicide. He is making points way beyond humor and is in fact trying to convey his view on morality. He doesn't get to say serious things then ask that people disregard it as comedy. He is free to criticize all he wants and opens himself to criticism. The issue I see is him complaining about the complainers for complaining too much. Let it go man.

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The "Dave Chappelle is just an edgy comedian doing edgy comedian things" defense is wrong, IMO.

DC is the closest thing we have to a mainstream public intellectual, at this point. 

He is extremely intentional and thoughtful and communicative-- he has an obvious gift that has transcended comedy in the later years. Watch any of this publicly accessible stuff from 8:46 to the Netflix Redemption song two parts. It's a master class in not only story telling but also communicating directly with the audience and cutting out the middle man. There is a whole huge write-up I'll find and share about how he handled the Netflix situation which was awesome.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that DC doesn't harbor at least a bit of personal animus towards the Trans community. Like others have said, he should just own it with a "I said what I said", like JK Rowling before him, because there is, or at least should be, room for interpretation and beliefs about basic things like gender and other social constructs. And he should take on the chin whatever comes his way for saying what he says.

But like others have mentioned, DC is smart enough to spout off after gaining credibility in his ability to think and form opinions, as well as having a huge platform and popularity that insulates him from being "cancelled". If he were just a guy having done Def Jam VHS specials and a bit (albeit funny) part on the Nutty Professor, he would be sunk.

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17 minutes ago, DonkeyCigars said:

The "Dave Chappelle is just an edgy comedian doing edgy comedian things" defense is wrong, IMO.

DC is the closest thing we have to a mainstream public intellectual, at this point. 

He is extremely intentional and thoughtful and communicative-- he has an obvious gift that has transcended comedy in the later years. Watch any of this publicly accessible stuff from 8:46 to the Netflix Redemption song two parts. It's a master class in not only story telling but also communicating directly with the audience and cutting out the middle man. There is a whole huge write-up I'll find and share about how he handled the Netflix situation which was awesome.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that DC doesn't harbor at least a bit of personal animus towards the Trans community. Like others have said, he should just own it with a "I said what I said", like JK Rowling before him, because there is, or at least should be, room for interpretation and beliefs about basic things like gender and other social constructs. And he should take on the chin whatever comes his way for saying what he says.

But like others have mentioned, DC is smart enough to spout off after gaining credibility in his ability to think and form opinions, as well as having a huge platform and popularity that insulates him from being "cancelled". If he were just a guy having done Def Jam VHS specials and a bit (albeit funny) part on the Nutty Professor, he would be sunk.

That's exactly his point about the "punching down" aspect. He's not punching down. He is taking it on the chin. The collective progressive determination that disagreement (or anything less than lockstep adherence) with the transgender platform is punching down at him, because he is just some dude saying what he thinks. That's his point. 

Apparently (and predictably if you see my earlier post in response to nivek's questions) this special was nothing more than a Rorschach test where people see whatever it is they are predetermined to see. Like the time the psychiatrist who evaluated me gave me a Rorschach test and I asked him why he kept showing me pictures of my mother's vagina. 

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16 minutes ago, BHMCruiser said:

That's exactly his point about the "punching down" aspect. He's not punching down. He is taking it on the chin. The collective progressive determination that disagreement (or anything less than lockstep adherence) with the transgender platform is punching down at him, because he is just some dude saying what he thinks. That's his point. 

Apparently (and predictably if you see my earlier post in response to nivek's questions) this special was nothing more than a Rorschach test where people see whatever it is they are predetermined to see. Like the time the psychiatrist who evaluated me gave me a Rorschach test and I asked him why he kept showing me pictures of my mother's vagina. 

Yea, I agree with a lot of what you wrote here as well. I'm just saying that it's pretty obvious that DC is taking a position through comedy, to advance the social discussion and conversation, as Voltaire and Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde and all those other famous satirists have done from time immemorial, and that he's not and shouldn't be given the cover of "it's just comedy lighten up". Make your case and own the outcomes and it sounds like he is which is awesome and healthy and good for us all.

 

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3 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

I thought it was fine initially, but then I talked to my wife - not about the show, but about the budget for our remodel - and now that my balls have been removed  I identify much more with the trans community and feel this show is personally attacking me.  Fuck Dave Chappelle and his insensitivity and his absurdly priced curtains and kitchen finishes.  

These are the comments I thought would be in this thread. Chappelle has said that on principle he doesn't feel bad for anything he says on stage. He gets $20 million a special so everyone wins when it gets talked about. 

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Alexa's NPR news brief had a little blurb about the Netflix stuff that had me wondering.  

Is there really a sustainable market for Trans content?  I imagine there is some small market for LG community, and I believe there are a few comedians (Cho, Tig, etc.) who have carved out a little niche for themselves, but they have little enough mass appeal and I imagine the LG community to be much larger than the Trans community, but maybe I am way off base here.   

From this Link  it places the LGB community as 3.5% and Trans as 0.3%.  Which works out to something like 11.5 million LGB and 1 million T.   

 

 

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1 hour ago, RPM said:

When a comedian causes a social uproar like this they are very good at doing their job.

Jeselnik is like "how the fuck can I piss these people off even more?"

On a side note, Netflix management just has to ride out the next 28 days or so, and then Tiger King Season 2 drops, and the Chapelle stuff will be completely forgotten.

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6 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Jeselnik is like "how the fuck can I piss these people off even more?"

On a side note, Netflix management just has to ride out the next 28 days or so, and then Tiger King Season 2 drops, and the Chapelle stuff will be completely forgotten.

Netflix management is just fine because $$ talks and BS walks and their earnings were good with a growth bounce back Q3 earnings report yesterday. Everyone is happy with management right now except a small group of people.

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Maybe this has been discussed already, but I have a hard time getting past the glaringly obvious circumstances that this rabid bunch of pro-trans critics and trolls likely contributed to Daphne's actual suicide (Dave's Trans friend he talks about in the recent special).  She goes on Twitter to defend him after the previous special, Sticks and Stones, and kills herself 6 weeks after this social media shitstorm hits her. I don't see anyone talking about how insane these people are, and how vicious they are to those that don't believe the same things they do. 

How can you be more anti-trans than that? Attacking someone and bullying them for not thinking the same way as you when you're a so-called "ally" of this group that they obviously belong to? This isn't some life and death situation where some idiot parent won't get their child medical care, it's a question about a guy's character and how he sees a group of people different from himself. It would be great if these so-called "allies" could see the folly of their ways, but I doubt anyone who may have contributed to her death will lose any sleep over that, or see the hypocrisy. 

Nobody was taking Dave's rhetoric and using it as a basis to kill trans people. But amazingly enough, pro-trans people took offense to Daphne's defensive comments and bashed/bullied/ridiculed her enough to compound her depression and make her feel so worthless she killed herself.  Amazingly enough, that's not the headline, it's that Dave talked about genitals in a "transphobic" way, or "Dave Chappelle defends JK Rowling!". 

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4 hours ago, Nivek said:

Alexa's NPR news brief had a little blurb about the Netflix stuff that had me wondering.  

Is there really a sustainable market for Trans content?  I imagine there is some small market for LG community, and I believe there are a few comedians (Cho, Tig, etc.) who have carved out a little niche for themselves, but they have little enough mass appeal and I imagine the LG community to be much larger than the Trans community, but maybe I am way off base here.   

From this Link  it places the LGB community as 3.5% and Trans as 0.3%.  Which works out to something like 11.5 million LGB and 1 million T.   

 

 

I would bet that 1m is significantly too high.

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