Honestly, I wasn’t going to watch “The Closer.” The new Netflix special starring comedian Dave Chappelle wasn’t something that I had found super appealing even before the massive controversy that it birthed. I had watched all of Chappelle’s Netflix specials before this one, and I had seen bits and pieces of Chappelle’s show, and while they were good, I wasn’t crazy about them. Chappelle’s crass humor should’ve aligned pretty well with my own, given that I enjoy a good edgy joke or two, but I just couldn’t get fully behind them.
When “The Closer” made headlines because of the huge amount of backlash Chappelle was receiving for it and the idea of an article about it came up at a weekly Weather Vane news meeting, however, I decided, sure, why not? Watching an hour of comedy and writing my opinion about it seemed easy enough work, and in my daily peruse of Reddit earlier that day I had seen a short video containing Chappelle’s response to the outrage that piqued my interest in the special a little.
Watching that special, however, was not easy. If you haven’t seen it, first, go watch it. In his response video, Chappelle says that he’s open to conversation with anyone who has watched the entirety of his special, and I agree with him that the only way to have a full opinion on the controversy is to watch the whole thing, start to finish. “The Closer” is pretty standard fare for Chappelle’s Netflix specials; Dave gets on stage and tells some edgy jokes to get the audience laughing, and once he’s got their attention, he slowly begins to morph his set into a talk on an issue that’s bothering him. The issue this time is his relationship with the LGBTQ community and, specifically, the transgender community, who Chappelle makes the center of his comedy routine throughout “The Closer.” Chappelle’s point of the set, as he says it, is that the LGBTQ community and the black community are both minority groups in the U.S. that should on all accounts be going through the same struggles and receiving the same equal treatment in American society, but somehow, the LGBTQ community has become much more embraced than the black community because “white men want to be a part of it.” The culmination of the set is a story about Daphne Dorman, a trans comedian and friend of Chappelle’s who came to Chappelle’s defense following a similar controversy over another of Chappelle’s Netflix specials; Dorman was bullied online by the trans community for defending Chappelle and committed suicide a few days after her defense, and Chapelle implies that there could be a correlation between the two incidences.
I think I understand Chappelle’s point, that he’s jealous of the support that the LGBTQ community has received in comparison to the black community. As a straight white male, I won’t say that I can empathize, but if that’s the way Chappelle feels, then, by all means, Chappelle has the right to voice his opinion because this is America. But the video of Chappelle’s response rubs me the wrong way, and I think it’s because Chappelle seems so flabbergasted that he’s under attack. I’m not going to get into cancel culture and its place in comedy, but to me, it seems almost irresponsible that Chappelle would be so blindsided by the trans community’s outrage. Comedy is Chappelle’s business, and like every other business, I think Chappelle needs to consider his audience. This isn’t the first time Chappelle has received this kind of response online, and that makes me wonder; why is this fight so important to him? Watching that special, it’s really easy to lose Chappelle’s point in all of his punching. Dorman would have said that Chappelle isn’t “punching down,” as the trans community would argue, but instead, “punching lines.” But as someone putting his career at stake, are those lines worth it?
