Comedian Dave Chappelle is once again facing backlash from leftist critics for making jokes about the trans community in his newest Netflix comedy special.
The outrage stems from comments Chappelle made in “The Dreamer,” which was released on December 31.
During one bit, the 50-year-old shares a story about meeting Jim Carrey on the set of the movie “The Man on the Moon” (1999). Chappelle explained how Carrey stayed in character as Andy Kaufman even when cameras weren’t rolling and insisted that everyone on set address him as “Andy” at all times. The comedian equated this type of method acting as being similar to how trans-identifying people behave.
“I wanted to meet Jim Carrey and I had to pretend this n***a was Andy Kaufman all afternoon. And he was clearly Jim Carrey,” Chappelle said. “I could look at him and I could see he was Jim Carrey. Anyway, I say all that to say that’s how trans people make me feel.”
The comedian peppered in several other jokes about gender identity and preferred pronouns throughout “The Dreamer,” just like he did in his previous comedy special “The Closer,” which made headlines for the same reasons.
A reviewer from Rolling Stone complained about Chappelle being “obsessed with trans people.”
“It’s unfortunate that Chappelle’s The Dreamer is, like some of his prior Netflix specials, obsessively fixated on the trans community, because it’s not an area he particularly excels at, resorting to puerile premises and punchlines,” writer Marlow Stern wrote.
“There are, of course, ways to artfully tell a trans joke — take Michelle Wolf’s recent Netflix special It’s Great to Be Here — but Chappelle is apparently incapable of having most of his bits extend beyond mocking genitalia or pronouns. It’s not just tired but uninspired,” he added.
Variety editor William Earl agreed that Chappelle has an “obsession with mocking trans people” and suggested he should try “some new material.”
“Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Special Proves He’s Learned Nothing,” Sean McCarthy from The Daily Beast lamented.
“It feels so frustrating to sit and watch comedians with the stature of Chappelle and [Ricky] Gervais devote so much of their time and energy to bullying the LGBTQ+ community when they could be doing anything else on stage. And then they have the temerity to question us, the audience, for not laughing with them,” he wrote.
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Meanwhile, clips from “The Dreamer” have been circulating online and getting praise from viewers.
Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special is out, and he’s telling the truth about trans. pic.twitter.com/WdndzE3ZHN
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) January 1, 2024
“Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special is out, and he’s telling the truth about trans,” the popular X account Billboard Chris, a critic of gender ideology, shared, racking up more than 27 million views of Chappelle telling the story about Carrey.
“Precisely. Dave Chappelle gets it,” former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines agreed.