Dave Chappelle has released a new Netflix special, The Dreamer, which is full of jokes about the trans community and disabled people.
“I love punching down!” he tells the audience, in a one-hour show that landed on the streaming service today (31 December).
It’s his seventh special for Netflix and comes two years after his last one, the highly controversial release The Closer.
That programme was criticised for its relentless jokes about the trans community, and Chappelle revisits the topic in his new show.
He tells jokes about trans women in prison, and about trans people “pretending” to be somebody they are not.
I am so sick of his comedy of grievance. Every act he does over the past few years is about how unfair the world is to him and how people don’t acknowledge how great he is.
He’s riding out the glory of an okay sketch show that he made two seasons and then torpedoed 20 years ago.
Yeah, I’m reminded of Jerry Seinfeld. Some comedians are great for life, most have a time and a place and excel then and there. I’m the 90s Seinfeld was bigger than big, in the 10s he was telling college campuses they’re too pc for not laughing at jokes about trans people. In the 00s Chappelle left on a high note and was a popular icon of comedy who quit too soon. In the 20s he was a raging bigot who should’ve stayed quit. Meanwhile Larry David is still making tv and fairly popular, but that’s because he mostly sticks to punching himself in the face.
Chappelle has said that Key and Peele were just doing “his show.” But look at how Jordan Peele has reinvented himself as one of the iconic horror film directors of our generation (and maybe all time?). He wouldn’t be out of place in a list alongside Alfred Hitchcock, Eli Roth, M. Night Shyamalan, Clive Barker, or George A. Romero.
Also, like so? People wanted more and you quit so others said they could do something similar. And as you said, Peele is doing stuff nobody dared do before in a different genre now.
I think at the root of his problem Chappelle seems to think that he’s the greatest and people just refuse to see it. He seems to lack the humility that is needed for a comedian to stay relatable
Yep, dude is just hurt that no one considers him the comedy king anymore. Not that he deserves it, but HE certainly thinks he does. It’s sad, really… I remember respecting him for stepping down for a bit. What a disappointing return, I wish he had just faded away with positive memories instead of torpedoing himself, his legacy, and the fight for equal rights.
Gonna take friendly umbrage with you putting Shyamalan on that list but not mentioning John Carpenter or Wes Craven :)
Fair!
I take umbrage with Eli Roth being on that list at all…
I give him slight props for 1 decent movie but yeah I know what you mean.
You could also absolutely argue that what Key and Peele were doing was continuing on with a successful team-up that started on MadTV. If SNL got cancelled and Keenan Thompson got his own sketch show a couple of years later… I mean, that would make sense, wouldn’t it? People find him likable and he has sketch comedy writing and performing experience.
Meanwhile Chappelle made some edgelords all defensive. Samesies!
I’ve got a love-hate thing with his writing. David is a master of unconventional suicide by words. He’s very funny but so good at causing intentional cringe that I suspect that his humor could be weaponized in the event of another world war.
Full agree. I think Jason Alexander did an amazing job of playing him in a way that didn’t hurt as bad to watch as when David plays himself. I tried curb your enthusiasm and it was funny but I just couldn’t watch more than one episode the cringe was so intense.
Seinfeld is a groomer
I remember in “The Closer” he said "now Key & Peele are on Comedy Central, doing my show."
Like dude, you did not invent the sketch comedy show. SNL had been going on for decades before he even thought of doing his own spin on it. I used to like his comedy, but not so much after that special, and definitely not after this.
I grew up with (and loved) the Chappelle Show but Key & Peele is sooo much better. I rewatched some of his show a few years ago and most of the skits don’t hold up well at all. It’s mostly just black stereotype caricatures that are only “not racist” because a black guy wrote them
The fucked part is one of the reasons he stopped doing Chapelle Show was (according to him sometimes) because he recognized a good chunk of his audience was laughing at the black stereotype shit instead of with him about how ridiculous it was. And now he’s cashing in on punching down at other groups and cares not a bit about it.
Yeah. I like some edgy humor but the show was an invitation for racists to be more public with their opinions…which they did
Yeah, seems Dave’s always had a problem with misreading the room. Still does, just is bitter about it now
And misogyny. I can’t remember a woman on that show that wasn’t eye candy or the butt of a joke.
It was a joke you absolute donkey.
Jokes are meant to be funny and that is just whinging on his part, you bloody walnut.
Did the live audience laugh?
Big-name comedy show audiences are moronic fanboys who will laugh at anything.
Dude is a multi millionaire in his 50s who does nothing but bitch about how other rich people “stole” his money. Sooooo relatable Dave, wow!
I mean, yeah, he’s a piece of shit, and yeah he’s still riding on that old fame, but come on. That was a great sketch show, not merely an ok one. The fact that he has turned into Clayton Bigsby should not distract from the fact that the first episode of his show featured a faux documentary about a black white supremacist. That was some amazing television. I’m all for bashing Dave for the many, many shitty things he’s said and done in the past few years, but let’s not rewrite history here.