“I’m famous today. People like me today. Might not like me tomorrow, you can’t count on it.”
These are famous words by Stand-Up Comedian and Actor Dave Chappelle. Chappelle has received numerous awards for his comedy specials including Emmy and Grammy awards. His name to fame happened during the airing of his show, Chappelle’s Show where he even earned the title “The Comic Genius of America.”
Unfortunately, not all of America would give him that specific title. In 2017, Chappelle made a huge deal with Netflix and the comedian gave the top streaming platform three stand up specials after his long hiatus from performing stand up. The famous comedian accepted the deal with open arms due to him making over $20 million a special and each one was in the top ten films and tv shows for over two weeks. Even though the specials received hundreds of reviews applauding the comedian, many still felt offended by his comments targeted towards the LGBTQ+ community.
Recently, Chappelle released his final Netflix stand up special titled “The Closer” and yet again the comedian continued to be in hot fire with the LGBTQ+ community but also more specifically with Transgender people. Throughout the comedy special, Chappelle argues that many trans people are protected more than Black men in America and he went as far as to say that some will even still use their white privilege. “Gay people are minorities until they need to be white again,” Chapelle joked.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos came out and defended Chappelle’s comedy special by saying that he believed that the stand up did not cause any physical harm, so therefore the special would remain on Netflix’s platform.
This led to more outrage from the Transgender community because they felt more unheard then ever before and felt that Sarandos had completely missed the point of why the comments offended some of them. Some Netflix employees have even walked out after the CEO’s comments.
Chappelle finally took to Instagram on Monday October 25 to clear the air.
“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that’s not what it is. Do not blame the LGBTQ community for any of this. It’s about corporate interest, and what I can say, and what I cannot say. For the record… everyone I know from that community has been loving and supportive, so I don’t know what this nonsense is about.”
The Closer is still on Netflix so people should go view the comedy special and make their own opinions on Chappelle’s comments.