It's always helpful to remember that it's not how someone treats their equals that tells you who they are. It's how they treat those who are weaker than them. Bragging about how he loves punching down is like bragging about being a bully: Chappelle might think it makes him look cool, but it simply makes him look pathetic.
this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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One of the pitfalls of creating pithy terms for nuanced concepts is that people will turn them on their head. To wit, whoever coined the 'punching' nomenclature did more punching than anyone.
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The real sad story here is what's not spelled out. Chappelle keeps 'punching down' at trans people, and Netflix keeps throwing buckets of money at him. Why? Because people, lots of people, love to watch Dave Chappelle mock the trans community. Netflix does not do anything that doesn't comply with their algorithm and statistics. It is a cold blooded, by the numbers company. Which means that they have the receipts to prove that their continued support of the very expensive Dave Chappele is worth it. That's the sad truth and it bums me out.
I'm rephrasing a quote from a user I saw last week but basically Netflix corp made a conscious decision, Transphobic money is worth it to them.
I haven't set up a media server in a long time but I can't keep blinding supporting this shit out of convenience.
Definitely a cold-blooded number company/decision. As much as there are a gross number of people that want to watch him make fun of his impressions of trans people, I’m sure there are more “accident rubber-neckers” watching to see if the show is as terrible/great as promoted. Unfortunately, they’re all views that lead to the same thing, cha-ching.
Edit: impressions 🥲
It's been my experience that bigoted companies don't do it for the money, they do it for ideological reasons. Hate loses you more than it gains. It's hard to come to grips with if you have even the littlest bit of faith in humanity, but the megarich universally support this kind of thing.
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Kinda sad seeing him and Ricky go down this path. Part of what makes good comedy is being unapologetic, but when their takes are off-colour enough that they need to explain them and spend whole specials explaining themselves I think they've lost it, what a strange hill to die on (I say this being a huge fan of them both prior to their most recent specials, I guess as we all are)
Chappelle has been a hack since the end of Chappelle's show IMO. He got way too full of himself and basically thought he was the greatest shit since sliced bread. And then he resorted to being a piece of shit edgelord to try and claw back any standing he had through shock humor and it's just sad. Then of course he played the victim and said he was being cancelled. Nah Dave, you're just an unfunny piece of shit.
ricky's success at legitimate entertainment was all due to stephen merchant, which is why he's stuck being a bigot on netflix "comedy" specials.
and chappelle was always rubbish
Personal taste is valid, but in 2002/2003, Dave Chappelle was untouchable in comedy. He was doing sketch comedy different, and it contextualized and lampooned race relations in North America. It was eye opening for a lot of white people to watch, and immensely validating for the black community. Maybe it doesn't all land these days, but it was cutting edge comedy in the early 00s.
His early stand up is awesome too. While deployed in the military, my buddies and I watched For What It's Worth and Killin' Them Softly so many times. We just repeated jokes to each other most of the day. It really helped kill the time with all the waiting.
I just don't understand his obsession to die on this hill.
All the comedy genius came from Paul Mooney’s writing.
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Why is Netflix still making specials with this guy? Are they contractually obligated or something? Had they already paid him anyway? WTF?
Poor boy doesn't know how to be relevant! Just go away already, what a waste.
I cancelled my Netflix because they kept giving money to this shit and the CEO is unapologetic about it. That and also they are shit towards their employees.
No regrets.
At this point, this isn't surprising. Disappointing, yes, but barely.
What new "material" did Dave think up to dunk on trans people? Did he find that holy grail of "LiBeRaL hYpOcRiSy!" that gets right wingers foaming at the mouth?
At this point, he's just a washed up, mainstream entertainer doing culture war bits instead of actual comedy. Like, you're still doing trans jokes, my guy? 2012 called and wanted its asinine kneejerk takes back. He's always been the king of bad takes (defending statutory rape involving R Kelly, victim blaming R Kelly's victims, questioning the age of consent laws in America) and has exercised BROKEN logic in the past in order to make jokes land, but that's the difference between old Dave and new Dave: HIS JOKES WERE ACTUALLY FUNNY AND MITIGATED HIS BAD TAKES.
He would love punching down. It takes little effort, and "little effort" is precisely what he's been putting into his comedy lately.
Netflix seems really happy not getting my money. Good for them.
It’s more a matter of them not noticing since they are getting tons of money from others who do enjoy his special. It’s sad that people seem to eat up this shit. I use to really enjoy Chappell but I just can’t anymore.
I kind of hate that not only does this asshole's face immediately leap at me on Netflix, but now it's on Beehaw too.
lemmygrad's "shit reactionaries say" does the honorable thing by blurring out their logo when you're not visiting them and always blurring their posts because nobody wants to be jumpscared by that pedophillic neo-nazi on the side of their front page while scrolling.
This is a message to people in generally, not specifically the top level comment:
If your instance, or app/frontend offers a keyword filter/block, I would suggest adding Chappelle to the list.
Politicians, or words of violence can also be added if you generally want a joyful experience on Lemmy; staying up to date the news and politics can be important, but some people get plenty of that from outside of Lemmy, and may want this to be a space to relax, chill, or experience their interests and hobbies, or something important to them on a personal level.
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He's a comedian, he makes fun of people. If you don't like it then you're not the target audience. There's plenty of comedians out there making fun of other groups
Making a peanut butter and jelly doesn't make you a chef. If everyone says your food sucks, it sucks.
Chappelle isn't as funny as he used to be and lately he's being dumb as fuck.
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just to add to the plethora of responses: it rather defies belief that he's purely "joking" when, among other things, he's taken photos with anti-trans legislators like Lauren Boebert and let them frame those photos in this manner:
I don't like Dave new specials, but he said he wasn't pleased with that she did: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dave-chappelle-poses-lauren-boebert-164759657.html
He said during his standup act at Capital One Arena in Washington that he granted the photo request by Boebert for a human moment to bridge the political divide but felt “blindsided” by her, according to a progressive influencers’ blog.
“It’s a shame she tricked me,” Chappelle said, according to Call to Activism. “I had two tickets to ’Beetlejuice’ and I was going to give her one!”
this is, and i mean this respectfully, one of the weakest condemnations imaginable if he's actually got a problem with her doing this. this has zero teeth. it's also literally Lauren Boebert, a person who has made her name being a freakish culture warrior--what did he think she was going to do?
for a human moment to bridge the political divide
Of all the people to try to bridge a divide with... yeah, not buying it here either.
"Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it's not satire, it's bullying." -- Someone
Honestly it's kind of hard to know how to respond to this.
We recognize that "I was just joking" isn't a universal defense, otherwise people wouldn't have had an issue with minstrel shows. But as a society we've come to recognize that humor can be persuasive and can inform people's beliefs about what others are like. It's similar to how sites like 4chan that started out with cultures that were drenched in ironic racism eventually were just actually racist.
"Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe that they're in good company."
There's making fun of people, and then there's just playing up long disproven stereotypes as a way of being insulting. If blackface is insulting, so is pretending to be trans on stage and telling imaginary prisoners to suck your girl dick.
Sure, but do comedians do multiple netflix specials filled with mocking one group of people? I'd say his material is pretty trash if he has to stoop to this repeatedly.
He's one of those people who can't handle criticism, so when he feels attacked he doubles down. He can't move onto new material because he can't let go of that perceived slight against him.
This is the shittiest take on this website
The problem is that he's constantly making fun of the trans community and is now doing it specifically because it makes them angry. It's not good comedy when the people you're making fun of aren't laughing too.
The other problem is that he's playing the victim while doing it. He's claimed that he's being cancelled for what he's said and whines about it in every new special. And yet, he keeps getting specials.
I used to love his comedy, but this constant attack on Trans people, an already marginalized group, is unfunny and in very poor taste.
It’s not good comedy when the people you’re making fun of aren’t laughing too.
This is where I draw the line between comedians like Dave Chappelle and, say, Jimmy Carr. It's fair to say Jimmy Carr isn't everybody's cup of tea, because his jokes can be really dark and really offensive - but he pokes fun at everybody, not just one specific group, and he can take it when someone pokes back.
When a comedian makes fun of everybody, and sees the humour when others make fun of them, it gives the sense there's no real hatred or malice there, and that makes it better comedy than when the jokes come from a place of real bigotry.
Okay sure, but by mocking and dehumanizing trans people he encourages violence against them which is already a massive issue for trans people. But I love comedy, other than bigoted it's just lazy and played out and comes across like an old dude mad at scary new changes in society.
Translation: "I'm white and passively support every genocide because it isn't targeted at me. I would have been OK with with the holocaust."
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He makes fun of everyone, that's always been his thing. The problem isn't about him being unfair to one specific minority. The problem is demanding censorship or cancellation just because something offends your personal sensibilities.
I'd much rather have comedians talk shit about everyone including their own peers and ethnic groups, than live in a world of dulled down, censored content. Fuck everyone equally!
He isn’t being censored. He has the right to say these things , but everyone else also has the right given by free speech to criticize him. That is not censorship or being cancelled. That is simply how free speech works. Having the right to free speech doesn’t protect anyone from criticism
The problem is the jokes aren't funny. Or even really jokes. It's just the same hateful garbage that you'll find in any right wing comment section with no clever twist or respect for the humanity of the people being made fun of. It's all variations on "haw haw, these people are pretending to be something they're not, ew gross". It's not true, it's not "keeping it real", it's not insightful, and anyone who actually knows or cares about the trans community knows that hearing that all the time will drive some people to kill themselves. Maybe even worse than that, it'll foster that attitude in people even less compassionate that Dave Chappelle, who I don't think has any particular malice toward individual trans people, but he's telling those who do that they're right.
There's definitely humor to be had about the trans community, just visit any trans meme board and you'll find it. There are stereotypes and self-deprecation and tons of really dark humor going on. What's coming out of Chappelle's mouth isn't that, it's just undercooked right wing bigotry.
When there isn't a genocide in the works maybe that'd be true. But why not let him rather make jokes about the Palestinian kids being murdered, because fuck everyone right? It shows your utter disconnect from the matter. It's fine that he punches down as long as it's not you that's being punched down on and having your right to be alive eroded every day while more and more hate murders happen to trans people, because that's so funny right? Haha fuck them... You don't sound like you're really marginalised at all, nor persecuted for being alive, so I think until you are, people with your viewpoint should just stfu.
I think people might be getting tired of the "I have no respect for anyone or anything no matter how delicate, bad taste and shit stirring are funny haha, isn't it cool to be uselessly disruptive and cruel" thing in general. As someone gender non-conforming, fuck Dave Chapel, but I suspect he's a canary in the mine for a sea change in the kind of jokes people enjoy in this crushing scary and depressing era. It doesn't help he is making fun of a group Republicans are openly plotting to oppress if not erase. You know. Like some sort of coward who goes after acceptable targets and doubles down despite the backlash because they are so very lucrative in their exploitability. As a plus, he's getting in on the ground floor of the Nazi-lite entertainer-to-propagandist operation, so he will be forging connections with everyone who keeps getting cancelled by wokescolds. When that starts happening to one of these weak willed celebrities, they end up tripling down on their weakest character traits and circling wagons with the worst fuckers alive.
If you're a fan of Chappelle's, all you can do for him is email or tweet him that you think he's being cringe. He's not going to stop otherwise, he's being/has been inducted into the canceled club for free thinkers and he-says-what-were-all-thinking right wingers.
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