15 votes

Dear Dave Chappelle, transgender comedians can take a joke, but why are yours so unfunny?

2 comments

  1. Gaywallet
    Link
    There's been a fairly active thread surrounding the suspension of a transgender Netflix employee, with some commentary on the special itself. Someone linked me this article by a black transgender...

    There's been a fairly active thread surrounding the suspension of a transgender Netflix employee, with some commentary on the special itself. Someone linked me this article by a black transgender comedian who does a good job pointing out precisely why Dave's jokes fell flat and I thought it was worth it's own thread.

    In particular I think the author does a fantastic job of highlighting precisely some of the issues I saw with the jokes in the closer - namely that they are incredibly shallow and show close to no understanding of the transgender experience. I think it's important that a particular section is highlighted, because Dave has called upon his experience with Daphne many times, but not many people discussed the extent to which he was actually involved in her life:

    Daphne Dorman, your “friend”, who you describe as a terrible comedian, and didn’t know she had a child until reading her obituary, after she had killed herself, eight days after the one time you actually spent any significant amount of time with her, in person. As if that weren’t insulting enough, you then double down, as though you were representing a greater community to her than her trans community, and I have to wonder how many “transgenders” knew her, loved her, supported her, and encouraged her that you erased, so cavalierly.

    13 votes
  2. Thrabalen
    Link
    Chappelle reminds me of the Louis CK incident, only where CK did his thing in private, Chappelle went out to deliberately and publicly hurt, insult, and erase as many people as he possibly could.

    Chappelle reminds me of the Louis CK incident, only where CK did his thing in private, Chappelle went out to deliberately and publicly hurt, insult, and erase as many people as he possibly could.

    4 votes