Netflix says Dave Chappelle’s new special will not be pulled

Oh, get out the fainting couch. A comedian has made fun of someone. Who could have seen that coming?

If you concede that stand-up comedy is a legitimate activity, then you have to realize that (1) offending people is basically their job; (2) eventually some stand-ups will offend you personally.

10 thoughts on “Netflix says Dave Chappelle’s new special will not be pulled

  1. Nothing to me will ever top the humor of the real life incident of the way the mean spirited ‘comedian’ Sam Kinison died. The comedic irony of him dying in a car crash and begging “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die” was the most hilarious thing ever.

  2. I haven’t watched it (and I don’t intend to), but from what I’ve read, it’s punching down rather than punching up, which is kind of a cheap and lazy way to get laughs.

    1. “Don’t punch down” is, frankly, a foolish argument created by people who don’t understand the implications of applying the logic. It suggests a comic should never make fun of neo-Nazis because there aren’t that many of them and they have little power.

      When people say “don’t punch down,” what they really mean is “don’t make fun of groups I belong to or are sympathetic to.” Comics punch up, down and across, depending on what they think is funny. The audience – the general public – ultimately determines what’s funny with their laughter and their dollars. Lots of people find Chappelle not only funny, but the funniest ever.

      But the other side of the argument is that Chappelle is also guilty of failing to understand the implications of his defense. I have no problem with him making fun of anyone, including any groups I belong to or are sympathetic to – just so long as he, in turn, has no objection to other comics attacking groups he belongs to. Is he OK with white comics ridiculing black culture? And, let’s be honest, there is plenty to make fun of everywhere you look, black culture included. That’s the door he has opened, and I’m not sure he would be pleased with the consequences of opening it.

      As much as I support Chappelle being offensively funny, a belief held in no small part because I do the same thing, I personally think that he ought to leave it to transsexual comics to make fun of the transsexual scene.

  3. I hadn’t heard or read anything about this before right now and I still have no idea what he supposedly said. I figure I have 2 options, google it or watch the the video on Netflix. I think I might just watch the video which I hadn’t previously planned to do. So the manufactured controversy won!!! Of course, whether I watch the video or not, I am still going to keep subscribing to Netflix. I might actually have a problem with a compulsion to subscribe to streaming services. The only major one I don’t subscribe to is Amazon and that’s only because I use my brother’s.

    1. I’m kinda hooked as well. I now have subscribed to several, and am now contemplating Paramount Plus as well.

      1. I had no intention of subscribing to (then) CBS All Access but I bought a new Roku that came with a 90 day free trial of the commercial free version. So I gave it a try. It’s probably a sign of my advancing age, but most of the shows I watch are on CBS. It is just so much more convenient to watch shows on demand like that than to have to fast forward through commercials. I am without a doubt incredibly spoiled. But when they became Paramount+ they added a lot of additional content. My 4-year-old nephew may have stolen my password to watch Paw Patrol. 😉

  4. Netflix knows, likely because Dave told them, that this is 100% bait. He planned this. He put this out there basically daring them to try and cancel him, and they took the bait.

    He’s even said it: “if this is what being canceled is, it feels great!”

    His point was simple: people like JK Rowling say this stuff and their projects get made, their merch gets sold. Black people say it, and not as bad, and they lose work. He’s not wrong.

    So he became a black man who said it, but also made it clear: cease fire. I’m done. I’ll never talk about it again…just back off other black performers.

    And they went after him, like dutiful little robots. Suckered in completely, making his point completely.

    The showrunner for Dear White People said it best when they said they refused to work with Netflix again until they removed the special: “I don’t want to censor him.”

    I’m guessing they have a very unclear idea of what the word “censor” means. “I don’t want to censor him, I just demand that his platform for speech be removed entirely because I didn’t like what he said.”

  5. Every time one of these happens, someone takes turbocharged umbrage (giving the comedian lots of free publicity) and everyone quickly forgets the real question – is it actually funny? With Chappelle, it likely is.

Comments are closed.