Comedian Dave Chappelle has come under fire from social media critics accusing him of making “transphobic” and homophobic jokes in his new comedy available on Netflix.
On Tuesday, Dave Chappelle released two new stand-up comedy specials on Netflix—“The Age of Spin: Live at the Hollywood Palladium” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas: Live at Austin City Limits”—that caused a backlash from some viewers, who claimed his jokes about the LGBTQ community were homophobic and transphobic.
In one of the two specials, Chappelle jokes about his wife’s gay friend who “always wants to have some kind of gay political argument.”
“The last one was about a petition in federal court to take the words ‘husband and wife’ out of the law,” the comedian said. “I said, ‘why would you want those words out of the law?’ He said, ‘because it discriminates against same-sex couples.'”
“I was like, ‘N*****, please, save the semantics. Just trust me. Take your chips and get the f**k out the casino. You’re about to crap out. Just go outside, talk that over amongst yourselves, and whichever one of you is gayer that’s the wife,'” sparking laughs in the audience.
Chappelle then turns the subject to transgender people saying, “Of all those letters [LGBTQ], the ‘T’ has the toughest road ahead. In fact, I think the ‘T’ should stand for ‘Tough road ahead.'”
“They’ve got the longest mental gap to bridge, that’s all I’m saying. Because whenever I see one of them Ts on the street, I don’t mind them, but I’ll be like, ‘Man, I miss Bruce,'” in reference to Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner.
The raunchy jokes continue throughout the comedian’s show. He also discusses Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case. The jokes, however, were too much for some viewers.
“If you haven’t watched the Dave Chappelle show, yet… Please know: There is hateful Transphobic speech being said during: 25:00 – 38:00”, informed one social media user.
“I was SALIVATING for the new Chappelle specials. It had been 12 yrs. I knew his stuff had been problematic before. I was hoping for growth,” one user wrote before adding: “But Chappelle’s material was homophobic and transphobic and involved rape culture. I’ve grown too much not to speak up about it now.”
“Tried to watch the new @DaveChappelle specials on Netflix last night. I was laughing my ass off until I had to turn it off. So transphobic,” tweeted another disappointed viewer.
Alex Willey, meanwhile, tweeted how “Dave Chappelle did honestly make me cringe a few times with the rape jokes and mad ignorant transphobic jokes. Was hoping for woke dave.”
Some people, however, have come to Chapelle’s defense. Jake Woolf, a style writer at GQ Magazine, wrote: “I don’t like the fact that Dave Chappelle now feels the need to explain his own jokes mid show because he’s worried about offending people.”
