Roxane Gay Nails Dave Chappelle in New York Times pt. 3
This toxic performance crescendos when Mr. Chappelle shares a heartbreaking story about his trans friend Daphne Dorman, a comedian, who died by suicide — suggesting that if she was fine with his comedy, how dare anyone else have a problem? The story is bittersweet and sometimes funny, and then it is tragic, and the worst part is that Mr. Chappelle is clearly so very pleased with himself when he gets to the punchline. He thinks he has won an argument when really, he is exploiting the death of a friend. For comedy. Of course, we don’t know Ms. Dorman at all; pushing back against this portrayal twists us in an impossible bind. Once more, Mr. Chappelle forestalls any resistance.
One of the strangest but most telling moments in “The Closer” is when Mr. Chappelle defends DaBaby, a rapper in the news for making pretty egregious homophobic remarks, and his fellow comedian Kevin Hart, who once lost an Oscars hosting gig for … making homophobic remarks. Both men faced professional consequences for their missteps, but neither was canceled: Mr. Hart remains one of the highest-paid comedians in the world. DaBaby has more than 43 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
At the end of his special, Mr. Chappelle admonishes the L.G.B.T.Q. community one last time, imploring us to leave his “people” alone. If it wasn’t clear from his words, the snapshots of him with his famous pals in the closing credits of “The Closer” make it abundantly clear that Dave Chappelle’s people aren’t men or women or Black people. His people are wealthy celebrities, and he resents even the possibility of them facing consequences for their actions.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | October 17, 2021 10:58 PM
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She's exactly fucking right. Every time I hear the term "cancel culture" it's from some whiny conservative or grumpy rich bitch (like Chappelle) trying to fling themselves into the current news cycle. Nobody gets "cancelled", they just suffer the consequences of being absolute garbage on purpose, to elicit a pretty predictable response. Some of us can see through the bullshit.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | October 15, 2021 4:20 AM
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Isn’t all this terrorising of school board members “cancel culture”? There seems to be a real disconnect about that. The right wants it both ways.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | October 15, 2021 4:34 AM
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Summary: she only likes the parts where he criticizes white gays and white feminists.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | October 15, 2021 4:50 AM
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I watched Closer. Didn't love it, but it didn't condone violence and it went after a lot of other groups--whites, feminists, gays--besides trans. But TRAs are the only group demanding that the special be pulled. This claim that cancellation isn't an issue is disingenuous. The TRAs are trying to cancel Chappelle, but don't have the clout to do it.
Again, Chappelle went after a lot of other groups, but no one else is demanding that his show be pulled as a result.
And we know damn well that even if the TRAs can't cancel someone with Chapelle's clout, it doesn't mean they're not succeeding with less powerful people who disagree with them
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | October 16, 2021 7:33 AM
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Fun fact: DaBaby and Lil nas fuck on the dl, "Call me by your name" and "Industry baby' reference that.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | October 16, 2021 7:39 AM
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I thought it was frequently funny and sometimes sweet. I get no sense of meanspiritedness at all.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | October 16, 2021 5:24 PM
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Lil nas x would never touch dababy's old ugly ass. He's getting fucked by french-African male models.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | October 16, 2021 5:40 PM
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I haven’t watched the special but from the quotes I’ve seen I don’t understand the incessant anger that anything he said could translate to real life violence. I generally think Chappelle is funny and there were some truly genius sketches on the Chappelle Show but some stuff he’s put out recently has just made me roll my eyes a bit. Like the point he was trying to make with the Dababy story doesn’t click for me. Or it’s like I see what he’s trying to say but the example is bad. Yes no one seem to care that Dababy killed someone, but when has murder or violence been bad for a rapper’s career? That shit has been glorified and bragged about by straight male rappers for decades.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | October 16, 2021 6:31 PM
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Here's the thing: barely anyone is "cancelling" Chappelle. He is receiving criticism. Also, some of us are just kind of shocked that he said those things. I seriously thought he was above cheap insults.
It's disappointing.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | October 17, 2021 10:58 PM
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