**Spoiler Alert in this post.**
Dave Chapelle is what Mel Brooks referred to in the movie “History of the World: Part I” as a stand up philosopher. He sees what is going on in the world and delivers in a way that can penetrate through people’s bubbles. He makes you think, and in my case, at least 90% of the time, I laugh.
I also saw a reaction video saying any cis white person can’t comment on the special. The reason given is because of the controversial material is about the intersectionality between black & LGBTQ+ communities. I get that on one level, but it’s a cop out in my opinion.
Maybe its because I watched a lot of comedians growing up, so much of what gets said on stage doesn’t phase me. Don’t get me wrong, if I don’t find the person funny, I change the channel. America is still a semi-free country. No one can really make me watch anything I don’t want to see. But watching Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Sam Kinison, and Robin Williams made me learn to roll with punches. There is always some hard kernels of truth in their jokes.
Which brings me back to “The Closer”. Dave made a lot of great points. When he spoke of Caitlyn Jenner, he always used her preferred pronouns and never made fun of her. What Dave said was that Caitlyn won “Woman of the Year” the first year she was a woman. He wasn’t wrong. He stated a fact. The joke was the Caitlyn beat all the women of Detroit for that award.
In all honesty, the worst part of the special was the Daphne story. Daphne was a transwoman who was just starting her stand up career. Dave even let her open up for him when he was in San Francisco. What an experience that had to be for her! Unfortunately, some people on Twitter criticized Dave and Daphne stood up for a person who gave her an opportunity. That was met with lots of harassment and bullying from the LGBTQ+ community online. Daphne couldn’t take it. She decided to silence their voices in the life by taking her life.
The LGBTQ community rather focus on the fact that Dave mentioned them in his stand up then that some members of their community actions caused pain & suffering in another member’s life to the point of suicide. They always calling out others for harassment and bullying when its against them, but NEVER when they do it to themselves.
Food for thought.
Made Dames 