Part of the reason The Closer has received such negative reviews in liberal outlets is that Chappelle directs much of his anger toward the liberal consensus about what’s offensive. Read: Dave Chappelle reckons with himself It’s a shame because he’s a good comic.” But there’s no need to upgrade that to “Dave Chappelle’s attitude toward women is so dangerous that his work ought to be suppressed and anyone connected to it should be shunned.” Does Dave Chappelle’s attitude toward women offend me? Yes, to the extent that, if asked, I will say, “Dave Chappelle’s attitude toward women offends me. But if there was a meeting where this was decided, no one invited me. The suggestion seems to be that women, and in particular white women, are numerous and powerful enough to absorb a comedian’s casual hostility, while gay and, especially, trans people are not. I loved Chappelle’s Show, which ran from 2003 to 2006, but here’s a typical punch line from one of its most beloved recurring segments, “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories”: “Bitches, come over here and show Charlie Murphy your titties!” And here’s another: “Bitch, come over here and have sex with Charlie Murphy.” Was this what Jones had been rooting for? Did none of the recent critics of The Closer notice the way Chappelle has always talked about bitches-sorry, women? And yet that tone never stopped me from enjoying his comedy-or acknowledging that his jokes about white women came from his perspective as a Black American man.
I find myself startled by some of this reaction. In GQ, the writer Saeed Jones declared, “I feel like a fool to have rooted for Dave Chappelle for so long.” Its jokes about LGBTQ people have led to boycott threats, calls to remove the special from Netflix, and even the brief suspension of a transgender Netflix employee who protested the special. The special draws its energy from one of the hottest debates in popular culture, about competing claims to victimhood. An alternative title for the special might be A Response to My Critics.Īrtists tend to be annoyed when critics grade their work on its political content rather than its technical and creative choices, and yet responding to The Closer any other way is hard. The stoner who never gave a shit seems genuinely frustrated and goaded on by social-media pile-ons.
Chappelle once delivered his most offensive jokes with a goofy, quizzical, little-lost-boy smile, removing some of their sting, but here the humor feels sour and curdled. Was it even meant to be? The emotion that defines The Closer is not laughter, but anger. At the end of Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix stand-up special-after 72 brutal, bruised, combative minutes that conclude with the story of a suicide-my other half turned to me and said: “That wasn’t very funny, was it?”
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