Before you read this I should include this preface: I’m an artistic type, a (pretty shitty, unseasoned) comic, and a member of what Dave Chappelle would call his “tribe.” I’m not a liberal agreeing with other liberal people or a right wing person angry about the other side all the time, I’m just a comic. That’s the “group” I’m part of, if any. In other words, I don’t really give a shit what’s going on with politics, who the president is, and there’s nothing that can really offend people like us. We understand that no topic is off-limits (to not discuss one issue would mean you’re placing that particular topic above all others: to me, everything is equally unimportant and nothing matters). We see the humour in literally everything, and that tends to rub certain people the wrong way. I’m not saying I’m some nihilistic edgelord who goes out of his way to offend people or anything like that, I’m just saying I don’t believe in artists having any filters. All artists, good ones anyway, should be allowed to say and do whatever they want in their work. The lack of rules and censorship is part of the process of creating art, both good and bad. There are artists I personally don’t care for (like Hannah Gadsby, for example), but I’d never say they shouldn’t be allowed to do certain things…I’d just not “click their face,” as Chappelle would say.
So that being said, to the people who haven’t already closed the window, I’d like to talk about some of the arguments I’ve read and topics coming to my mind since The Closer’s release.
Censorship
To me, what the controversy surrounding Chappelle’s latest special really amounts to is not just censorship, but black censorship in particular. The ruffled feathers you hear flapping right now don’t really feel like they are upset for valid reasons, they’re upset because a rich black dude is speaking freely and somewhere deep down they don’t like it. As much as people would like to have you believe this is about transgender rights or transgender people being murdered, that’s not what the anger is about at all. It’s about innate racism and wanting to control what a person of colour can do on what they feel is their stage. I think that many white people (not all, but the types that would complain about a fucking comedy special) have a deep, deep, deep, deep way down narcissistic belief that they are superior to other races, and that they must “correct” the behaviour of others.
It’s hard to talk about these kinds of things because it’s not quite tangible. It’s a phenomenon Patrice O’Neal has called, “Can’t Prove It Racism.” Meaning: no one is literally calling you a slur, but it definitely feels racist. To give you an example of white people policing others’ thoughts: I experienced this when I went to an arts high school with mostly white people. I was one of the only brown guys there, and I was the same very online person I am now with a website. From time to time I’d get hateful messages from people telling me nasty things about how I should stop writing, how I thought I was smarter than I really was, and my website was a bathroom wall, etc. Ridiculous hateful shit no one should send to a teenager just shooting the shit creatively. I cannot prove it, but I’m sure as the day is long these anonymous writers were all white. And that’s the same feeling I get when white people criticize Chappelle: they hate to see someone of colour speaking freely onstage. The same feeling I got when I was 14 and someone wrote to me about how I was “pretentious,” is the same vibe I get when people talk shit about Dave’s new special: it’s not that he’s talking about transgender people that bothers them, it’s that he’s so fucking smart and making good points. God forbid someone challenges your brain and your belief system, how awful that must be!
The Trans Material is Unfunny
This argument is subjective to the people making this defense, so I don’t think this is worth talking about at length. All I can say is: if one person laughs at something another doesn’t laugh at, the joke wins by default. To say that Dave’s trans material in this special is “unfunny” is weird to me because the audience was clearly laughing. This is a strange statement to make because it’s not rooted in reality at all.
The Trans Material is in Poor Taste Due to Deaths
Dave Chappelle telling jokes on a stage has nothing to do with someone being murdered somewhere else. I don’t understand the argument of, “He uses the same type of language that bigots use and he fosters a culture of transphobia.” He’s an artist. Jeffrey Dahmer spoke English, that doesn’t mean everyone in America that speaks the same language is also a murderer, does it? What about a comedian like Sacha Baron Cohen, who could be seen as “punching down” on Kazakhs? Why is it okay for him to make comedies where he makes an entire nation of people look like idiots? Because he isn’t black, and no one gives a shit about Kazakhstan, that’s why. He’s a British white guy, so he’s seen as a brilliant “satirist.” If he was a person of colour I am pretty sure there’s no way he would’ve gotten away with Bruno, for example. When he does a gay character, that’s comedy. If a black person does it, it’d be hateful and homophobic. This is all about policing what black people (rich ones in particular) can and cannot say about white people. And yes, I know there are black trans people, but the people I see complaining the most right now are all white. The only black writers I’m seeing on Twitter getting any RTs and shares are liberal ones who agree with the same points white people would like to have echoed.
The other thing about this whole debate in particular people seem to keep overlooking is that Dave Chappelle is a comedian. He’s not leading a rally. He’s a comedian telling jokes. That’s his job. Once again, I’ve heard the argument made that “jokes” foster a culture in which it’s okay to murder people of a certain group, but at this point it is such a far reach it’s actually absurd.
Consider this Twitter thread for example: what does a whole list of murdered people have to do with a comic telling jokes? Is this person really suggesting that Dave Chappelle was somehow responsible for all of these people being murdered? The whole thread is just a bunch of performative nonsense designed to make him look culpable, but when you take a step back the argument has no weight whatsoever. It’s just the same as the ridiculous, “video games caused Columbine,” argument made years ago.
The Idea of The Trans “Community”
This is another thing writers in mainstream media keep saying that I have never really understood. To be honest with you, I’ve never understood the phenomenon of a community, period. People that can be described as something are not one big monolithic force that all agree on the same thing. I mentioned I’m part of the “comedian” tribe above, but even that is a stretch. It’s very rare that a whole group of people agrees on one thing. Not all brown people like Russell Peters, for example. Not all black people like Dave Chappelle. So what the fuck is this talk about “community” and how Dave offended each and every one of them?
The truth is, if you dig a little deeper than what the mainstream media is telling you: there are plenty of trans folk who found the special funny. Uncomfortable, yes, because he says things that are considered impolite: the “beyond pussy” line, for example. But definitely funny. The trans people that understand the true nature of comedy, and the fact that nothing is ever off-limits for a comedian or comedy in general enjoyed this special.
And that leads me to the final thing:
Comedy in General
Over the last few years there has been an odd shift in comedy, a weird literalness that some people want. They seem to have forgotten that comedy is an art form in which someone is telling harmless jokes. I already know the argument, “Some jokes have real world effects,” but like I stated above: I don’t believe that’s true, and to place one topic off-limits is absurd to me. Trans people are not special. I am not undermining their struggles by saying that, I just mean that no one is special. I named my website Meaningless Magazine, I’m sure that doesn’t surprise any of you: life is absolutely meaningless to me. No one is important, and no one is special. Not Dave Chappelle, not Jeff Bezos, not Tom Hanks, not me, not anyone. We all fucking die at the end and become food for worms. Doesn’t matter how much money you have, doesn’t matter if you like sucking cocks, doesn’t matter if you just like staying in and eating soup. We all die. Comedy is the great equalizer, it cuts everyone down to size, and makes us all laugh at the grim nature of existence. As Dave Chappelle once said on SNL, “Come get your nigga lessons.” If people want to be accepted by the world at large, they need to understand they will be joked about like everyone else.
Also: notice how none of these anti-Dave people have ever raised any voice of concern about his material covering other subjects in the past. They didn’t say shit about his material on black people, the homeless, crackheads, Elizabeth Smart, etc. Discussing various issues in life in a comedic style is what he has always done, but for some reason the transgender issue is somehow a touchy subject that shouldn’t be discussed. People keep asking, “Why can’t he leave this issue alone?” Maybe the reason for that is because people keep getting angry about him talking about it and he doesn’t understand why (as he shouldn’t: he’s a comedian). If anything, these people upset at Dave’s trans material should actually be thanking him for including them in his act. He isn’t doing what so many others do, which is ignoring their existence entirely out of fear of saying the wrong thing.