Dave Chappelle has released a new Netflix special, The Dreamer, which is full of jokes about the trans community and disabled people.
“I love punching down!” he tells the audience, in a one-hour show that landed on the streaming service today (31 December).
It’s his seventh special for Netflix and comes two years after his last one, the highly controversial release The Closer.
That programme was criticised for its relentless jokes about the trans community, and Chappelle revisits the topic in his new show.
He tells jokes about trans women in prison, and about trans people “pretending” to be somebody they are not.
It made you sad because it’s anti-trans.
Chapelle, in that cute little anecdote, is literally denying the existence of trans identity and claiming they’re just acting and it’s a choice. That is the way that the right is trying to erase trans identity, and it’s the same playbook they used when attacking the gay community (i.e by claiming it’s a lifestyle choice and not an issue of identity).
As for him not “understanding”, bluntly, that is a choice. He’s not some misguided poor soul. He has access to all the information you and I do. He could educate himself. But he’s made a decision, and that decision is to deny the existence of trans people.
Frankly, it seems to me your fondness for Chapelle is leading you to downplay his beliefs and his behaviour.