In terms of targeting transgender people, Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special is more of the same; however, he is also expanding his reach on disadvantaged people and including disabled individuals.
DC makes a big joke about trans people in his new special, “The Dreamer,” right away. This time, he tells an intricate tale about running into Jim Carrey on “Man on the Moon” and how that made him think of transgender people today.
To see how he connects the dots, you’ll have to watch the special, but in essence, Jim’s quite dedicated acting in that film and the trans community are similar.
That was the first significant joke Dave cracked, and even though he immediately vowed to stop bringing up transgender people, the rest of “The Visionary” featured yet more jokes about them. He made light of the fact that a trans woman with the pronoun “n****” who dies of loneliness because white liberals don’t know how to talk to her is the subject of his play.
He continued by saying that if he were to ever be imprisoned, it would hopefully be in California, where one could pose as a woman and be held alongside women. He then declared that other prisoners would be forced to “suck this woman’s dick I got” without having to defend himself.
That was the main point of his transgender jokes, but he also made fun of people with disabilities, cracking a joke about former Congressman Madison Cawthorn, and declared that “they’re not as organized as the lesbians” and “punching down” were his favorite things to do.
Of course, there was a lot more content, including his thoughts on the whole Will Smith/Chris Rock Oscars hit, but it all felt fairly tame in comparison to this material.
Toward the end of his hour-long set, Dave even mentioned Lil Nas X, claiming that LNX had confronted him for not appearing in a music video. Dave ended up thinking something along the lines of, “Out of all the kids in school who had dreams, I want to be the sweetest gay in the world,” and “Suck the devil’s dick.”
Yes, it does sound quite aggressive, but it appears that Dave was contrasting Nas X’s “dream” with his own, which is sort of the running theme of this special, that you can make it big.
The anti-trans jokes do sound bad, but they don’t seem to be causing the same commotion as his 2021 special did two years ago, when they were almost the center of attention. Once folks watch it for themselves, it’ll be exciting to see what the response is, if any.
Chappelle did not discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict, which he did in real life not that long ago, in this special. It seems like this was recorded long before that.
