Perhaps it’s time for Dave Chappelle to experiment with some new content.
“The Dreamer,” the comedian’s most recent special, debuted on Netflix on December 31 and primarily discusses his early years in the entertainment industry and how he achieved success. However, he spends the first 12 minutes of the film revisiting transgender individuals, one of his favorite subjects in recent memory.
Chappelle begins the special by sharing a tale about visiting Jim Carrey while he was filming the 1999 movie “Man on the Moon,” in which the actor reportedly went method on set while playing comedian Andy Kaufman. Dave remembers being “very disappointed” that he spoke to Carrey all day while posing as Kaufman and concluded by saying, “That’s how trans people make me feel.”
He continued by saying, “You guys came to this show tonight thinking I’m going to make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show.” He then addressed the controversy surrounding his anti-trans material. “I no longer mess with those people. It wasn’t worth the trouble. I’m not making any more negative remarks about them. Maybe three or four more times, but that’s it. I’m tired of bringing them up. And you’re wondering why I’m tired of bringing them up. Because these people behaved in a way that made me want to laugh. Well, that’s ridiculous. You’re not important to me. I’m about to get a whole new perspective. You guys won’t expect this shit at all. I’m done making transgender jokes.”
He continued by saying that he would stop making jokes about “handicapped” people because “they’re not as organized as the gays.” “I also like punching up.”
A short while later, Chappelle brought up the topic once more, saying, “To be honest with you, I’ve been working to mend my relationship with the transgender community because I don’t want them to think that I dislike them.” “Do you know how I’ve been fixing it? I wrote a play. I did. I know that gay people love plays. The play is really sad, though, it’s moving. It’s about a trans Black girl with the unfortunate name n***a. It’s more tear-jerking. She dies of loneliness at the end of the play because white liberals don’t know how to approach her. It’s tragic.”
“God forbid I ever go to prison,” he muttered later. “But if I do, I hope it’s in California. As soon as the judge sentences me, I’ll say, ‘Before you sentence me, I want the court to know I identify as a woman.’ I want to go to a women’s prison. You know what I’m going to be doing as soon as I get in there. ‘Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch. I’m a woman like you, bitch. Come over here and suck this woman dick I’ve got. Please don’t make me elaborate. I am a woman.'”
Later in the special, Chappelle talked about how he was attacked backstage at the Hollywood Bowl in 2002 by a man brandishing an imitation firearm that had the capacity to fire razor blades. Chappelle recalled telling the audience, “It was a transgender man,” in an effort to ease tension following the incident. However, he claimed that given the audience’s response of “Boo,” it didn’t go over well. “It’s L.A. We love transgender people.”
Additionally, Chappelle claimed that the assailant “had a weapon that identified itself as a gun” and that “I triggered them because I had made LBGTQ jokes and it turned out that this man was ‘B.’ He also made the joke that the attacker “could have been raped” given that he was a lesbian.
“The Dreamer,” the comedian’s sixth stand-up special exclusive to Netflix, was filmed at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Chappelle has come under fire in recent years for making regular remarks about the transgender community, such as in his 2021 Netflix special “The Closer.” The controversial materials sparked protests and walk-outs by Netflix employees in support of the LGBTQ+ community. In a letter distributed to Netflix employees, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos initially defended the artist and his right to artistic freedom, but in response to the discussion, he later admitted he “screwed up.”
During the credits of “The Dreamer,” a portrait of Sarandos and Chappelle grinning at one another is displayed.
