I understand where you are coming from.That's fine to call out false equivalencies, but his comedy lacks the punch it once had because he has largely abandoned the empathy he used to inject into his comedy. Which at times gave it a social gravity almost no comedians can ever reach.
The special was fine, it had its moments. None nearly as good as the height of his previous specials. The jokes mostly get like jokes you hear from comedians their first month or so workshopping new material for a special they have 8 months away. Still, he remains the most effortless comedian and it's a testament that even a half-baked Chappelle special is better than 90% of what's out there.
But it is largely mean-spirited, intellectually conservative(not in the political sense but in the cultural sense of someone that is stuck in a way about the past and rather come up with ways to rationalize behavior and thinking he doesn't want to change than actually critically think and self-critique), and often in calling out hypocrisy he misses his own. Which to me is a sign that Dave has, unfortunately, somewhat lost that magic he had to be a really interesting contemporaneous comedic voice on social issues.
There is this deep desire for him as a straight man to keep normalized transphobic humor, viewpoints, and feelings he felt comfortable using or having 10-20 years ago, which's sucks a lot of the energy out of his stand up now. Because a lot of it is just old guy unwilling to change trying to persuade everyone to remain as closed-minded as he wants to stay. It's like Bill Burr without knowing it's partially a schtick and only really focusing in on all the social justice fights he couldn't be bothered to care about.
It's a guy that today can't see the irony and contradiction in him calling out white people for Kaepernick kneeling, as he tells trans people and woman to metaphorically get off their knees and learn how to protest better because it's pissing the establishment off and their to blame for backlash. He's the guy a younger Chappelle growing up in this era would mock.
Special was weak as hell.
Going out of your way to say your special is politically incorrect is corny as fuck. Dude might as well have called it "triggered" but that title was already taken by Joe Rogan.
Yes.I understand where you are coming from.
For curiosity, are you white?
s seriously can't be overstated.
Too many professional comedian jokes is just really standard "locker room talk" that you hear sitting round with any group of random men and hardly laugh out loud funny. Acting like it's oh so brave to make jokes about trans people is really weak, to me.
Got it.Yes.
And part of what was always unique about Chappelle, from a white person's perspective, at least in in his earlier years(and even in his two recent shows to an extent) was his ability to communicate, on multiple levels, intellectually, emotionally, and almost subconsciously the inequities in our cultural dynamics in this country. Often through ways you never think. Mostly in a way that positively affected and got people that I wouldn't even have expected to empathize and see those issues they were oblivious to.
And in a special like this he almost takes those talents and focuses them in on trying to keep normalized the very sort of cultural inequities he once subverted to great success in his younger years. Whereas his comedy was never without problems when judged through contemporary eyes, it was at the time several steps ahead of the cultural curve in mainstream comedy, whereas today it seems like he is fighting to preserve where things were several steps ago.
And honestly, the only reason I hold Chappelle to a standard like this is because he lifted himself to a standard few comedians have ever reached and seeing someone fall from that is more jarring than someone like Anthony Jesselnik or Bill Burr declining in their craft. Who have never reached that level.
...Again though, all that said, still better than 90% out there. And I feel like focusing in on this misrepresents my overall feeling of the special, which was solid.
I mean, where's the white privilege in thinking that trans joke about being a Chinese person inside could've been done by a (white) radio shock jock in 1998? That shit was cornball as hell.Got it.
I'm black, and I asked about you been white because sometimes, among my white friends, or random posts on internet (including Era), if the person is white and left wing, or part of a group fighting against the right wing and conservatives, it seems like something is missing on translation when someone bring up hipocrisy and white privilege in a non-straight-male group, like Chappelle have been doing with his latest specials.
In most recent years, at the same time it was amazing to see oppressed people in general get into platforms and find ways to raise the voice and bring awareness to issues, it's also easy to spot how most of these voices still very white when the topic is not about racism. And this reflects on how the conversations are progressing, how issues are heard, how it is solved, even how moderation on internet platforms works, even on Era. Because of that, I started to dig black feminism channels and debates, black LGBTQ channels, etc, and some stories are really awful to hear, how white feminists and white LGBTQ still treat black people. We like to think everyone holds hands together in the same boat, but that's not happening. Even during elections, the major voice of progressives, Bernie, has answers to issues that affect women and LGBTQ groups, but when asked about issues that affects directly and only blacks, he has no answers ready.
That said, I understand where most of criticism on Chappelle is coming from, but I think most of this criticism still coming from white people, and some of his metaphors and pokes about white privilege are lost in translation. And I think it would be really nice to see criticism coming from black LGBTQ, black feminists, that are involved on debates about white supremacy on their own groups.
The alphabet car was a good, insightful bit and then he had to ruin it all with the chinaman part at the end. Completely tone deaf, not to mention unintelligent, which is not a quality I associated with Dave in the past.As a B I have to admit, even though the show was not super deep, the LGBTQ metaphor was in point
that obama story was the best thing in the whole special. worth waiting till the very end for that.
it really is dave at his best. he's an exceptional storytellerGreat story. Too bad the special didn't have more of that level of story telling.
I think it's like an sub-episodeHow are you guys getting this epilogue? I watched the entire thing from start to finish, credits and all, and I didn't get that. It just stops and recommends me other movies...
I feel like some people here intentionally exclaim their excitement to specifically hurt trans folx.
How are you guys getting this epilogue? I watched the entire thing from start to finish, credits and all, and I didn't get that. It just stops and recommends me other movies...
Like seriously. The MJ stuff. The Anthony Bourdian stuff. The transphobic stuff. Just so much garbage and mean-spited-ness. Disappointing is definitely a word.All the praise I'm seeing Chappelle get here is really disappointing. Reading more and more of what he says in it, just, what the fuck. He doesn't sound any better than a random Twitter edgelord, but he knows how to be funny while being one so it's considered okay I guess. Ugh.
Region you're in?
Here in Canada, after the end of the special, Netflix has the epilogue recommended next
Got it.
I'm black, and I asked about you been white because sometimes, among my white friends, or random posts on internet (including Era), if the person is white and left wing, or part of a group fighting against the right wing and conservatives, it seems like something is missing on translation when someone bring up hipocrisy and white privilege in a non-straight-male group, like Chappelle have been doing with his latest specials.
In most recent years, at the same time it was amazing to see oppressed people in general get into platforms and find ways to raise the voice and bring awareness to issues, it's also easy to spot how most of these voices still very white when the topic is not about racism. And this reflects on how the conversations are progressing, how issues are heard, how it is solved, how moderation on internet platforms works, even on Era. Because of that, I started to dig black feminism channels and debates, black LGBTQ channels, instead of open groups, and some stories are really awful to hear, how white feminists and white LGBTQ still treat black people. We like to think everyone holds hands together in the same boat, but that's not happening. Even during elections, the major voice of progressives, Bernie, has answers to issues that affect women and LGBTQ groups, but when asked about issues that affects directly and only blacks, he has no answers ready.
That said, I understand where most of criticism on Chappelle is coming from, but I think most of this criticism still coming from white people, and some of his metaphors and pokes about white privilege are lost in translation. And I think it would be really nice to see criticism coming from black LGBTQ, black feminists, that are involved on debates about white supremacy on their own groups.
I feel there are a lot of perspectives out there, including plenty from
Those groups you named, I'm really just offering mine. As that is all I can do.
He's a brilliant comedic artist from a technical standpoint, no doubt about it. Few have ever done it better. But for me, unfortunately, it now comes with a person behind it that has lost touch with what made him more than just a technically good comedian. At least to me...And I think for others too.
For me it was almost like two separate shows. The back end was classic Chappelle. The guy in his element talking about social dynamics that were very front and center when he was coming up in the comedy world. Where he often surprised in his acts with incredibly thought-provoking elements peppered into crowd-pleasing bits that subverted expectations. While the first half was a guy to me that applied little of that thought process once central to his acts, demonstrating not just an apathy to the social justice inflections that came after that period, but hostility. A guy that instead of examining his own blindspots coming up, something he was incredibly adept at getting others to see in his heyday, he is now the curmudgeon comedian trying to justify his blindspots in an almost manipulative fashion at times.
When the "jokes" you laugh at and praise make fun of trans people, and are actively harmful towards them, and when you continue to praise even though the harm he does has been explained here, I think it's pretty fair to assume you don't care much for trans people.That's rather presumptuous. It couldn't just be that we're fans of his stand-up — we can't voice our enjoyment of watching something without it being secretly meant to harm others?
I don't assume that when people dislike something I enjoy that they're trying to target me. That just seems myopic and paranoid.
That's rather presumptuous. It couldn't just be that we're fans of his stand-up — we can't voice our enjoyment of watching something without it being secretly meant to harm others?
I don't assume that when people dislike something I enjoy that they're trying to target me. That just seems myopic and paranoid.
It was great, really good!
It kind of remind me a bit of Aziz as well.
It's another racially discriminated dude calling out discrepancies and false equivalence on the left and why it can't move forward.
Same thing has been said in black communities and exemplify why blacks are feeling that the left will always fail them, that even if is fighting the right, still always in favor of white supremacy, just another side of the coin.
Edit: And blacks that feel this way are not wrong, that's exactly what happens with the left. I feel more like that everyday, and most of my friends as well.
Basically, why Trump still winning.