Should I watch Dave Chapelle's The Closer?

So there is a lot of controversy over DC's latest comedy special, The Closer. Are you familiar with the controversy surrounding this special? Should I watch it? Am I supporting DC if I watch the show? Is that a bad thing? Thoughts?

if you enjoy chapelle just watch it and make your own mind up. don't let all the hysteria influence you one way or another. personally i didn't think the trans stuff was particularly offensive, or even that funny. it was more just him being open about his feelings.

there was a bit of a guilty laugh moment for me when he was talking about what he saw as facts. he said (paraphrasing) every single person in this room came from between the legs of a woman. that's a fact. now i'm not saying trans women aren't women but... well, you know... and gave a little cheeky grin to the crowd.

as he did it the camera panned behind him and showed the audience all laughing, apart from two people sat at the front with faces like thunder. that joke did not seem to go down well with them two lol

Chapelle's current output is but a shadow of what it was.

If you want to watch it, just do it, that's the only way you can have an informed opinion. I don't find it particularly outrageous, the only offensive thing is the average quality of the writing. It's an exploitation of outrage culture because it can't stand on its own as a great stand up.

I was thinking why exactly, maybe being a 50 something millionaire could justify the drop in quality but Bill Burr is about the same age and his writing just gets better and better.

So anyway, just watch it. Nothing terrible or great about it.

Watched his original stuff, and perhaps it's a cultural thing (including race) but compared to British comedy found it quite inferior. Apply this to most American comedy not just Chapelle.

Having said that, still a decent time, but would agree decent ok stand-up, nothing earth-shattering.

ATM it's basically the screeching Tumblr far-lefty check your privilege dyed hair crew that's elevating him as the most important figure in the history of the world, ever and far-right "Oh he's black but on our side!" weirdos getting all sexually excited.

Like you say, don't watch it? Problem solved.

Ah, but he's cause a mass hysteria of people attacking trans people. Even though he straight up goes into detail about his friendship with one pushed to suicide humanizing them to a far greater degree than the proposed screechers banging their pulpits.

I've always thought Dave's standup is 'OK" to be honest. He's shined in the sketch realm where I think he has a much better vision and execution. I watched it and it does have some funny moments. But I do have to wonder if he purposely picked these topics to get attention. His 'Terf' stuff was just kind of bland. I'm a guy that LOVES racy humor and grew up watching Carlin, Pryor, Bill Hicks, etc. But the thing about them was that they were tactful about their topics. I think Carlin had a point where he said that you punch up, not down. I think people, institutions, social norms, should all be open to criticism and satirized. But it takes nuance and context to truly nail it. Something Dave certainly didn't do with 'The Closer'.

It's almost like he sees the plight of the gay and trans community, along with the black community, as a zero sum game. While being oblivious that you can be a part of all three communities at the same time. If you're devoting your time to mocking the small child on the playground you should probably re-evaluate what point you're trying to make.

I had no problem with it. It wasn't as bad as people are trying to make it seem. But, it's also not nearly as funny as his earlier work.

Wasn't his greatest special but I did laugh throughout it. I repeatedly view Killing Me softly and still laugh at it.

I've enjoyed Chappelle's standup recently (especially the Netflix specials) but I haven't seen this yet.

I wouldn't be worried about the controversy; it's all manufactured. It's important to remember it's a whole standup routine and while I am sure he has a good chunk about the "controversial" part, it is standup comedy and it is Dave Chappelle so...I'm not really sure what people were expecting.

In the end it's all for a laugh and that means it shouldn't be taken seriously; it might hit a little close to home at times, but that's part of the risk. It's like when someone makes a joke about cancer and someone is like "Oh bro you can't do that my mom died from cancer" and that sucks but at the same time, it's cancer dude, EVERYONE has lost someone to cancer let's just have a laugh; not a laugh at your dead mom, but at the sad truth that cancer is a fact of life....let's take some of it's power away from it.

Likewise with the whole transgender thing, we as a society seem to have given a disproportionate amount of power to a fraction of a percent of the population, so it's kind of necessary to take the piss out of them once in a while. Cis, straight, trans, gay...at the end of the day, we are all human, all fallible, all nothing special.

I think that's peak Dave Chappelle right there. Great special.

I'm glad the feminist haven't gotten their way around to that one yet either. The whole "You might not be a whore. But you are wearing a whore's uniform" bit is classic.

I think you could argue that doing a routine around the trans community is punching up. They seem to wield a lot of power.

Talking in generalities here, like I said I haven't seen the standup yet.

Maybe cancer was a bit tactless on my part? I apologize.

How about fat jokes? I'm fat. I laugh at fat jokes. If Chappelle did a bit that was 5 or so minutes of fat jokes I'd probably laugh at that. If his whole special was about fat jokes then that would feel a bit like beating a fat, dead horse.

How much of his standup was about trans people? And was he going "Trans people are dumb. I hate trans people. Trans people are lame haha they're so stupid and funny" or was he making a point while doing it and doing it somewhat well?

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I don't like it when people can't appreciate a bit of self-deprecation. Lawyers that get offended by lawyer jokes, fat people that think Fat Bastard from Austin Powers was inexcusable, etc...just relax, and if it bugs you, don't watch.

There's a fine line between making a joke and then making fun of someone, between having a sense of humor about an issue and being a bully; and I've never really seen Chappelle cross that line.

Do you like Dave Chappelle? Then yes.

Do you not like him? Then no.

Do you have no clue who Dave Chappelle is and like to laugh? Then yes.

Do you have no clue who Dave Chappelle is and don't like to laugh? Then no.

:P

I just want to watch it to see what all the fuss is a about. I was working at the theater when some people were making a stink about Bruce Lee's depiction in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood like it was some shameful yellow-face and they wanted refunds after the movie. Maybe he did say something unforgivably offensive and maybe that is indeed case, but we also live in a day where everybody mobs over nothing too.

I watched it and think the whole controversy is stupid. He's not against trans rights, he just doesn't believe a person can change their biological gender.

The part where he talks about trans people is actually in relation to a good friend he had who was trans. It boggles my mind that someone can come away from watching that segment and think it's anti-trans. Dave proclaims to be a transphobe, and he makes a few jokes that could be offensive to trans people, but the overall message is anything but anti-trans.

I watched it and actually liked it. I decided to just watch it without paying any mind to the coverage of it and I expected something irredeemably offensive to happen during it. Rather this is him addressing his past controversies and gotta say I think this is just the worst kinds of cancel culture drama.

That bit about his trans comedian friend who killed herself after the online abuse she endured for sticking up for Dave Chappelle really makes clear who the real monsters can be sometimes.

Haven't watched the whole special yet, but have watched the controversial trans part (I think it's about 15-20 mins long). It's a bit different from his usual material, not really joking around as much as he usually does. But instead he tells an interesting personal story about a trans person he met and became friends with, and how her life came to a tragic end, while throwing in some jokes along the way (and at the end too). It's less laugh-out-loud comedy, but more subtle tragicomedy, which I think he pulls off really well here.

As for the controversy, it seems pretty clear to me that most of the people getting offended (and for that matter, many right-wingers coming to his defense) haven't actually watched the controversial part in question.

He was much better doing sketch comedy than he is doing stand up imo.

Is there British comedy still? I grew up watching a lot of BritCom but for the last 10 years (or more) all I see is talk shows with comedians trying to be funny.

Not from last time watched. 98% are cloned unfunny panel shows for cheap and easy to produce television. Far left comedy as well, no edge. Boring.

Guess lucked out growing up in the 1990's. Stuff like Brass Eye, Alan Partridge, Harry Enfield, Fast Show etc.. good shit.

Only British comedy recently that really enjoyed and was legit good was Inbetweeners.

But all subjective, sure to modern teens and what not a lot of stuff I watched would just make them *shrug*

I thought this special was rather sad. Felt like a tribute to his friend.

So I watched this the other day for the first time. I don't really agree with his take on trans people, but that's not really my problem with this special. There's two major problems I have, first and foremost he has a very slow burn getting to the good stuff which in my opinion is the story about the grandmother who has a trans grandchild, and the trans comedian who opened for him one night. Those come near the end, and Dave makes you deal with a lot of set up to get there and the jokes he tells during that set up just aren't as good and rarely made me laugh. Like, for the the first thirty minutes or so I rarely cracked a smile at best, and that's a long time to wait during a comic's stand up special to be having a good time. As always, people can feel free to disagree with me on that.

The second thing I have a problem with is that I cannot square the rant at he did at the end of a previous stand up special with his take in this special on trans people. In a previous special he, very angrily, told people about his whole deal with Comedy Central and The Chapelle Show. All about how he never got paid what he felt he should, why he quit, and why Netflix playing episodes of the his old show made him feel bad. He requested that they stop doing so, and, out of respect for him (and probably because he became a big money make for Netflix, but that's my own speculation) they stopped doing so, because it made him feel bad. Now what I can't square this with is this special where he goes on rants about how his stand up clearly has made trans people feel bad, but he keeps doing it anyways. Now, here's the weird thing, he lays out logic for why he feels the way he does about trans people, and why he sides with the TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and it actually makes objectively logical sense to me, particularly when he pointed out that he would be kinda pissed if BET gave an award for best black person to Eminem. Yeah, I fucking get that, and hell, I kind of agree with it, but I can't square his takes with his previous special's rant about The Chapelle Show because both things come down to people's feelings. It's ultimately very complicated and I can't see both without thinking Dave is kind of a hypocrite with regards to how he makes trans people feel and that's despite me agreeing with his logic at various points. On top of all that he clearly states that you need to have empathy for people at one point in this show, but it seems like he really doesn't for trans people, otherwise I doubt he would be doing this special in the first place.

That said, I clearly spent a lot of time thinking about this and it feel good to actually type it all out. I hope someone reads it and thanks and taking the time if you do.

Bro, the trans community does not wield power in the greater context. The trans community still struggles with basic misconceptions regarding their body, mind, and lives. More than half of this country sees them as mentally ill. This comment is monumentally out of touch with reality.

For what % of the population they make up, they seem to wield a lot of power. Or at least it would seem that way.

Admittedly I am sure most of that power only counts for much on the two coasts and some blue states, so I suppose it is partially out of context when I say it n the broad sense.

But if I were to, say, refuse to call someone by their preferred pronoun or whatever at work, I'd be fired for it or get a stern talking to. Not saying that it would be wrong, but it just seems like they've gained a lot of ground in the past 5 years.

I watched it and enjoyed it so much I actually watched all his other Netflix specials the next night. The people offended by it are just snowflakes looking for a reason to be offended as usual. It actually was quite funny and entertaining.

Coming back to that troll thread in political discussion, a lot of the public views body dysmorphia in general as an issue - it's the way we've been conditioned to react in schools, by TV talk shows, the popular press... I think it can be hard to adapt to the idea that, in some cases, it's a healthy state of being.

Re. punching up: my own view is that amalgamated (is that the right word?) unions on the scale of LGBTQI evidently can seem overbearing to outsiders. Isn't it possible that their involvement might, at times, be counterproductive to breeding understanding for the disparate interests of their individual members?

Bolded: If the situation you're describing is the 'power' I think you need to take a step back and look at the broader picture. If someone has a preferred pronoun and you refuse to call them by it after repeated requests, it would be YOU who are being the jerk. I work with several trans people and it's a simple common courtesy that is easy to employ. I doubt we'd be having this same conversation if we switched out trans for other disadvantaged group and discussing impropriety at the work place.

Let's take a look at the higher rates of violence and abuse that the trans community has to deal with. That's the crap that still puts them below where they should be in our society. As you've noted, it's gotten better that last 5 years but it still has a ways to go.

I do agree that some LARGER elements of these groups can be counter productive to the movements they are trying to help. That's fairly common with most elements of movements where there's no central authority, there's bound to be some people with bad PR or even bad faith actors. Just look at BLM. That is a poster child for bad branding and poor messaging, while in my opinion, working towards a greater cause and better outlook.

Yeah I realized I was wrong when I wrote that but didn't have time to come around to it later.

Pretty simple: if someone called me "miss" when I clearly am a dude and prefer "mister", I'd get upset about, in the right, and others would be supportive of that. Trans people deserve that same right and privilege.

I think that is more or less what I am trying to get at with my earlier comments. It's not so much the trans community I think needs to be "punched up" at, but some of these organizations.

With that said, I don't think trans individuals should get caught in the crossfire and comedians should make sure if they do go after these communities, they don't go into bullying territory.

It's humour. It shouldn't be censored nor apologetic.