Dave Chappelle Slams Republicans Who ‘Weaponized’ His Transgender Jokes
In recent comedy specials, Dave Chappelle has made jokes about transgender people that have drawn a significant amount of controversy. After backlash to his 2021 special, The Closer, he doubled down in his 2023 special, The Dreamer. Chappelle said he didn’t like to see Republican lawmakers embrace his jokes, though. He believed they weaponized them.
Dave Chappelle has made controversial jokes about transgender people
After facing significant backlash for Chappelle’s jokes about trans people in The Closer, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told employees that they needed to respect the comedian’s creative freedom. GLAAD pushed back against the statement.
“Netflix has a policy that content ‘designed to incite hate or violence’ is not allowed on the platform, but we all know that anti-LGBTQ content does exactly that,” GLAAD said in a statement (per Variety). “While Netflix is home to groundbreaking LGBTQ stories, now is the time for Netflix execs to listen to LGBTQ employees, industry leaders, and audiences and commit to living up to their own standards.”
Dave Chappelle pushed back against Republicans who praised his jokes about transgender people
The Republican Party, which often supports anti-trans policies, embraced Chappelle’s jokes. He resents this.
“I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes,” he told NPR’s Newsmakers. “You know, I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. That’s not what I was doing.”
He said that while he was on Capitol Hill, Republican Lauren Boebert approached him for a picture. He said the caption on the photo bothered him.
“At first, it was CBC people,” he said. “Then here comes Lauren Boebert and she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ And I had already taken 40 pictures. I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody, but I didn’t know the phrase ‘I respectfully decline.’ So I just took the picture. And then she posted the picture before I could even get from there to the show and says something to the effect of, ‘Just two people that know that it’s just two genders.’ Just instantly, like, weaponized or politicized.”
He said he ripped her in his next set for the post.
“So I got to the arena, and I lit her a** up for doing that,” he said. “And she should never do that to a person like me.”
He also criticized Donald Trump
Chappelle also spoke about Donald Trump. He said that while there are things about him that are funny, it’s less amusing because he’s the president.
“Maybe if he wasn’t president, I’d think that was funny. Or maybe at times… I do think, you know, that that’s wearing thin,” Chappelle said. “There are funny things about him. Like, if I were to talk about him, it would be funny. But I think what he does is so consequential and so much of these things, you know, in my lifetime, I’ve never really seen anything of a phenomenon quite like — I’m not trying to be political, but it’s remarkable,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t know how funny it is.”
