Cancel Comedy
I debated for the last few days if I should write about this. I mean, do we really need another think-piece from a white dude about Dave Chappelle and the people upset with him? Probably not. But here I am, typing away and since I’ve already started I might as well finish it. And to be clear, I am trying to defend Chappelle or make anyone change their minds. You can think about him whatever you want.
Like a lot of you, I’ve been reading all sorts of things on the internet about Chappelle’s latest (and last) standup special on Netflix. I heard that it’s transphobic (like people said after his last couple of specials) and that it’s mean-spirited. One person even went so far as to blame him for just about every murder and suicide of every trans person. I mean, look at what some people on Twitter are saying about it:
I decided to sit down and watch it for myself. And, as was the case with his previous specials and the claims of transphobia, the people shouting the loudest about it had clearly not watched it. It’s one thing to actually watch a work of art and then put together a thoughtful critique about it. That’s totally legit. But to join a mob of people online who are yelling about something they have not seen nor understand is absurd.
And look, don’t watch it if you don’t want to. I don’t care. But don’t go online and tweet a dozen times about what a transphobe Chappelle is if you haven’t done the work to see if that’s actually the case. Just because a blue checkmark online says something doesn’t make it true. Let’s have a look at one of the actual bits that people are upset about.
Now, the first thing I noticed is that he seems to be joking about being “Team TERF”. Maybe he’s not but let’s keep in mind this is a “comedy” special. The second thing I noticed was that he seems to be concerned about how the trans community has responded to him. If they can “cancel” JK Rowling they could cancel him. And whether or not “canceling” is a thing or not is a conversation for another day.
One of the great ironies I’ve noticed emerging over the past decade or so (and this is especially true of the youths) is how much they claim to hate labels and yet need to label EVERYTHING. I am not simply a dude. I am a privileged white cis-gendered male who’s in a hetero-normative relationship who presents as male. And while I agree with that description (I guess) it is not one I would choose for myself. You know who I am? I’m Matt. That’s it. My sexual preference is Matt (not that I want to have sex with myself but it’s whatever Matt finds attractive). Just like you don’t like to be labeled with codifiers you don’t feel comfortable with, I don’t either. But hey, “it’s the ‘90s” as we used to say. So I roll with it.
Why is it hateful to say that TERFs might have a legitimate viewpoint? I fear we are overusing the phobic and hateful terms too much, almost to a point where they are bereft of meaning. While I may not agree with them I don’t think it’s hateful to say that a woman who is born a woman and remains a woman has a different life experience than a woman who was born as a man and later transitions. I don’t really care what you call yourself or want to be called. I’ll go along with it so long as it’s legit. And by that, I don’t mean you have to pass some made-up test of mine. I just mean that if you’re going to be an asshole and say you’re transitioning to a penguin and you identify as a penguin to make an idiotic point you better eat raw fish and live on an iceberg. You dig?
Having a different viewpoint about an issue that’s only begun to be discussed and understood in our culture and society isn’t a hateful act. At no point does Chappelle question the legitimacy of a trans person’s existence or even deny that have a right to be who they are. In fact, he spends a good deal of time in his special explaining that 1) his problem was not with trans people, it was white people; 2) that he had a very good friend who was trans. Now, this is a bit like a white person being like “I can’t be racist, I have a Black friend!” But if you watch the special and hear him talk about her, and how she was bullied and harassed online for deigning to defend Chappelle, and how that probably led to her suicide, you might have a different perspective. Here’s her last post:
This is a man who lost a friend partially because she defended him. And what does her family think of him? They support him as well.
If any of the people who are online complaining about Dave Chappelle actually watched his specials and tried to look beyond their initial biased reactions to what he says, they would see something different. But it is easy, convenient, and rewarding to constantly play the victim. I’m not just talking about snowflake libs here either. Some of the biggest whiners online are supposedly tough conservatives who cry over just about every imagined grievance possible. This isn’t a left-right thing. It’s a symptom of how the internet and social media networks have broken our brains.
Of course, there are some things that deserve to be treated as heinous and “cancelable”. Louis CK’s behavior with women was appalling. There are many, many other examples to pick from. But I’m not sure Chappelle is on par with that kind of stuff. He’s made fun of white people plenty. I don’t think he should be canceled for that. And that brings us to another aspect of his latest special that I find insightful: the concept of punching down.
It’s long been said that comedy only works when you punch up, not down, meaning that if you kick people who are already marginalized, you’re just piling on. I think there is a lot of truth in that. But being part of a marginalized group isn’t a free pass to never face criticism. Or be the subject (NOT the object) of someone’s humor.
The stuff I posted above from Hollis Black is horrendous. It’s terrible that they would be subjected to such treatment, especially by the comedy community. And it sucks that they feel like their existence is being challenged and questioned. But do you know who they memorialized a few weeks before Chappelle’s special came out? Norm MacDonald.
This is a man who made TONS of gay jokes. In his act. In his movies. Norm even defended Shane Gillis when he was fired from SNL for saying racist and homophobic things on a podcast many times. See:
But does Hollis object to this? I don’t know for sure. They certainly didn’t mention it in any of their posts memorializing Norm. My point in this is not to play GOTCHA with some random person on Twitter. That’s a losing game. What I want to show is that what’s funny is not a static thing. There are a lot of white people today telling a Black man what’s OK for him to talk about. Who do they think they are to do that? And that was a big part of Chappelle’s point. It’s not a trans thing. It’s a white thing.
One of the behaviors I work on with my therapist is seeing the world in gray, as opposed to black and white. It’s as much a part of my mental makeup as it is part of being in the culture we have in 2021. You don’t see a lot of gray anymore. Everything is the worst/best ever. There’s so much hyperbole and superlative language that some words are beginning to lose meaning. How can a society be so outraged so often? And, granted, I’m speaking from a place of privilege. So grains of salt all around. But I do think there is a rot that’s formed in our minds when it comes to how extreme we have become. If everything is outrageous then nothing is.
As I said, it’s easy to go online and write a trite cancellation of someone. To get in on the mob scene and feel really vindicated and justified. Like you actually did something. But in reality, all you did was send a couple million zeros and ones through glass tubes. At best, you made someone delete their account. At worst, you bullied a woman into killing herself.
All this “activism” and outrage would be better suited for real change. There are lots of things that need fixing before Dave Chappelle. And if you aren’t going to take the time to actually watch the thing you’re supposedly super mad about, I don’t think anyone can help you find happiness. In the end, I think it’s good we’re having these conversations (so long as they’re actual conversations). I think people are learning about each other. That’s good!
I’m going to wrap this up with a clip from Chappelle’s special. The point of his message here is to demonstrate how far out of whack things have gotten when it comes to manufactured outrage.
To be clear, DaBaby’s comments were terrible. Chappelle also said as much. But when words get you canceled and murder doesn’t, our priorities might be a little askew. Outrage can be rewarding for those who feel justified. But I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
What do you think?