Synopsis
Dave Chappelle takes on gun culture, the opioid crisis and the tidal wave of celebrity scandals in this defiant stand-up special.
2019 Directed by Stan Lathan
Dave Chappelle takes on gun culture, the opioid crisis and the tidal wave of celebrity scandals in this defiant stand-up special.
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Maybe it is the fact that I am not an edgy teenager anymore, but being controversial and edgy for the sake of being edgy or as some convoluted attempt at humor isn't funny to me. And that is all this comedy special is. Dave Chappelle says something controversial or just really fucking shitty and people laugh. It isn't ever even a joke. Instead he just pretty much says "I don't like trans people" to thunderous applause.
He jokes so much about the LGBTQ community and puts his opinions about them first and foremost. THEN, later on in the special he is talking about abortion and says that if you have a dick you shouldn't have a say. I…
15
"Damn, people criticized the reactionary nature of my recent comedy and instead of maybe taking it into account or addressing it in the uncomfortable yet potent material that I usually do, I'll act like a chinese man on stage and compare gender politics to the alphabet. I'm a comedy legend and I can't do anything wrong!"
- Dave Chappelle.
There is Dave Chappelle the observer and Dave Chappelle the pundit.
Dave Chappelle the observer is one of the most gifted storytellers on the planet, with a sharp eye for detail and for the absurdity of social convention. This is the Chappelle that made his mark with two specials and a sketch comedy show at the beginning of this century.
Dave Chappelle the pundit is a rich guy who lets his (many) resentments and prejudices get the better of him.
This special has too little of the former, and too much of the latter.
Love reading the comments about this one. Look, Dave is not just a comedian, his whole existence over the years has become a symbol for free speech and artistic autonomy, he's an icon, one of the few remaining people in show business that are not afraid to speak their mind. I appreciate this so much. I love watching people trying to put him in boxes, trying to cancel him with every new special he puts out there, failing miserably. The joke is on us, he's holding a big mirror in our faces telling us how fucked up we are without giving a single shit and he's right. Thanks for existing, thanks for being authentic and staying for something, giving us…
Man, I love Dave Chappelle. Legit one of the funniest mother fuckers on the planet. But this is the weakest content I’ve ever seen him perform. I live in eastern Kentucky so I’ve already heard a lot of this from racist old dudes. Call me a snowflake or whatever but being offensive for the sake of being offensive will never be funny. Dave is a better comedian than this.
By the time the jokes start landing the special is over. I’m sad the jumpsuit came out for this special.
I haven't laughed so hard in what seems like a goddamned eternity. This motherfucker had me rolling in the aisles. And I was at home, where there are no aisles. I had to actually build aisles to roll in them. That's how fucking funny this special was for me.
Do I "agree" with everything Chapelle says in this special? I don't know. The beauty of comedy is that you don't always know where the exaggeration is. But I love that someone had the nerve in these over-sensitive times to make light of everything from Finding Neverland to Cancel Culture to LGBT people to a whole host of other taboo subjects that it seemed for a while we would never hear…
otherworldly nihilism. an active distaste for human life. comes close to engaging with his own shortcomings a few times before driving them off a cliff and embracing the hate. it’s not Chappelle that’s my concern from watching this, it’s the crowd, sitting with rapturous glee every time Dave makes a joke designed to degrade marginalised people. looking into the crowd and seeing a swarm of audience members cackle at uninspired cruel transphobia is some kind of otherworldly hell, like watching the bubbles you’ve accumulated your whole life be burst, and having to reckon with the fact again that so many random people hate you. for the record, I don’t care if Chappelle is actually bigoted in his personal life, it…
So, after reading a bunch of hot takes on Twitter and a few mainstream reviews I've come to realise that Chappelle has succeeded at what he set out to do; piss everyone off without giving a shit.
The crux of this comedy special is that if you're a progressive you'll hate the first half of this special as Chappelle goes in on the MeToo movement, cancel culture and the LGBTQ community. I thought that a lot of the jokes were kinda stale and felt slightly outdated, maybe 5-6 years ago they would've left more of an impact. With that said, you'll probably enjoy his second half as he lays into gun culture, pro-lifers, and the opioid epidemic etc.
However, you…
Tissues? For all the triggered tears... For those who take dark humor as medicine, Dave's specials might be the cure. It can be a disease too, depending on who you ask but once more he pushes the envelope so hard.
Caution: Certain audience should keep a barf bag close while watching, you know in case a stick or stone hits them on the head and make them all fuzzy.
"I don't care either" - Chappelle.
Geez, the look how not politically correct I am crowd is worse than the look how politically correct I am crowd.
There are parts of this that are really funny but a lot of it is just standard shock humor that Michael Che and Anthony Jeselnik do better in my opinion. It feels like a lot of people were so psyched to defend this that what's getting lost is that a lot of these jokes are a bit hack-ish and unoriginal. For me, this is being highly overrated but to each their own.
Anyone bothered by this should avoid the podcast “Cum Town” like the plague and stick to late night talk shows. I can’t imagine taking anything he says in this seriously or actually believing your paranoid selective normalization arguments—that you always seem to fail effectively proving. Of course you can think the jokes are lame or lazy, that they’re hacky, and even that they’re structured poorly, but once we jump into the “think of the consequences” mindset or start equating the humor to real world morality—then you’ve just become a conservative in “woke” sheep’s clothing.