Dave Chappelle’s Defense of Louis C.K. Once Again Reveals Him As a Cruel and Out of Touch Comic

Dave Chappelle’s two new comedy specials debuted on Netflix on New Year’s Eve, closing out a comeback year for the renowned comedian who rose to the heights of his profession in the early 2000s and then walked away from Comedy Central and Chappelle’s Show, creating a mystique around him as an aloof but brilliant comedic mind whose social and artistic conscience came into conflict with the practical demands of the entertainment industry. Back in March, Chappelle released two other specials, all part of a Dave Chappelle Collection for Netflix that has been meant to revitalize his career.

But while Chappelle is definitely back in the entertainment universe once again, his 2017 return was most notable not for any particular jokes or bits that killed, but rather for his rather deliberate and defiant provocations towards women and LGBT people. This all came into stark relief in the second of the two hours of stand-up that were released on Sunday. He began by diving head-first into the recent wave of sexual harrassment scandals and before long arrived at his longtime colleague Louis C.K.. Chappelle downplayed the actions that C.K. has been accused of (and has admitted to) before full-on chastizing C.K.’s victims for not having the fortitude to stick it out in comedy.

“One lady said, Louis C.K. masturbated in front of me … ruined my comedy dreams. Well, then I dare say madam, you may have never had a dream. That is a brittle-ass spirit. You think if Louis C.K. jerked off in front of Dr. King, he’d be like, ‘I can’t continue this movement. I’m sorry, but the freedom of black people must be stopped.”

Chappelle then referred to another of C.K.’s victims, who he masturbated to while they were on the phone. “Bitch, you don’t know how to hang up the phone?!” Chappelle offered, incredulously.

You can almost see what Chappelle was going for: a darker-than-darkly comedic alternative viewpoint; an absurdist anti-take that runs counter to the overwhelming tide of recrimination against C.K. But what that minutes-long bit turned out to be was a closed-ranks defense of a fellow comedian (he begins the by downplaying C.K.’s actions as “Louie jizzed on his own stomach”) by someone without any interest in stepping out of his own perspective. You almost can’t blame him, considering his own perspective has been a brilliant and fertile place for Chappelle. His stand-up career and Chappelle’s Show were the delivery engines that brought his perspective — challenging, illuminating, incredulous — to the rest of us. For years, he was somebody whose jokes pulled back the curtain to something real and urgent and necessary.

Now, a decade or so removed from all that, Chappelle has returned as a man defiantly resentful of any attempts to change that perspective. His stand-up specials in March were criticized at the time for his attitude towards gay and transgender people. His trans material in particular revealed someone who resented being asked to look at notions of gender differently than he was used to. His material about the #MeToo movement feels similarly territorial. He tries to offer a blanket disclaimer at first: “Ladies, you are absolutely right. There you go.” But by the end of the bit, he’s angrily denigrating C.K.’s accusers for not having the strength to pursue comedy despite the sexual harrassment, ultimately contrasting this contemptible weakness with the strength of black people to endure hundreds of years of slavery and mistreatment. It’s an … ambitious segue, to be sure, but I can’t imagine too many people would call it a successful one.

You could say the same thing about Chappelle’s comeback so far. On CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage, Chappelle and John Mayer appeared to talk about their recent concert tour where they’re forbidding the audience to use cell phones, in order to preserve the artistic experience. But to hear Chappelle talk about it, the no-phones shows are a way to avoid “Gotcha Culture.” Said culture would translate to leaking videos of Chappelle’s jokes and put them before the court of public opinion. Is Outrage Culture a natural enemy of the freestyle, offensive-as-first-amendment-exercise type of comedy that Chappelle reveres? Yeah, there’s probably some truth in that. But increasingly, it feels like Chappelle — much the same as Jerry Seinfeld — is closing ranks around his comedy in an attempt to preserve his right to make the same old bitches-and-fags jokes that comedians have been making for decades if not longer.

All told, it’s a super bummer to experience as a fan of both Chappelle and comedy. That someone whose imagination created doors for other people to enter in and experience the world through his fresh and, yes, challenging perspective is now using that imagination to shut certain people out and denigrate their own experiences. “Comedy is saying mean things,” is how Chappelle kicked off his latest special. It’s a bummer that Chappelle now seems to think it ends there.

Stream Dave Chappelle: Equanimity on Netflix

Stream Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation on Netflix