Early in “The Dreamer,” Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special, the audience reacts deliriously to the first of his many jokes about LGBTQ people. Surveying the uproar he’s created, Chappelle exclaims, “Here we go!”
Really? Here? Again?
Why repeatedly antagonize a minority group that already encounters every form of discrimination and has begged him to stop?
Since his 2015 “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” the famed comedian has consistently used his Netflix specials to poke fun at those he calls “the alphabet people.” With every subsequent special — from “The Age of Spin” in 2017 to “Sticks and Stones” and “Equanimity” (also both 2017) to 2020’s “The Closer” — Chapelle has cast aspersions on this community. Each performance harks back to the previous performances’ controversies. To consume Chappelle’s art is to be consumed by the controversies triggered by Chappelle’s art!
And controversies there are! For nearly a decade, the virtuoso comic has been embroiled in countless scrums and running battles with the LGBTQ community. In “The Dreamer,” Chappelle shows no sign of surrender, let alone growth or wisdom born of experience.
Instead, he goes all in. He goes all out, he doubles down on a fight he clearly relishes. But it leads me to ask: Why repeatedly antagonize a minority group that already encounters every form of discrimination and has begged him to stop?
I have no definitive answer, just hunches. But all of my hunches lead me to the same conclusion: Chappelle’s anti-LGBTQ provocations are changing his comedy, his audience, and maybe even Chappelle himself.
Let’s begin with the joke that got us going in “The Dreamer.” The late Norm MacDonald, we are told, had invited Chappelle to the filming of the movie “Man in the Moon,” in which Jim Carrey played cryptic comedy icon Andy Kaufman. To Chappelle’s dismay, Carrey remained steadfastly in character while on set.
Chappelle sighs, “I was very disappointed because I…
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