True to his word, there were no extended segments about transgender people. Instead, he jabbed at the community over and over, slipping them into unrelated sections as a running punchline.
I’ll admit that Chappelle is a virtuosic storyteller, but I heard these dog whistles loud and clear, and it spoiled the set for me. However, I’m not sure how much of the audience really understood that context. For those that follow pop culture news, Chappelle’s transphobia has been one of the biggest stories of the past few years.
But at least one attendee at the show — the guy sitting next to me — admitted to barely knowing anything about Chappelle. My Lyft driver was also clueless about the controversy, and so were several other people I spoke to recently. They only knew that Chappelle is a really funny comedian, and in a way, this set proved that they’re not wrong.
Controversial comedians these days often hide behind the defense that they’re just telling jokes, in the same way that disingenuous political commentators are “just asking questions.” I personally think that extraordinarily influential people like Chappelle should be held accountable for their words, especially if their job is literally just to get on stage and talk.
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