Dave Chappelle Responds To Critics: ‘It’s About Corporate Interests, And What I Can Say, And What I Cannot Say’
Patrick Howley
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Comedian Dave Chappelle has responded to the campaign waged against him by some transgender activists pertaining to jokes he made about transgender people in his Netflix comedy special “The Closer,” which Chappelle dedicated to the late comedian Norm MacDonald. Chappelle previously left his hit Comedy Central sketch show in 2005 amid a dispute with network executives in which Chappelle felt he was being treated unfairly financially. Though Chappelle is pretty evidently not a political conservative, his stand against cancel culture is making him a champion among people on the Right who are beginning to realize that their own Republican Party is too co-opted and weak to stand up to cancel culture.
“I said what I said, and boy I heard what you said. My God, how could I not? You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix. Well, it seems like I’m the only one that can’t go to the office anymore,” Dave Chappelle stated to an ovation at an onstage gig.
Chappelle said that the media framing the controversy as a conflict between him and the LGBT community is not accurate. “It’s about corporate interests, and what I can say, and what I cannot say,” Chappelle said. Chappelle noted that he is getting cancelled by film festivals as he tries to promote a forthcoming film, and that an executive at Netflix is the only one in Hollywood who has yet to cancel him.
“To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience. But you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands. And if you want to meet with me, I’d be more than willing to, but I have some conditions. First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing, at a time of my choosing, and thirdly you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny,” Chappelle said, referring to Gadsby, a female comedienne who has agitated against Chappelle.
“You have to answer the question: Am I cancelled or not?,” Chappelle asked the audience, which roared “No!”
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