When Chappelle’s Show was initially airing, I was in my early childhood, so I don’t remember much of the show itself. Still, I do remember how much laughter it brought my family and others in my childhood environment. In my middle school years, I was able to catch some episodes on Comedy Central after school and finally see what everyone was talking about at school. Not only was he hilarious, but his comedy was outspoken, and he wasn’t afraid to make fun of influential figures and organizations. At the end of Chappelle’s Show’s first episode, a skit features one of Chappelle’s many controversial characters, Clayton Bigsby, a blind black man who was raised to be a white man and had a significant influence on the “White Power Movement.” The skit’s concept and overuse of the N-word shocked Americans across the country in 2002 and put Dave Chappelle on track to become one of the finest comedians. I respected Chappelle’s comedy because it was funny and satirical, especially on the treatment of black Americans. However, for the past few years, my respect has weakened because of his constant targeting of the transgender community, and his latest Netflix special, The Closer, was the last straw for me and many others. I recognize Dave Chappelle as one of the greatest comedians of the 21st century, but his attempts to poke fun at the trans community have only brought harm to them. While some jokes were okay, most of his jokes seem to be coming from a place of purposeful ignorance.

Before I get to the trans content, I want to mention some of Chappelle’s other jokes about the LGBTQ community. Chappelle wanted to “correct” the misconception that black people were overtly homophobic by saying that black people are just jealous of the LGBTQ community because of their social progress. Even though it is true that the social acceptance rate of LGBTQ people in America and the world is constantly increasing, the data is mainly referring to the white and more privileged populations of those communities, which Chappelle and many others seem to always overlook. Black queer and trans people are viciously targeted for hate crimes. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 44 trans people were killed in 2020, and as of now 43 were killed in 2021, the majority of them being black and brown people. Not only that but there are state laws that specifically target trans people, with some of them allowing people to get away with murdering them without any sort of accountability. So yes, in some ways the LGBTQ movement is making progress, but there is still racism, transphobia, misogyny, and other forms of discrimination and bigotry that are overlooked in that same movement. As a black queer trans person myself, there have been multiple incidences where I was faced with these forms of bigotry in claimed “safe spaces.”In order to keep me safe, I had to pretend that certain jokes and conversations didn’t bother me and had to remain in uncomfortable positions for hours and even days. Does Chappelle know what it’s like to hide from your own community for your own wellbeing? And, unfortunately, he probably does and he knows that it’s not a fun experience.  As Chappelle moves into his commentary about trans people, he makes some transphobic remarks along with contradictory statements.

After thunderous applause following his claim of being a feminist, Chappelle gives a warning that the trans community will come after him after what he was about to say. He starts by talking about the bathroom laws in North Carolina and to my surprise, he was actually against them. Chappelle admits that if a woman walked into a men’s bathroom that it would be weird, uncomfortable, and even asks who the laws are really benefiting, which was surprising to hear considering his past track record. In his previous special, Sticks & Stones, he attempted to sympathize with trans people by saying that it would be weird if he was born in the wrong body, but instead of changing his gender, he changed his race, which implies that being trans is similar to performing blackface, which is highly offensive. A popular belief among transphobes is that trans people are mocking the gender they are portraying in order to do perverted actions. As much hate, ridicule, and agony we endure, I don’t think anyone would want to be trans just to be a joke. If Chappelle had done his research he would know the difference, but obviously, he doesn’t care enough to try to do a simple Google search. When he started talking about J.K. Rowling and her infamous transphobic interview that shattered the hearts of millions, my own heart began to race. It was the moment of truth. No more implications or assumptions: just a clear, honest, answer…and he gave us the worst possible one.  When Chappelle yelled that he was “Team TERF(Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist)”, I didn’t know how I felt.  I wasn’t necessarily offended, but I was disappointed. To be more clear, I expected him to say this, but at the same time, I wish he did better. To support his claim, Chappelle states that every human being has been birthed by a woman and brings up Caitlyn Jenner winning Glamour’s Woman of the Year Award and being the runner-up for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015. The statement about birth is likely a reference to the medical community’s decrease in the usage of “woman” to describe people who give birth, which is meant to be more inclusive towards people like trans men and others who do not want to be called “woman.” Even though this issue is not included in my personal experiences, I imagine it must be pretty awkward and uncomfortable for non-women to associate themselves with “women’s” groups in order to receive the services they need to survive. So no, not everyone is birthed by a woman. On the Caitlyn Jenner situation, I do agree that she did not deserve most of her accolades, but for different reasons. While Chappelle focused on whether Jenner’s transition made her eligible, I was more focused on her class and status. Even though transitioning in modern society is a struggle within itself, Jenner’s decades of fame, power, and wealth gave her a type of support where most of those societal obstacles were nonexistent in her reality. As mentioned before, Chappelle is known for calling out influential people, and it would’ve been a great moment to call Jenner out on her privilege, but he instead fell into the same old transphobic rhetoric.

The last section of this special involves a trans comedian named Daphne Dorman, who Chappelle claimed was a friend of his. In summary, Chappelle used her as a token friend to show his audience that he wasn’t really transphobic, which in my opinion backfired. He says that Dorman was a huge fan of his and laughed at all of his jokes, even the ones that others criticized as transphobic. He uses Dorman’s reactions to rationalize his belief that his jokes weren’t transphobic, trans people were just being hyper-sensitive, and even goes as far as to say that she was more a part of his “tribe” than she was with the trans community. Did Chappelle ever consider that since he is a famous comedian, and Dorman was a newbie, that she may have been kissing up to him? Chappelle seems to have issues with context, and he still manages to mess it up with the last bits of the show. He reveals that Dorman committed suicide and follows up with two horrible jokes about her gender, which again he says were okay because “Daphne would’ve loved it.” Even if Daphane did genuinely like his jokes, that doesn’t mean it won’t offend other people. It is both puzzling and disappointing that one of the greatest comedians of the 21st century would weave a narrative such as this.

Since The Closer will be Chappelle’s last show for a while, he probably won’t be responding to any criticism any time soon, or ever. Instead of trying to mend his history with the trans community, which he said he was going to do in the special, he only made it worse. I try not to give up on my favorites but this is it for me. As a black trans person, I am used to being discriminated against directly and indirectly so this is nothing new. As Chappelle says, empathy goes both ways, but he will never truly grasp what that truly means.