No, Dave Chappelle, crudely mocking vulnerable groups isn’t funny

Known for his stand-up comedy shows, comedian Dave Chappelle has received major backlash for his Netflix special, “The Closer,” which premiered on Oct. 5. While Chappelle built his career on boundary-pushing offensive jokes, his recent digs at the LGBTQ+ community have been pinned by critics for going too far.

Despite this backlash, Chappelle has not backed down or apologized. In fact, he did the opposite: In a 5-minute video on Instagram, he stated that he was willing to meet with the LGBTQ+ employees at Netflix, but he would not take back his jokes or even apologize for them.

As someone who began his comedy career in the early 2000s, Chappelle developed his style in a time where there was far less criticism for discriminatory jokes. His skits have included jokes about almost every race, class and community; being African American allowed Chappelle to get away with making the fun of the Black community more than he would be able to if he were another race. 

However, since Chappelle identifies as a cisgender, heterosexual male, he is not a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Chappelle lacks understanding of their community and fails to realize that his jokes play into existing stereotypes, which damage their reputation. This contributes to an environment in which people believe certain jokes about the trans community are acceptable, when in reality they are offensive. In addition, his jokes fail to acknowledge the hardships people of the LGBTQ+ community have endured.

Because Chappelle developed his career around cracking jokes about his own community, it is perhaps easy to see why Chappelle thought it acceptable to target the LGBTQ+ community.

But the problem with his approach is that such jokes and such dehumanization contribute to a climate that fosters discrimination and violence against this group. Of course, expecting someone to change after nearly 20 years is a lot to ask for, especially since he fears he may lose his audience if he changed his style. 

Regardless, Chappelle should be considerate of the rapidly changing LGBTQ+ community: While he shouldn’t change his comedic style revolving around his own community, he should tread carefully around subjects that he isn’t fully educated about  if he wants to continue his successful comedic career.