Comedian Dave Chappelle didn't shy away from transgender jokes in his new Netflix special after the backlash to his jokes about gender identity in his 2021 stand-up show for the streaming giant.
In "The Dreamer," which debuted December 31 on the platform, Chappelle addressed the previous controversy while doubling down on his opinions about the transgender community.
In one story in the special that's gone viral on social media, Chappelle recounts when he visited Jim Carrey on the set of his 1999 movie, "The Man on the Moon." Carrey employed a "method" approach to portraying real-life comedian Andy Kaufman by remaining in character at all times, and Chappelle was told by the crew to address Carrey as "Andy" when he met him.
"I wanted to meet Jim Carrey and I had to pretend this n---a was Andy Kaufman all afternoon. And he was clearly Jim Carrey," he remarked. "I could look at him and I could see he was Jim Carrey. Anyway, I say all that to say that's how trans people make me feel."
The comedian's candid remarks went viral on social media, earning him praise from conservative commentators and scorn from the left.
"Precisely. Dave Chappelle gets it," former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines commented.
"Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special is out, and he’s telling the truth about trans," conservative activist "Billboard Chris" praised while sharing the clip, which garnered over 10 million views in 24 hours.
Afterward, Chappelle joked that he wasn't going to talk about trans people more than "three or four times" in the special, because it "wasn't worth the trouble."
Instead, he said he would mock "handicapped" people because "they’re not as organized as the gays and I love punching down."
Chappelle also claimed he was actually trying to mend his relationship with the transgender community by writing a play about a Black transgender woman "whose pronoun is, sadly, n---a."
"It’s a tear-jerker. At the end of the play she dies of loneliness [because] White liberals don’t know how to speak to her. It’s sad," he joked.
Chappelle also made light of California prisons allowing inmates to be placed according to their gender identity, saying he planned to identify as a woman if he was ever arrested, so he could get placed in a women's prison.
He also commented on how he was attacked on stage by an LGBQ assailant in 2022 who was "triggered" by the comic's material. Chappelle mocked the media's reaction to the assault, saying that he "could have been raped" by his attacker, who identified as bisexual.
Some entertainment outlets, however, ripped the comedian's Netflix special for its heavy focus on gender identity jokes.
"Maybe it’s time for Dave Chappelle to try some new material," Variety suggested, with the headline, "Dave Chappelle’s Obsession With Mocking Trans People Continues in New Netflix Special ‘The Dreamer’: ‘I Love Punching Down’."
"Dave Chappelle’s ‘The Dreamer’ Proves He’s Obsessed With Trans People," Rolling Stone blasted.
"Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Special Proves He’s Learned Nothing," journalist Sean L. McCarthy wrote in The Daily Beast.
"It feels so frustrating to sit and watch comedians with the stature of Chappelle and [Ricky] Gervais devote so much of their time and energy to bullying the LGBTQ+ community when they could be doing anything else on stage. And then they have the temerity to question us, the audience, for not laughing with them," McCarthy criticized.
In 2021, the comic got into hot water with the left for his jokes about transgender folks in his Netflix special, "The Closer." Activists urged Netflix to drop the program and a small group of Netflix employees also staged a walkout in protest.
Chappelle responded to the backlash at the time by declaring he was "not bending to anybody's demands."
"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," he said in a video posted to his Instagram, before adding certain "conditions" needed to be met before meeting.
Chappelle also blamed "corporate interests" for efforts to cancel him following the backlash over the special, and claimed that the LGBTQ community had actually been "loving and supporting" towards him.
Fox News' Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
