Netflix
Rather than explore the blind spots within modern gender and racial thinking, the comedian’s latest special triples down on the phobia
‘I’m going all the way,” is Dave Chappelle’s refrain through this last in his run of Netflix specials. It’s a boast, of sorts: far from being cowed by the criticism (including transphobia and homophobia) of previous specials, he’s tripling down on that hot-potato content. After a palate-cleanser about his brush with coronavirus, the show mainlines our host’s relationship with women, transgender people and “the LGBTQ community”. He cracks abusive jokes about all of them, but this isn’t “punching down”, insists Chappelle who sees all these groups as more privileged than, and often racist against, black people.
Is there, in this tangle of shit-stirring, accusation and special pleading, any space left for light-heartedness? Plenty, if you’re Chappelle’s Detroit audience, who not only chuckle at but cheer his charmless tale of beating up a lesbian in a nightclub. But I found the show heavy going.