Dave Chappelle has addressed the backlash he’s received due to hisjokes about the transgender community, taking to his The Midnight Miracle podcast to clear the air.
Deadline reports that the comedian spoke about his canceled July 2022 comedy show at Minneapolis’ First Avenue, which was moved to Vasrity Theater nearby. Chappelle responded to the venue switch, describing himself as being “mad” and “upset” at the time. First Avenue explained its decision, stating it wanted to produce a “safe space” for its patrons.
However, the Mark Twain Prize-winner voiced his opinion on the cancellation, claiming the Trans community “wanted me to say something inflammatory,” with protestors outside the Varsity Theater allegedly egging his supporters waiting in line for the show.
“The trans [people] and their surrogates always say that my jokes are somehow gonna be the root cause of some impending violence that they feel is inevitable for my jokes,” The Closer comedian asserted. “But I gotta tell you, as abrasive as they were, the way they were protesting, throwing eggs at people, throwing barricades, cussing and screaming, [none of my fans] beat ’em up.”
“I was upset. I wasn’t mad that they canceled the show,” he said. “I was mad at the statement they released… You’re sorry? For booking me? What’s there to be sorry about is the position I was taking… I’m not even mad that they take issue with my work. Good, fine. Who cares? What I take issue with is the idea that because they don’t like it, I’m not allowed to say it.”
Later in the podcast, he doubled down on his view that the Trans community wants to control what he says in his routines and life. Chappelle then declared that the community wants “to be feared.”
“They want to be feared. ‘If you say this, then we will punish you. We’ll come to First Avenue and f**k your show up, and we’ll come to the Varsity Theater and f**k your show up.’ And they just don’t get to do that.”
Recently, Chance the Rapper faced backlash for including the Half-Baked actor in his Black Star Line Festival. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Chicagoan claimed the 49-year-old didn’t mean harm with his jokes and was “shining a light” on Ghana’s anti-LGBTQIA+ climate.
“It’s something that Dave was actually shining a light on,” the Highs and the Lows artist said. “Dave was making a comment about the comedy scene in Ghana when he said, ‘I bet gay jokes go over so well here,’ to which everybody laughed about.”
“And he was making a point to say that in Ghana, you can make jokes about things that are about gay people, about trans people, about a lot of social constructs, just about anything in the world. But you can’t make a comment about the government there.”
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