I love Dave Chappelle's politically incorrect comedy because he makes fun of anybody and everybody — nothing is off limits — but now he's in trouble because he had the temerity to say that "gender is a fact" on his new Netflix special, "The Closer." Netflix executives defended the comedian and now the Far Left PC Police hate them too. And they'll probably hate me after they read this politically incorrect column.
With all due respect to the LGBTQIA25+ community, I agree with Chappelle: Gender is a fact. Period. As the conservative National Review opined, "The Left is trying to hector, bully and censor its way toward establishing a ridiculous new conception of gender as a matter of personal choosing rather than biological fact. This project requires changing the language, ignoring science and discarding common human experience. Now, it appears to require policing comedy, too." Amen!
Far Left and "cancel culture" folks go berserk whenever Chappelle, who is African-American, ridicules black people along with everyone else of all known skin colors, creeds, races, and/or gender preferences. A revealing example was when the comedian mimicked disgraced black actor Jussie Smollett, who called police at 2 a.m. on a frigid Chicago night to report that he had been mugged by two white men wearing "MAGA" hats, a totally ridiculous hoax that was taken seriously at first by most of the mainstream media. Chappelle's monologue, with appropriate accents — black, white and French — was hilarious
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins, who is white, wrote that Chappelle's statement about the reality of biological gender "doesn't insult anybody. It only violates an ideological taboo that was invented almost overnight… Trying to change people's minds about such matters is what debate is for. Forcing ideas down their throats is something else." Amen all over again.
Chappelle's friend, popular podcaster Joe Rogan, came to the comedian's defense. "Dave Chappelle doesn't hate anyone or anything," Rogan said. "His jokes are just that: jokes," adding that Chappelle "is clearly one of the greatest comedians who ever lived (and) one of the nicest people I've met in my life."
Of course the cancel culture people wanted to censor Chappelle by demanding that Netflix cancel his popular Netflix special. To their credit, Netflix co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos refused to cancel the show, claiming to be defenders of artistic freedom. "In his special, Chappelle makes harsh jokes about many different groups, which is his style and a reason his fans (including yours truly) love his comedy and commentary," Hastings and Sarandos said in a statement.
Kudos to the Netflix execs for defending artistic freedom, but they're also defending their bottom line because Chappelle, with a net worth of approximately $50 million, makes a lot of money for Netflix, which is much richer than the comedian.
Earlier, I mentioned that much of the mainstream media, including the New York Times, called for Netflix to cancel Chappelle. I agree with columnist Holman Jenkins, who wrote that the Times has committed "a succession of recent surrenders that seem to put a traditional reader in doubt about whether the paper can be relied upon to report truthfully and rationally on matters involving progressive hot buttons."
I don't subscribe to Netflix but I urge my loyal readers to watch any of Chappelle's comedy shows to decide for themselves whether he's an imminent threat to the nation. I think he's a very funny and irreverent comedian who helps us navigate through an increasingly dense thicket of cancel culture correctness. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves during these trying times.
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal's senior political columnist.
