Dave Chappelle called out Republicans in a new interview with NPR, accusing members of the political party of “weaponizing” transgender jokes. The comedian has courted controversy since 2021 after his Netflix special, “The Closer,” included jokes that were widely criticized as transphobic. Netflix boss Ted Sarandos defended the special at the time by citing “artistic freedom,” prompting trans employees and allies at the company to walk out in protest. The comedian then doubled down on trans jokes in his follow-up special, “The Dreamer.”
“I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes. You know, I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. That’s not what I was doing,” Chappelle told “NPR’s Newsmakers” host Michel Martin. “I’ll give you an example, before I learned the phrase, ‘I respectfully decline,’ I was on Capitol Hill, and everybody ran up to take pictures with me from every congressional office. And I just take pictures with whoever asked. I didn’t ask how they vote or what their voting record is.
“At first, it was CBC people,” he continued. “Then here comes Lauren Boebert and she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ And I had already taken 40 pictures. I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody, but I didn’t know the phrase ‘I respectfully decline.’ So I just took the picture. And then she posted the picture before I could even get from there to the show and says something to the effect of, ‘Just two people that know that it’s just two genders.’ Just instantly, like, weaponized or politicized. So I got to the arena, and I lit her ass up for doing that. And she should never do that to a person like me.”
Chappelle has had a long professional relationship with Netflix, which has stood by him through ongoing controversy involving his trans jokes. His eighth standup special with the streamer dropped last December. Backlash has followed Chappelle since 2021, with comedy clubs such as Minneapolis’ First Avenue canceling scheduled shows with him years later due to the ongoing controversy. That venue apologized to the community in 2023 for booking Chappelle and vowed to keep the comedy club a “safe space.”
“I guess apparently they had made a pledge to the public at large that they would make their club a safe space for all people, and that they would ban anything they deemed transphobic,” Chappelle reacted on his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast at the time. “This is a wild stance for an artistic venue to take, especially one that’s historically a punk rock venue.”
When his Minneapolis show proceeded at a different venue, the Varsity Theater, protesters showed up and “threw eggs” at his supporters, Chappelle said. He added: “One lady was so mad with the protesters, she picked up a police barricade.”
Chappelle summed up the crux of his argument by saying: “I’m not even mad [people] 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. Art is a nuanced endeavor. I have a belief that they are trying to take the nuance out of speech in American culture, that they’re making people speak as if they’re either on the right or the left. Everything seems absolute, and any opinion I respect is way more nuanced than these binary choices they keep putting in front of us. I don’t see the world in red or blue.”
Chappelle often avoids talking about politics on the record. When he was asked by NPR in his latest interview to weigh in on whether or not Donald Trump is “funny,” Chappelle lamented over the president’s behavior.
“Maybe if he wasn’t president, I’d think that was funny. Or maybe at times… I do think, you know, that that’s wearing thin,” Chappelle said. “There are funny things about him. Like, if I were to talk about him, it would be funny. ButI think what he does is so consequential and so much of these things, you know, in my lifetime, I’ve never really seen anything of a phenomenon quite like I’m not trying to be political, but it’s remarkable. I don’t know. I don’t know how funny it is.”
Watch Chappelle’s full interview on “NPR’s Newsmakers” in the video below.
