Netflix recently released Dave Chappelle’s new stand-up routine. The routine is over an hour long, and Chappelle addresses several culturally taboo topics as he mocked outrage culture and “snowflakes.” “Cancel culture” has turned from attacking “privileged,” straight white males to attacking a Black Muslim comedian. While the left-wing media, and leftists in general, hope to “cancel” Dave Chappelle and assure that comedians are no longer permitted to discuss certain issues, Chappelle’s comedic masterpiece mocks anyone hoping to end his career.
Dave Chappelle is in no way some far-right conservative. He is simply a comedian who assures that no one group of people take themselves too seriously. Throughout his comedic career he has mocked white people, African-Americans, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. While some may call it “punching down” when he mocks the LGBTQ+ community, this could not be further from the truth.
When Chappelle jokes about the LGBTQ+ community, he is offering them full equality. In the liberal society of the United States, the LGBTQ+ community enjoys equal rights just as the rest of the population. While individual acts of discrimination go unnoticed, this community still enjoys respect and acceptance from a huge majority of the American population. Regardless of the social group, anyone should be fair game when it comes to comedy. Chappelle doesn’t deny the struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community domestically or abroad—he attempts to normalize them by including them in his comedy routine. True equality means full integration into society, and that means being allowed to be mocked, and poked fun at. The total and full submission to political correctness is not something that comedians can abide by.
In many aspects of public life, political correctness is justified as common courtesy. However, in the realm of comedy and entertainment, political correctness is in no way justified. While you may find Chappelle’s comments disturbing and inappropriate—and your anger might very well be justified—suppression of his freedom of speech is not the appropriate way to go about ending his comedic career. While Netflix itself usually leans on the progressive side of politics, it chose to keep the Chappelle special because it brought traction to their site.
Dave Chappelle is a comedic genius and will go down as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Leftists have begun to attack the final safe haven for free speech: comedy. In a comedy routine where Chappelle attacks several social, racial and ethnic groups, the outrage is unsubstantiated and unfounded. While people may choose to ignore and not watch the show, Chappelle is fully within his right to mock anyone he so chooses, so long as he doesn’t incite violence against any individual or people group. His comedic genius will live on even if the critics attempt to slaughter his career.
Asians, Caucasians, the opioid epidemic, the WNBA, allegations against Michael Jackson, homosexuals, and transgenders are just a few of the topics that Chappelle mocked in his comedy special(1). While each of these have their own dark and sad pasts, Chappelle makes light of the topics by poking fun at some aspects of these topics. By choosing to diversify his comedic bit, he makes sure to mock everyone. The purpose of a comedian is to make us laugh, not to be 100 percent politically correct. Truly, there is honestly no comedic value in political correctness.
(1) https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dave_chappelle_sticks_and_stones