MEDIAWATCH: NZ Herald review of the cancellation of Dave Chappelle

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
16
2007

Karl Puschmann: Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special The Closer proves he just doesn’t get it

Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special The Closer proves he just doesn’t get it. Which is frustrating because his thinking and his message are usually so on point.

Chappelle is a comedian who can articulate societal issues in a way that’s both profound and profoundly funny. He takes risks with his comedy, provokes and trolls in a way that, at his best, sees you gasping for air while imparting topical wisdom to ruminate on long after he’s dropped the mic and the credits have rolled.

Chappelle doesn’t write comedy just to make you laugh. He crafts his jokes to make you think about the world and society you live in.

Although not without controversy, his run of comedy specials that began in 2017 have been a masterclass in comedy by a comedian who has a stronger claim that most to the title of the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time.

But even the great boxing legend Muhammad Ali took the odd loss. And Chappelle’s final special in his eye-wateringly lucrative deal with Netflix really is a self-inflicted KO.

Dave Chappelle is on the receiving end of a woke cancellation in another feral and eye rolling excercise of censoring art from one of the great comedic social commentators of our generation.

The woke need to ostracise Chappelle because he ridiculed Identity Politics dogma and nothing implodes moral self-righteousness quicker than ridicule.

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2020 has been a terrible year for the Left by exposing our aggressive desire to censor or erase any opinion we feel triggered by. NZ celebrated pre-censoring a movie none of us saw because it made Paddy Gower feel guilty while the activist base brag about who they will nark on once hate speech laws are passed.

Dave’s crime is holding the woke to their own snarling standards but in a far more clever and funny manner.

As an artist he has every right to direct his craft where he wants, that’s the power of comedy, but he makes an argument about the feral aggressiveness of the Trans debate that critics refuse to acknowledge.

The irony of the Left attempting to deplatform a black comedian who has spent a career attacking white power structures is beyond the woke.

Dave Chappelle is an artist, he is intelligently insightful and prepared to challenge all power structures, including the current woke schism.

That Netflix staff themselves protested is akin to librarians helping book burners.

Look at the language of catastrophe that justifies cancelling Chappelle’s thought crimes…

“Trans people are in the middle of a holocaust,” Soloway reportedly said during the walkout on Wednesday. “Apartheid, murder, a state of emergency, human rights crisis, there’s a mental health crisis. There’s a suicide crisis, a bullying crisis, an anxiety, depression, self-hatred state of emergency crisis.”

…doesn’t sound emotionally manipulative or hyperbolic at all.

As for the banal NZ Herald review. It’s tepid virtue signal of Chappelle’s stand up reads like a review to pacify woke snowflakes easily triggered by comedy that challenges them.

It’s a watered down cowardice masquerading as a critique, thankfully any opinion this bland and middle of the road gets run over.

And reversed over.

And run over again.

The ease with which the Herald weakly sacrifices artistic freedom for the cultural Revolution cancel crew is like Bishop Brian Tamaki converting to Islam – why would the old fuddy duddy Herald champion woke crusades against Art?

Is it just their love of censoring anything they don’t understand?

Or they just don’t like black comedians?

Chappelle’s art being reviewed by the Herald is like North Shore Influencers running ICU beds in that the idea is as fucking stupid as it sounds.

You may as well get The Edge Breakfast Morning Crew to interview Banksy, Chomsky and Marx all at once on the existential crisis of capitalism between fart jokes and anti fat shaming campaigns.

 

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16 COMMENTS

  1. The ‘t’s and the Identity terrorists are only real on the internet and ‘staged’ photo ops and very small ‘staged’ protests. Don’t give them any oxygen. Because they’re really boring fuckers.
    Childish ‘look at me’ attention-seeking little bitches. Even the rest of the alphabet people can’t stand the ‘t’s’!

    Chapelle is away more intelligent than the entire 12 of them!

  2. The post Trump election skit with Chris Rock is Chapelle’s stand out for me. It was funny but also ran home some hard truths for democrats. Not my favourite comedian however I do love the fact that he does not give a fuck similar to Gervais.

  3. Dead right, Martyn. +1 from me. (Getting in early to beat the pretending concern trolls who will probably grab this opportunity to appear as if they really support the Left.)

  6. It’s pretty obvious most of these “trans rights” activists didn’t watch the special that culminated in a heart-breaking anecdote about the death of Chapelle’s trans friend “Daphne”.
    Vito (who is also an activist, so don’t think he’s a great guy) totally succeeded in triggering these Netflix woke crazies (that might seem hyperbolic, but just watch the video and maybe you might see how nutty these virtue signalling people are): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRpjdrFCYT8
    That these activists manage to gain any traction with these protests beggars belief.

  8. Excellent commentary.

    I have twice refused to receive free copies of the Herald. Eventually someone actually called me to ask if I wanted a free 6 week supply. I said something about it clogging up the recycling bin and not being fit for lining a kitty litter tray. They’ve never called again.

  9. Karl Puschmann didnt watch the same show as me. I thought that it started of a little slow but kept getting funnier as the show went on, made all the funnier for the call backs. Even the tragic parts were treated with humour, in an emphatic way.

  10. Crickey two days in row I agree with every word Martyn has said!

    Chapelle is a genius and has suffered for his craft, especially financially. He did, metaphorically get off the bus that was going to pay him $50 million because he didn’t want to curb his craft.

  11. “You may as well get The Edge Breakfast Morning Crew to interview Banksy, Chomsky and Marx all at once on the existential crisis of capitalism between fart jokes and anti fat shaming campaigns.”

    This will now be my mantra for blocking all woke drivel, diatribes ,whining, whinging and pseudo -intellectual revisionist academic tropes. Thanks .

  12. “You may as well get The Edge Breakfast Morning Crew to interview Banksy, Chomsky and Marx all at once on the existential crisis of capitalism between fart jokes and anti fat shaming campaigns.”

    This will now be my mantra for blocking all woke drivel, diatribes ,whining, whinging and pseudo -intellectual revisionist academic tropes. Thanks .

  13. No one considers the on going harm of the drugs trans people have to take every day. After 20 years they looked terrible and then die young due to the harmful effects on their liver and kidneys.
    This most serious aspect is never ever mentioned.

    I guess someone is making money and population reduction strategies are furthered so who cares

  15. ohhh man the ‘wokeanistas’ are right to fear comedy and riducule it’s done more against ‘authoritarians’ than bourgeoise state funded art ever has.

    To my mind chapelle is a mediocre comic so really not worth the attention, he’ll be taking the faux-outrage all the way to the bank.

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