Dave Chappelle Can't Be Serious

LOADINGERROR LOADINGDave Chappelle spent years making trans people the butt of his jokes, then watched Republicans use those jokes as campaign material, and has now arrived at the conclusion that he’s the one who’s been wronged.In an interview for NPR’s Newsmakers podcast, the legendary comedian once again defended his jokes targeting the trans community in recent stand-up specials, but says he resents how “the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes.I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing.

That’s not what I was doing.”Advertisement Speaking with NPR’s Michel Martin, Chappelle recalled a trip to Capitol Hill where he was flocked by many, including far-right Rep.Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

“I didn’t want to say ‘no’ in front of everybody, but I didn’t know the phrase ‘I respectfully decline,’” he explained to Martin.“So I just took the picture.

And then she posted the picture 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.” Advertisement Chappelle’s first taunts of trans people began in his 2019 Netflix special “Sticks and Stones,” where he compared trans identity to performing an offensive Chinese racial caricature.By then, there was already rising anti-LGBTQ violence under the first Trump administration; specifically, violence against Black trans women had accelerated.

View this post on Instagram Advertisement Nevertheless, Chappelle continued and, in one subsequent Netflix special, said that he sided with author J.K.Rowling and her anti-trans views, claiming that he was on “team TERF.”Separately, according to a report from Vulture, Chappelle allegedly mocked a nonbinary “Saturday Night Live” writer during a dress rehearsal for a 2022 episode of...