Dave Chappelle Stumbles Into the #MeToo Moment
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“Equanimity” is a defensive, occasionally hilarious hour, shot in his hometown Washington, D.C., and covering the material that he developed in his monthlong stint at Radio City Music Hall last summer. The real headline is “The Bird Revelation,” which addresses accusations against Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K. and Harvey Weinstein with the conspiratorial tone of someone who wants to tell you what everyone (including Mr. Chappelle) is afraid to say.
Judging by Mr. Chappelle’s stand-up output, however, there are few subjects he is more drawn to than the sexual misbehavior of famous men. He has joked about R. Kelly, Ray Rice, Michael Jackson, Nate Parker and Bill Cosby. Mr. Chappelle’s approach varies, but generally speaking, he denounces the actions and minimizes or mitigates them. (“How old is 15, really?” he asks in reference to Mr. Kelly’s alleged misconduct.) These bits often have the feel of someone digging a hole to prove he can escape, but in this new special, for the first time, they also seem like tired shtick.
“The Bird Revelation” is one of four specials he released in 2017, and in another of those, “The Age of Spin,” he brings up a rumor that Bill Cosby paid for the microphone that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used in his “I Have a Dream” speech. It was Mr. Chappelle’s way of expressing how hard it is to give up the comic as one of his heroes. In “Bird,” he again leans on the gravitas of King to pivot from the pain caused by sexual misconduct. Mr. Chappelle criticizes the “brittle spirit” of the female comic who said Louis C.K. masturbating in front of her hurt her career, before imagining what would happen if Louis C.K. masturbated in front of the civil rights leader, prompting him to give up his movement.
When suggesting a handsome man wouldn’t be accused of assault and rape, he says that if Brad Pitt did what Mr. Weinstein did, the response would be different. (“Girl would have been like: I got the part.”) But Mr. Chappelle is just rehashing a Chris Rock bit on sexual harassment from the 1990s (“If Clarence Thomas looked like Denzel Washington …”). It’s a joke that has not aged well, and this new version does not do Mr. Chappelle any favors.
Mr. Chappelle opens this special by noting that sometimes the funniest thing to say is mean, and he’s right. Comedy, to quote Steve Martin, is not pretty. But when Mr. Chappelle says some of the sexual assault victims speaking out are now experiencing “buyer’s remorse,” a particularly cruel turn of phrase, this is surely not the funniest thing he can think of. And it is expressed with as little empathy as possible.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/arts/television/dave-chappelle-netflix-special.amp.html
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“Wow, I mean it is really bad out here,” Chappelle says, according to The Daily Beast. “Kevin Spacey’s out here, grabbing men by the pussy! I didn’t even know that was possible!"
In the special, Chappelle notes that Rapp “grew up to be gay anyway,” and that “Kevin Spacey sniffed that shit out like a truffle pig.”
“I’ve been to a lot of parties in my day. Never been to a good one that had 14-year-old boys in it,” Chappelle says. “All joking aside, Kevin Spacey shouldn’t have done that shit to that kid. He was 14 years old and forced to carry a grown man’s secret for 30 years.”
But then he makes one more joke at Rapp’s expense.
“The saddest part is, if he had been able to carry that secret for another six months, I would get to know how ‘House of Cards’ ends,” he says.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a4bfe66e4b06d1621bb730b/amp
More on Louis CK specifically
“One lady said, ‘Louis C.K. masturbated in front of me, ruined my comedy dreams,'” he said of writer Abby Schachner, who came forward against C.K. in the New York Times. “Word? Well then I dare say, madam, you may have never had a dream. Come on man, that’s a brittle spirit. That is a brittle-ass spirit, that is too much, this grown-ass woman.”
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Dave Chapelle knocks Louis CK's accusers
Jennifer Kline, AOL.comJan 2nd 2018 9:40AM
Dave Chappelle has certainly never shied away from ruffling feathers.
In one of his new Netflix stand-up specials, the comedian tackles the sexual harassment and assault allegations that have consumed Hollywood in recent months. After mocking alleged predators Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, he took a different approach on fellow comic Louis C.K., who admitted to repeatedly masturbating in front of unwitting women.
“One lady said, ‘Louis C.K. masturbated in front of me, ruined my comedy dreams,'” he said of writer Abby Schachner, who came forward against C.K. in the New York Times. “Word? Well then I dare say, madam, you may have never had a dream. Come on man, that’s a brittle spirit. That is a brittle-ass spirit, that is too much, this grown-ass woman.”
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Noting that Martin Luther King probably wouldn’t have given up his “dream” if someone masturbated in front of him, he continued, "Show business is just harder than that. Them women … they sound weak. I know that sounds f–ked up, I’m not supposed to say that, but one of these ladies was like, ‘Louis C.K. was masturbating while I was on the phone with him.’ B-tch, you don’t know how to hang up a phone? How the f–k are you going to survive in show business if this is an actual obstacle to your dreams?"
Suggesting that the backlash against C.K. may have been an overreaction, he mused, "They took everything from Louis. It might be disproportionate, I can't tell, I can't tell. This is like where it's hard to be a man."
https://www.aol.com/article/entertainment/2018/01/02/dave-chapelle-knocks-louis-cks-accusers-b-h-you-dont-know-how-to-hang-up-a-phone/23321519/
= new reply since forum marked as read
. I:m shocked, shocked I tell you.