Disappointing. Anachronistic. Offensive. Those are just some of the words being used to describe Dave Chappelle's two Netflix specials, The Age of Spin: Live at the Hollywood Palladium and Deep in the Heart of Texas: Live at Austin City Limits, which premiered on Netflix last week.

A stand-up comedian praised for his pace, wit and stage presence, did not get a pass as the internet and critics alike shamed the comedian for his jokes about at the LGBTQ community. 

One of Chappelle’s biggest critics is April Reign, the creator of #OscarsSoWhite. After viewing the special, she took to Twitter claiming the comedian’s jokes were “homophobic and transphobic and involved rape culture.”

April wasn't the only negative critic. King Kortney, founder of Trans Hack, a company that creates technology that “economically empowers” transgender people, said on Twitter that he was “really offended” by Chappelle’s Netflix series, and expressed his disappointment in the star. 

Some may chalk it up as showbiz, and I'll say you're always going to have people who dislike your work. But it's surprising to hear talk like this about Chappelle. 

Since turning down $50 million and ghosting Hollywood, you could say that the Chappelle's name transcended into legendary status — folklore of sorts. From Half Baked and Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights, to peaking with the mega success of his self-titled comedy sketch program, Chappelle's Show, we witnessed a comedic genius' birth before our very eyes. His vanishing act only added to his mystique. Up until he randomly began making appearances again, the story of Dave Chappelle was a literal cliffhanger — everyone was dying to see what was next. His absence made him revered as if he was deceased, and over the span of the decade, whenever he'd take a break from his hiatus, people treated like a king. Two years ago he sold out 13 unannounced shows literally within minutes, and when he poked his head out to host SNL last year, the program recorded its highest ratings in three years. Kevin Hart calls him the greatest comedian alive for goodness sakes.

So what's the problem? Is this not what the people wanted? 

This is the question that Chappelle is seeking answers to himself. After all, he stuck to the script. But what he and other entertainers are starting to realize is that there has been a cultural shift in what we as a society are able to digest. The line to cross has inched a bit further, and what Chappelle and those after him may have to learn, is how to be a bit more respectful with how they flirt with it. 

SPOILER ALERT

The Line

Age of Spin was the first of the two specials and was filmed in Los Angeles in 2016.

In one bit, Chappelle challenges the audience to look at rape from a different perspective. He uses the analogy of a superhero, who has powers that can only be activated with the touch of a woman's vagina (a subtle jab at Trump I'm sure). The only problem is, that said superhero is unattractive, so he must resort to rape whenever there is a crisis at hand. 

"He rapes, but he saves!" Chappelle exclaims.   

At the end of his routine Chappelle cleverly returns to the superhero bit, this time referencing Bill Cosby and his numerous rape allegations. He, again, challenges the audience, walking them down a list of Cosby's accomplishments and presents the moral conflict once more: 

"He rapes, but he rapes to save and rapes far less than he saves. But he rapes."   

Seeing that around one in five women may experience sexual assault in college over their lifetime, that on average 21 percent of female undergraduates told researchers they’d been sexually assaulted since starting school in a Bureau of Justice Statistics funded study in 2016 and that, at some schools, the rate of sexual assault is as high as one in two, one might say being flippant about rape is not the wave. 

Even in his Austin City Limits special, he managed to make some disparaging and hurtful remarks.  

Chappelle tells a story about being at a party where a trans girl is passed out. He first comes to his own conclusion with what he might have been looking at saying, “Whatever it was, it was definitely a man in a dress." Then unassumingly asks, “Is he okay?” After a guest at the party reprimands him for using the wrong pronoun he becomes offended. “I support anyone’s right to be who they are inside, but to what degree do I have to participate in your self-image? Why do I have to switch up my pronoun game for this motherfucker?” he asks. 

Again, cringeworthy when you think of it as a black man making light of a group of people. Especially when transgender women of color make up the majority of hate crime homicide victims and are six times more likely to experience police violence than white transgender people.

But it's easy to cross a line you've neglected your whole career.

He's Always Been This Way

In 2004's For What It's Worth, which was Chappelle's last special to air, he touched on rape very similarly. 

This time the subject of choice was Michael Jackson, not Bill Cosby. And instead of rape, Chappelle proposed that the audience wrestles with the idea of child molestation. 

Playing off the Michael Jackson child abuse allegations the pop star infamously went on trial for, he says the alleged victim was "ungrateful" and that he had the "nerve" to call it abuse. "I'm lucky to get a glass of grape drank at my friend's house, let alone a roller coaster ride and my d*** sucked," he joked.

In the same special, he speaks on R.Kelly who at the time was on trial for having sex with a minor, saying, "If a man cannot piss on his fans, I don't want to be in show business." And asking "How old is 15, really?" 

Where was the backlash and disappointment for our star then?  

Respectability Politics 

It's always frustrating to hear people say that we've gotten soft or too sensitive as a society, when in reality, society's' sensibilities are a reflection of what personal struggles they're dealing with. What's acceptable in the '50s was taboo in in the '70s, and what wasn't an issue in in the '70s would cause an out roar today. 

It's not that we've lost our sense of humor, it's just that, nowadays, some topics are sore to the touch. 

Women and other marginalized groups have gone through too much to laugh along, which is why we must be conscious of our social climate — something Chappelle is clearly out of touch with.

I've heard before that in comedy, if you can make it funny, there is nothing off limits. But there's an argument to be made about an artist's responsibility to the circumstances of the times. Good artists reflect; great artists spearhead and innovate.  

During the first half of his For What It's Worth  special in 2004, Chappelle makes a statement on race relations, saying, "blacks and whites don't fight as much." People aren't upset because Dave Chappelle has changed. As you can tell by his disposition on race from over decade ago, the issue is that he hasn't. 

Chappelle's third special is to be released on Netflix later this year.

Age of SpinApril ReignBlack LgbtBlack TelevisionCOMEDYDave Chappelle,Kevin-HartKing KortneyLGBTNetflixOscars So Whitestand-up comedyTrans Hack