A number of outlets and social media sites have tried to implement a policy of allowing comments only by verified "true name" accounts (among them Youtube, famously). I'm sorry, but as much as this seems to be an obvious "truth" on its face, and thus is a point made easily and quickly and often, it's been proven wrong repeatedly over the past couple of years. However, there's a slight problem with one of the central points he makes, namely that one (if not the) primary reason for today's state of hyped negative public reaction and backlash would be amplified by the fact that people can post their commentary anonymously, without having to face any consequences, and that things would be better if they had to sign their names next to it and personally stand for it. That's a pretty good bit of commentary by David Zucker, and I can mostly agree with it. I do love the irony of people who view Jews as greedy and all-powerful paying 200 bucks for a 45-minute gig by a multimillionaire.
And he's been performing, from the reviews I've read, for 45 minutes. And then I read about his current stand up tour where he's charging in the region of $200 for seats. Hearing him, you'd believe Dave is a man of the people who stands up for the little guy. He often gets applause for his jokes and observations about social injustice, corporate power, capitalism, greed, etc. Others have immediately given in and issued grovelling apologies with banal, PR agency written shit like "Thank you for educating me and keeping me accountable." Sarandos has had the guts to say no to these online bullies. He is the first entertainment figure to stand his ground. In fact, I applaud Ted Sarandos for issuing two memos in which he refused to bow to pressure to remove the special from Netflix. While I do think his Space Jews jokes were a crass distortion and inversion of the Holocaust and Jewish history, and have predictably been lauded by antisemites and BDS types who received his dog whistle sentiments loud and clear, unlike the trans brigade I don't want him removed from Netflix. Of course, the twitter outrage mob tend to be antisemitic themselves, so it's not really surprising. Chappelle, it speaks volumes that the twitter outrage mob had nothing to say about his "Space Jews" jokes, which came off as antisemitic. It's 2021 and people are getting death threats for saying woman means adult human female. I don’t think writers or comics should be blasted for things they wrote or said that may not be acceptable now but were when they wrote or said them.Īnyway, here’s the article. But I don’t think there should censorship when it comes to comedy. And if it’s designed to demean anyone, regardless of color, gender, age - then it’s not for me. I’m personally not a fan of mean-spirited comedy. So when you sit home, by yourself, and watch AIRPLANE, or the DAVE CHAPPELLE SPECIAL, or BLAZING SADDLES, are you really offended? And if you are, does it really rock you to your very core and affect how you see the world? Or, do you simply say, “Fuck you, Dave Chappelle or David Zucker,” turn off their show, and go on about your life? It’s a comedy special not a snuff film. Now today those 12 could cause such a stink that they might be able to pressure ALL IN THE FAMILY off the air. The night ALL IN THE FAMILY premiered on CBS, they installed extra phone banks and operators to field the inevitable throng of complaints. Through social media a tiny minority now has a huge amplified voice and can dictate policies and norms for the majority - even though the majority doesn’t agree with them. In his piece, bemoaning the current sad state of comedy, he brings out a great point. I worked with him on a project once a thousand years ago. It’s by David Zucker, one of the writers of AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN. There’s a terrific article I want to point you towards. In the tradition of Lenny Bruce, we need someone willing to be provocative, willing to ruffle some feathers in the cause of getting society to think.
I’m glad there’s one comic out there who is truly fearless. All I will say is this: I’m glad there is a Dave Chappelle. So I’m not going to speak at all about the trans material in his special or any of the subject matter.
(Remember the days when some people thought something was funny while others didn’t and it was just chalked up to differing senses of humor?) Like “How often do you beat your wife?” God forbid anyone says something positive about Chappelle’s material they’re instantly branded as a racist, homophobe, or worse. This, of course, is a trick question that can only get a person in trouble. A lot of readers have asked what I thought of the new controversial Dave Chappelle Netflix Special.