The Closer is Dave Chappelle’s fifth Netflix special in just five years. That in and of itself is pretty amazing. The time and effort required for a comedian to put together just 20 minutes of material, enough to tour and eat off of, is no secret. Chappelle honed five hours of material in just five years. That’s not only a tribute to his intelligence; it’s a tribute to his work ethic.
Also impressive is the arc of these five specials, how he’s thematically tied them together with observations, not only about race and feminism but the disturbing amount of political and social power held by the gay community or those he hilariously calls “the alphabet people.”
Watch below:
Someone once said that you can tell who rules you by who you are not allowed to ridicule. The fact that the alphabet people hold enormous power in our country is not the problem. The problem is that they are a mob of bullying fascists, and, sadly, Chappelle is one of the only people with a high-profile platform who holds the moral courage not just to ridicule them but to point out their abuses and excesses.
In fact, you could argue that his willingness to take them on is what made Chappelle a superstar. Prior to the Netflix specials, Chappelle was a well-respected and popular comedian, somewhere between a Kevin Hart and a Chris Rock. Today, he is, by far, seen not only as our greatest living comedian but a voice of wisdom, a truth-teller, a wise man, someone worthy of serious attention. I think that lift in his status is attributable to one thing: his brave, wise, insightful, and unrelenting stand against the fascist alphabet people.
Additionally, it’s due to his humanity toward the fascist alphabet people. He never demeans anyone as a person. He never demeans anyone’s personal choices. But what he sees — and he’s not wrong — is that the fascist alphabet people refuse to offer that same generosity and humanity toward others. Instead of using their power wisely, they’re out for power for power’s sake, and a large part of that is vengeance.
For example, Chappelle talks about Kevin Hart, who lost his Oscar hosting gig over a few inoffensive jokes about the alphabet people. Chappelle also pleads for the release of DaBaby, whose career has been destroyed over some stupid comments he made about AIDS. Chappelle points out that DaBaby killed a guy in Walmart without facing a career hiccup … but “you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings” in America.
Watch below:
Chappelle is no conservative but he is a true comedian, and a true comedian knows where power lies and targets that power. A true comedian ridicules the king, and America’s king is undoubtedly the fascist alphabet people. And this is why Chappelle is the biggest name in comedy right now — not because he targets the fascist alphabet people but because he’s the only one with the moral courage to target power.
Chappelle also sees right through the fascist alphabet people’s phony pose as victims. He sees how they use phrases like “punching down” to bully, silence, and destroy people.
As human beings, it is in our nature to want to see the powerful brought down a notch. But America’s comedic geniuses who made a career of that — Pryor, Rivers, Kinison, Rickles, Shandling, Carson, Hicks, Miller, MacDonald, Carlin, etc. — are now gone or retired. Tragically, they’ve been replaced by a cowardly and mercenary comedic class (Colbert, Stewart, Fallon, Apatow, Silverman, Letterman, SNL, Kimmel, Rock, etc.) who’ve not only softened into middle age sellouts but have devolved into the establishment’s fascist palace guards.
Chappelle walks alone, and we’re lucky to have him.
At the end of his hilarious and entertaining 75 minutes, Chappelle does announce a truce. He’s taking a break from Netflix and is done making jokes about the fascist alphabet people. We’ll see if that holds. But, of course, no one else dares to do this, so Chappelle has the turf all to himself. It likely won’t be easy to restrain himself from stepping into a comedy vacuum when that vacuum offers the opportunity to ridicule and expose the fascist excesses of the most influential people in the country.
But even if Chappelle does decide to honor the truce, more than anything else, it will probably have to do with him wanting to move on to other subjects. It’s probably a little constraining to be The Guy Who’s Expected To Discuss These Issues. And to be honest with you, I’m ready for him to move on.
He’s a fascinating guy, and The Closer is never anything less than compelling, but I’m ready to hear what he has to say about other things.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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