Mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg criticized comedian Dave Chapelle for his “hurtful” humor and said viewers should ignore those jokes if they include “hateful things.”
In an interview with Peter Hamby on Snapchat’s show Good Luck America, Buttigieg responded to artists such as director Todd Phillips and comedian Dave Chappelle who spoke out against “triggered” people trying to shut down free speech in comedy.
Buttigieg acknowledged that there was a “debate” about what should be considered funny in the modern era, but said that comedy should be “turned off” if it included “hurtful things and hateful things.”
“When a piece of art that is out there to challenge conventions, does something that’s really harmful, then I think it’s time to turn it off,” he said. “But we get to have these debates.”
Chappelle continues to make jokes about transgender people, despite condemnation from some in the trans community. In his latest Netflix special, Chappelle mocked the LGTBQ+ community as intolerant “Alphabet People” trying to kill comedy.
Buttigieg said that he had not seen Chappelle’s most recent special, but warned against that kind of humor.
“I will say that there comes a point where you’re just straight up hurting people, I don’t know what goal you’re hoping to achieve,” Buttigieg replied.
After finishing his movie Joker, Todd Phillips said that he left comedy because of the “woke” culture affecting comedy.
“Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” he said. “There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore—I’ll tell you why, because all the fucking funny guys are like, ‘Fuck this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’ It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can’t do it, right? So you just go, ‘I’m out.’”