The release of the Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones by Netflix unleashed a comedy special so politically incorrect that Vice News wrote a plea to skip Chappelle in a move that upholds the notion of cancel culture. I found this motivating to watch the special, if Vice News said it was bad. But just because, Dave Chappelle Sticks and Stones is politically incorrect, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good. But upon watching the special, I found myself laughing consistently throughout the show at jokes that would not grow old soon, like those in a modern Adam Sandler movie.
Dave Chappelle is the best thing that happened to race relations post 2000, change my mind. In high school I was introduced to reruns of the Chappelle’s Show, a sketch show that brought us the black white supremacist, Clayton Bigsby; the racial draft to solve all racial ambiguities; the deviance of Wayne Brady; the Playa Hater’s Ball; Reparations; the Gay KKK. It’s unlikely this show would be allowed to be produced in 2019. With that said, his comedy special was perhaps the best special I’ve seen out of him since his show. It’s been fifteen years since his show, and Dave Chappelle still has his fastball in Sticks and Stones.
Taylor Hosking at Vice subtitled her PC policing as “The comedian doubles down on misogyny and transphobia in both the special and the hidden bonus scene that follows.” Let’s run through her article because I do not want to spoil or paraphrase Chappelle’s bits, so I will run through what she said in my review of Sticks and Stones.
At one point in his routine, he says he doesn’t believe Michael Jackson molested young children.
This joke was early in the set. I would have thought her rundown would have begun with Chappelle joking about suicide in the very beginning, then joking about cancel culture. This is about the third joke she should be triggered by.
Chappelle also returned to his now-infamous obsession with making fun of trans people
Chappelle has the dark mind of comedians, as he should since that’s his profession. He openly proclaims he can’t stop writing jokes about trannies because the jokes write themselves. He’s right. And he would be remiss if he did not indulge this material.
He also found time to defend fellow controversial comedians Kevin Hart and Louis C.K., painting them as victims of an overzealous callout culture.
I like her euphemism for cancel culture. She’s thinks she’s a hero, or the people who want to destroy Hart and CK were the good guys.
The strange story of camaraderie seemed to highlight the common accusation that Chappelle is only interested in repairing his relationship with marginalized groups if he doesn’t have to change anything about himself.
Chappelle has always been a daredevil comedian willing to take a controversial stance or downplay a serious controversy for laughs, including his early-2000s skits about R. Kelly’s court trials on Chappelle’s Show. But now he chooses to blatantly ignore the historic criticism against his style of comedy and new loud-and-clear criticism from the trans community. His approach comes off like a defiant rejection of change at any cost. As he keeps going down this path, drawing attention to the worst aspects of his important career, the biggest cost will be tarnishing his own legacy.
It’s pressingly obvious Taylor Hosking doesn’t have a sense of humor. Given the success of Chappelle’s Show, the “historic criticism” perpetuated by intersectional feminists, if correct, would have led to comedy specials that were as well received as politically correct comedy routines such as Amy Schumer’s 79% rating on the uncredible Rotten Tomatoes. It the process I must now confront someone on the occasional right at National Review. Kyle Smith, the critic-at-large wrote:
The set mostly misses the mark. And what is that mark? The truth. Chappelle remains one of the most vital, and certainly among the most daring, of standups, but we count on him to say unsayable truths, or to bring us closer to truths most of us hadn’t consciously considered, or at least to restate the truth in a clever way. Chappelle doesn’t often strike a facetious pose or hide behind a character; mostly what he says is what he really thinks, as an especially astute observer of the American carnival. Or at least that’s his brand. Preach, Dave.
He then proceeds to go on a rant listing the jokes he personally found offensive or uncomfortable. Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones makes everyone uncomfortable because this show has no sacred cows and you could be the butt of the joke at any moment. He calls the joke on Michael Jackson a clunker, but Chappelle employs a lot of set up and then drops multiple punchlines that test the limits of what is acceptable to say. There is no free trip to Hawaii.
The truth, it seems to me, is that being molested by your idol probably hurts even more than being molested by a stranger.
This is snowflake garbage being published by National Review.
In Sticks & Stones, Chappelle also does a long, mediocre bit about the “alphabet people”
This was actually an outstanding bit that was preceding by a funny story explaining that you can’t make fun of gay people, and then followed up by a gay clown car seating joke. It was masterful and original, especially as people on the right joke about Rainbow Jihad all the time. For him to deliver fresh jokes on this subject, without relying on a specific topical event, was an achievement. He also lampooned men in women’s sports and the idea of equality, in another hilarious bit
Now Dave Chappelle made a controversial abortion joke. He came out as for abortion in a satirically misogynistic way to much applause by the likely pro-abortion audience. He then got those same people to laugh at a joke that forced them to acknowledge that abortion kills a human being. It was satire that made an impressive pro-life argument we should be making. The title of the article “Dave Chappelle Shouldn’t Defend Michael Jackson” is the epitome of policing comedy that we criticize the Left for doing. He just didn’t like one offensive joke and that tainted his viewing experience for the rest of the set.
Final Thoughts
Dave Chappelle is the comedic Malcolm X. If you are expecting him to affirm your values, you are dumb. That being said, people on the Left can be hilarious, so long as there is no malice, of which, Chappelle doesn’t really bring. After all, he loves white people money. Chappelle is reasonable enough to see that the Left will ruin comedy and is catering to the broader audience of people who want irreverently offensive comedy. It’s clear that Dave Chappelle’s Sticks and Stones is not for the easily offended individuals. For this reason, I strongly recommend.
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