Dave Chappelle has released a new Netflix special, The Dreamer, which is full of jokes about the trans community and disabled people.
“I love punching down!” he tells the audience, in a one-hour show that landed on the streaming service today (31 December).
It’s his seventh special for Netflix and comes two years after his last one, the highly controversial release The Closer.
That programme was criticised for its relentless jokes about the trans community, and Chappelle revisits the topic in his new show.
He tells jokes about trans women in prison, and about trans people “pretending” to be somebody they are not.
Stephen Fry once said that comedy is about punching up. Anyone can punch down, it takes real talent to punch up, you have to make fun of your betters, because they think they are your betters.
Beating on people who are already incredibly socially ostracized is not comedy, it’s bullying. If you think it’s comedy then you’re a bully.