Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix comedy special, The Closer, is already making headlines due to material several groups have called anti-LGBTQ, Variety reported.
In a statement, GLAAD called out the pattern of derogatory jokes, saying that “Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities.” In addition, The National Black Justice Coalition—a civil-rights advocacy group serving the LGBTQ+ community—urged Netflix to remove the new special from its catalog.
In the new release, the comedian makes explicit jokes about trans women and offers defenses for previous derogatory comments made by figures such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, saying, “I’m Team TERF” at one point, CBS News noted. “TERF” refers to trans-exclusionary radical feminism, an anti-trans section of radical feminism.
Chappelle also references criticism he faced over the past two years for making jokes about the trans community in his specials Equanimity and Sticks and Stones, and defends comedian Kevin Hart, who has had his share of anti-LGBTQ controversies over the years.
There’s also controversial material about rapper DaBaby, The New York Post noted. Chappelle says that killing a Black man in the United States is less offensive than upsetting members of the LGBTQ community—and he claims DaBaby’s career downfall as proof. In 2018, DaBaby admitted to fatally shooting a 19-year-old man inside a North Carolina Walmart, claiming he acted in self-defense; prosecutors soon dropped the case. However, DaBaby’s career came crashing down in July of this year, starting when he made a series of homophobic remarks at a concert in Miami.
Chappelle has long poked fun at the LGBTQ community, but in The Closer he says he’ll no longer make jokes at the expense of the community “until we are both sure that we are laughing together.”