Breaking Down Barriers and Freeing The Slaves: Dave Chappelle’s The Closer brings down the house.
We all know Dave Chappelle: The up and coming comic from the 1990’s, Reggie from Nutty Professor, Conspiracy Brother from Undercover Brother and most importantly the namesake of Comedy Central’s original classic Chappelle’s Show from 2003 to 2006 with such iconic sketches and characters like Racial Draft and Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories; Tyrone Biggums, Clayton Bigsby and of course “I’m Rick James, Bitch!” This is the dude that turned down fifty million dollars, walked away from his huge hit tv show to move to Africa all for his own personal integrity. The dude’s a legend that has definitely made his mark in comedy, having been passed the torch by such icons as Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Paul Mooney, Don Rickles, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Eddie Murphy, Bernie Mac and Chris Rock, all true innovators of raw, intelligent comedy that breaks barriers and forces us to think as much as laugh at ourselves and our own prejudices, flaws, foibles and misconceptions. These great comics pushed the boundaries for what was “acceptable” and made us laugh as much as gasp at their unflinching boldness. As of the past few years, however, when we needed it most Dave took from his legendary predecessors and took all the raw and unfiltered comedy that they spouted and kicked it up to a thousand with Sticks and Stones in 2019 which made big waves and gave us all what we have been missing due to the climate of walking on egg shells and genuine fear of being “cancelled”. But as of 2021, then came The Closer.
Talk about making waves. Dave’s latest special has made a full fledged hurricane on the level of Katrina or Florence. When your comedy special stirs up so much anger to where over a thousand folks threaten to walk out of their jobs in this jacked up economy, you know you hit a nerve.
Ironically, what this lynch mob of outraged folks fail to realize is that by taking such extreme measures to silence Dave, to put pressure on Netflix to silence Dave and to essentially “punch down” on Dave and his good friends, including the Transgender comic Daphne Dorman who unfortunately committed suicide in 2019, that all of this is only giving the special more power and much more publicity than Netflix ever could’ve gave it. This all reminds me of the 1980’s when Conservative housewife Terry Rakolta started a war against the iconic Fox sitcom Married with Children because her children happened to catch an episode when she was out of the room, obviously not monitoring what her small children were watching. Just like with The Closer, all Rakolta’s outrage did was drive more and more people to this little sitcom on this no name network Fox, making the show a giant success that went eight more seasons after the debacle.
The truly ironic thing is that none of the outraged folks seem to remember the deeply profound end of Chappelle’s special where he gives us a very heartfelt and poignant story about his good friend Daphne who had such a great sense of humor about herself and was his biggest fan (or maybe they never even saw it. Perhaps they went on a bathroom break during this part?)
Talk about a closer. Chappelle’s the type of comic who isn’t merely satisfied with just making you laugh yourself silly, but to also make you think about what he’s really trying to say and feel the emotion of it as well.
My Personal Thoughts:
When it comes to my favorite comics of all time the top tier has always been: Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Rodney Dangerfield, Redd Foxx, Steve Harvey, DL Hughley, Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, Cedric The Entertainer, Bernie Mac and Chris Rock. But as I gotten older and wiser I’ve also grown to appreciate and admire the comic genius of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Robin Harris, Lawanda Page, Paul Mooney, Sam Kinison and certainly now Dave Chappelle, who is truly the bravest comic alive right now. I found this special as well as Sticks and Stones to be truly iconic comedy specials that could actually rival some of the all time greats such as Richard Pryor: Live In Concert, Eddie Murphy’s Delirious and Raw, The Original Kings of Comedy etc. It was hilarious and poignant which I always find to be the best combo of any television show, movie, book, play and stand up routine.
Not everyone loves his comedy nor should everyone love his comedy, it’s all subjective. You don’t have to find Dave funny, you have every right to hate and be offended by both his comedy specials, it’s a free country…. at least at the moment. But when in doubt, instead of throwing hissy fits that only embarrass you and\or actually help what you’re fighting, why not just use that little magical tool sitting on your coffee table called a remote, it actually has the ability to change a channel or turn the television off. Can you imagine? Boy, the technological advances today are just outstanding!
In Closing:
Whether you love him or hate him or agree or disagree with him, the truth is that what Dave has managed to do these past few years with these specials definitely opens up conversations that we desperately needed to have and has pushed boundaries to a degree that hasn’t been seen so vividly since Lenny Bruce was sent to jail in the 1960’s and Eddie Murphy got major heat for in the 1980’s. All I hope is that this talented man isn’t really dropping the mic for good on us because we need him.
Go watch The Closer streaming on Netflix. It’s definitely worth the hype.
