It’s the comedian’s first special for the streamer since 2021’s highly controversial ‘The Closer’

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.

  • TechyDad@lemmy.world
    5425·
    11 months ago

    Punching down is never funny. Picking on people who have been marginalized or attacked for being who they are winds up being cruel, not humorous. Maybe a skilled comedian could punch down in such a way that it’s funny, but it would be an extremely rare event.

    If you want to punch and be funny, you have two options. The first is to punch up. Hit the people in power. Hit the people who have luxury. For example, a joke making fun of poor people isn’t likely to be funny. A joke making fun of wealthy people, though? That has a much better chance of being funny.

    The other punch style is the self punch. This is where you make fun of yourself or your own “group.” For example, I’m Jewish. If a non-Jew makes a “Jews run the world” joke, it’ll likely come across as highly anti-semitic. If I were to make that joke, I’d stand a decent chance of getting a laugh. (Well, assuming that I had basic comedy skills.)

    When the right complains that the left has ruined comedy, what they really mean is that they can’t make fun of people who are suffering without being called cruel.

    • escaped_cruzader@lemmy.world
      33·
      11 months ago

      For example, I’m Jewish. If a non-Jew makes a “Jews run the world” joke, it’ll likely come across as highly anti-semitic. If I were to make that joke, I’d stand a decent chance of getting a laugh

      You mean to say that the Jews that run the world have access to exclusive jokes?

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
      153·
      11 months ago

      Punching down works when it’s setting up cultural context for a much bigger punch in the other direction. Bill Burr walks that line pretty well most of the time imo. He’ll take small jabs at some low hanging fruit and then the punchline is that he’s actually a terrible person and you should feel bad for laughing at him. Sometimes at least. Other times that whole schtick doesn’t quite land.

    • daltotron@lemmy.world
      4·
      11 months ago

      The other punch style is the self punch. This is where you make fun of yourself or your own “group.” For example, I’m Jewish. If a non-Jew makes a “Jews run the world” joke, it’ll likely come across as highly anti-semitic. If I were to make that joke, I’d stand a decent chance of getting a laugh. (Well, assuming that I had basic comedy skills.)

      This is also potentially pretty bad, though. It is a hard line to tread, to make fun of the absurdity of the claim, without, at the same time, validating the premise, for those who believe it, part of why being a comedian is so hard. You have to attract the people who would otherwise believe such a thing, and then illustrate the idiotic absurdity of the claim itself, and you know, the idiocy of the believers of it. You have to make them face it. If you just end up pulling off an exclusive “self-punch”, and especially one against “your group”, it’s very likely to just be accepted/seen as you selling yourself and your group out, in order to validate everyone’s preconceived notions, even if that wasn’t necessarily your intention. Just like that dude who made a country song a while ago about politicians in washington being shitty, but also being about people on welfare eating cookies or whatever. A conservative narrative got pushed about his song, despite how he wanted, retroactively, for that not to be the case.

    • kameecoding@lemmy.world
      1411·
      11 months ago

      Punching down is never funny

      clearly you have never slapped a dwarf

      on a serious note, you are wrong and your categorization is arbitrary, you are playing joke police.

      for example, Ricky Gervais had an entire bit about Caitlyn Jenner, is that punching up or punching down? because Ricky is more famous and maybe even more wealthy than Jenner and also a white male and also didn’t kill anyone with his car as far as I know, so that’s punching down right? or we is it punching up because we dislike Caitlyn Jenner for her pro-republican stance?

      • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        115·
        11 months ago

        It depends on what they’re making fun of in regards to the person. If he’s joking about her being trans, that is punching down. If he’s joking about her unchecked privileges, that is punching up. Think less about people’s identity and more about their needs and then you will get a sense of direction.

          • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            72·
            11 months ago

            Well the fun part about art is it is open to interpretation. If you laugh because “haha trans people are sexual deviants” then that’s rather shitty. If you laugh because “haha transphobic people sound like that” then you’re probably well adjusted. And if you know the context of Ricky Gervais and don’t laugh then you are well informed.

      • Dkcecil91@lemmy.world
        21·
        11 months ago

        I personally don’t care for Gervais because he does shit like this and his face and voice make him unable to not be snide about it. He’s left a bad taste in my mouth for a while now.