Dave Chappelle's New Netflix Special Sparks Backlash for Trans Jokes

Dave Chappelle has provoked fury after he spent 12 minutes of his new Netflix special once again telling jokes about transgender people.

The Dreamer premiered on Netflix on December 31 and was a full-circle moment for the comedian who described his first performance in the same theater where the special was recorded. Most of the material was about his aspirations when first starting out and how he learned how to become successful.

However, the comedian dedicated the first portion of the special to transgender people after facing ongoing criticism for previous jokes he made about them in his other Netflix shows.

"I love punching down," he said, and told the audience he did not want to joke about transgender people anymore because the previous drama he faced wasn't "worth the trouble."

"If you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that I'm going to make fun of those people again, you've come to the wrong show. I'm not f****** with those people anymore. It wasn't worth the trouble. I ain't saying s*** about them," Chappelle said.

"Maybe three or four times tonight, but that's it. I'm tired of talking about them. And you want to know why I'm tired of talking about them? Because these people acted like I needed them to be funny. Well, that's ridiculous. I don't need you. I got a whole new angle coming. You guys will never see this s*** coming. I ain't doing trans jokes no more."

Chappelle explained he would turn his attention to "handicapped" people instead because "they're not as organized as the gays. And I love punching down."

"To be honest with you, I've been trying to repair my relationship with the transgender community cause I don't want them to think that I don't like them. You know how I've been repairing it? I wrote a play. I did. Cause I know that gays love plays.

"It's a very sad play, but it's moving. It's about a Black transgender woman whose pronoun is, sadly, n*****. It's a tear-jerker. At the end of the play she dies of loneliness cause white liberals don't know how to speak to her. It's sad," he joked.

Later in the set, Chappelle joked that if he was ever jailed he wanted it to be in California because he would tell the judge, "Before you sentence me, I want the court to know I identify as a woman. Send me to a woman's jail," and proceeded to use his size as a man to physically intimidate female prisoners.

He also joked about a 2022 incident at the Hollywood Bowl when a man rushed the stage and tried to attack him.

Chappelle said that the attacker "had a knife that identified as a gun" and "I triggered them [the assailant] because I had done LBGTQ [sic] jokes and it turns out this fella was a 'B,'" and because the attacker was bisexual, he "could have been raped."

The Netflix special garnered a mixed reaction from social media users.

"I think it's extremely weird and probably telling (in a way that only a shrink could unpack) that Dave Chappelle, one of the sharpest comedians to ever stand on a stage, is still out here antagonizing trans folks. Hard to reckon with what a disappointment he has turned out to be," wrote one person on X, formerly Twitter.

Another added: "Dave Chappelle was once the best comedian of a generation, but he's honestly been a hack ever since he started leaning into his boomer-ass anti-trans material. It's sad tbh."

And a third wrote: "Dave Chappelle has a new special in which he attacks both trans and disabled people. I really don't like it here."

However, some people defended Chappelle.

"Dave Chappelle is the funniest human on planet earth and has been for over 20 years. His newest special was as great as all of the others. Too big to fail. #TheDreamer," posted one person.

A second commented: "Watched Dave Chappelle's new stand-up special, The Dreamer on Netflix. He pushes all the boundaries, offends a whole new demographic, and shares heartfelt stories of his life. Viewer discretion advised! 10/10."

Another added: "The Dave Chappelle special is already out. Definitely watching it today. And I can see a certain demographic (people who clearly don't watch him) are already mad. So I know it's good."

His 2021 Netflix special The Closer sparked staff walkouts at the streaming giant over the show which they claimed contained material widely branded "transphobic."

Chappelle addressed those comments during another Netflix special, calling students who criticized him "instruments of oppression."

Newsweek has contacted Chappelle and Netflix via email for comment.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos at first defended Chappelle, saying: "We have a strong belief that content on screen doesn't directly translate to real-world harm."

But he later told The Hollywood Reporter that he "screwed up" in regard to internal communications within the company about the special.

An estimated 100 Netflix employees organized a walkout in October 2021 and the streaming service's handling of the situation eventually led to the resignation of Terra Field, a high-level engineer for the company and the founder of its transgender employee research group.

Before the walkout, Netflix said in a press release: "We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that's been caused. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content."