Throughout his career, Emmy-winning comedian Dave Chappelle has been known to tell jokes that are often received as shocking and offensive. His new Netflix comedy special, The Closer, does not shy away from those kinds of jokes. The special revolves around his long, troublesome relationship with the LGBTQ+ community who holds him accountable for his transphobic comments.
In the special, he tries to resolve the conflict, but he also creates new controversy. He tried to end the backlash he has been getting for years, saying that he is a supportive ally. But at the same time, he jokingly called himself transphobic, had stated that “gender is a fact” and sided with J.K Rowling, who has also been deemed as transphobic. With the stand-up routine gaining loads of criticism, The Closer has become his most controversial stand-up routine yet.
The special created great controversy amongst Netflix viewers and the LGBTQ+ community, including LGBTQ+ employees at the company. Many want the special to be removed from the streaming service because of its transphobic content. His previous comedy special, Sticks & Stones, released in 2019, also stirred controversy at the streaming company when he made several jokes about the LGBTQ+ community. But in his newest special, the topic of the LGBTQ+ community is Chappelle’s main focal point, digressing much more into jokes about transgender people.
Some employees at Netflix, also known as “Team Trans,” issued a walkout to protest the company’s decision to stream the special. Their walkout joined the hundreds of supporters and activists rallying for the same purpose. They marched down Vine Street in Los Angeles, holding signs that read “Trans Lives Matter” and “Transphobia is not funny.”
Not only were the employees fighting against the special, they were also fighting for trans equality at the company. As a way to fight for their equality, the employees presented a “list of asks” to the company’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos.
Some of the requests included were adding a disclaimer to the beginning of Chappelle’s special saying it contains transphobic jokes, recruiting more trans people for higher positioned roles in the company and more promotion on supportive trans content. The activists believe the list will help prevent future walkouts by putting a stop to harmful streaming content.
Even though the company has received loads of criticism, most of the higher up Netflix employees, like Sarandos, have defended the special. The executives at Netflix claim that the special does not “cross the line” for it to be considered hate speech, even though organizations like GLAAD and the National Black Justice Coalition have condemned Chappelle’s remarks in his special.
Sarandos stated that he has a “strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” Other co-CEO, Reed Hastings, also supported the special saying that “We do not see Dave Chappelle as harmful.”
One Netflix employee, who was the leader of the trans employee resource group organizing the walkout, was fired. The employee was supposedly let go because they had allegedly leaked metrics about the comedy special to the press. The numbers leaked showed how much the company paid for The Closer.
That employee has since denied leaking the information. The company had also suspended a transgender employee for making tweets about how they were against Netflix’s decision to stream transphobic content.
Fans of Dave Chappelle joined to counter-protest the employees, holding signs in support of Chappelle that read “jokes are funny” and “Netflix, don’t cancel free speech.” Those who have supported his content say that his overall message was lost in translation.
One of the main leaders of the rally, Ashlee Marie Preston, made a post on Instagram clarifying their main goal wasn’t to cancel Chappelle, but to reconstruct the leaders of Netflix into being more supportive of the trans community. Chappelle even talked about what the walkout was really about, telling an audience from a recent show that it’s not about him versus the community but rather the corporate’s interests and what he can and cannot say.
Netflix respects employees’ right to walk out, allowing them to do so without firing or suspending them. However, none of the employees were allowed to talk to the press. After the walkout, Sarandos recalled that he mishandled the situation and regrets not communicating with his employees more thoroughly. In a statement, Sarandos admits that he “should have led with a lot more humanity.” He further reflects that his decision inflicted pain on his employees and he regrets not acknowledging it before making his decision.
Chappelle declared in his newest special that this would be the last time he would make comments on the LGBTQ+ community. During his show, he tries to convince the community to rewatch his old specials and see that he isn’t transphobic and is actually supportive.
Since the release of the special, he has come forward to say that he is willing to work with the Netflix employees. He had also said in an Instagram post that if he was asked to join the rally he would, but he says he’s “not bending to anybody’s demands.”
As the controversy continues, Chappelle’s career has taken a severe hit as his new documentary has sparked less interest due to his last special. His special marked one of the biggest controversies to happen at Netflix, igniting substantial changes to occur within the popular streaming company.
