Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix stand-up special will premiere on New Year’s Eve entitled The Dreamer. Earlier this month, a trailer was released that showed Chappelle’s iconic “C” logo with Morgan Freeman’s voice stating: “He’s back, folks.”
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The film is the seventh that he has released with the streaming giant. “The Dreamer” was shot in Chappelle’s hometown of Washington, DC at the historic Lincoln Theatre. Emmy Award-winning director Stan Lathan returns to direct the special, having directed all seven of Chappelle’s Netflix specials.
Chappelle’s previous films include The Age of Spin, Deep in the Heart of Texas, Equanimity, The Bird Revelation, Stick & Stones, The Closer. Although we obviously can’t predict the jokes the comedian will tell, it’s bound to be inherently controversial.
Even though hundreds of Netflix employees walked out of the company in protest after the release of 2021's The Closer, that hasn’t stopped Chappelle’s popularity. Many critics viewed it as transphobic and some of the quips he made in the previous special included:
“In our country, you can shoot and kill a n***** , but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings.” He also cracked a joke about the gay rights making more progress than the push for equality has. “If slaves had oil and booty shorts on, we might have been free 100 years sooner,” he stated.
Chappelle also said that “gay people are minorities until they need to be white again,” as if gay people of color don’t exist. Despite the outrage that followed The Closer, it seemingly didn’t effect Chappelle’s bank account. He’s still been performing all around the country, hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared on rap albums like Killer Mike’s acclaimed Michael.
We’ll just have to see what dialogue Chappelle will start this time.
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