Finally, Someone Said It: Chappelle’s New Comedy Special
Rare is it to find a hearty, fresh, and unashamed stand-up comedy special in our day, especially from Netflix. In our all-too-active cancel culture, Dave Chappelle has leapt above the fray and the strife to deliver a surprisingly anti-PC kick to our sensibilities. The Netflix description of Chappelle’s lastest special, Sticks & Stones, describes it as “defiant,” and it surely is.
Chappelle, a comedic stud with a long, popular career (including Chappelle Show), stands before the mic and re-opens the comedy conversation with unexpected twists. He condemns the left’s condemnation of Kevin Hart while poking fun at minorities, using typical slurs and unfortunate vulgar jabs. He finds ludicrous “common ground” on abortion and supports gun-ownership—for blacks. He even takes a stab at the audience, bashing their mob-like outrage over celebrity “nontroversies.” Chappelle displays expertise in straddling both political sides while making a good-natured mockery of them.
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Chappelle stands untouchable due to his already-irreverent comedic repertoire and unapologetic delivery style. Only a few popular comics have found this gritty, real-life-type niche, and Chappelle has grounded himself firmly in the everyday reality of the layman, who is watching the news and rolling his eyes. The layman shakes his head at headlines and asks himself, are you serious right now? Chappelle allows us to find the humor in the headlines.
‘Finally,’ I found myself saying in the middle of laughs. Finally, someone is saying the truths we know (or at least we knew) to be self-evident. Truly a breath of fresh air in our stiff, pious discourse.
In his special, Chappelle begins to push open the gates that have stifled comics into the Trump-bashing pigeonhole many of us have become accustomed to. If more comics are able to emulate Chappelle in what he does so well, we will again find ourselves in an era where comedy (the once-great frontier of free speech) is comfortable in being both funny and offensive.
The public has been waiting for a change to comedy after a nearly decade-long dry spell of “correctness.” Once we are able to again laugh at ourselves and others, and understand there are no “protected classes” of people, the silencing wall of political correctness can begin to be torn down.
Provocateur Milo Yiannopolous was infamous for saying, “no one can resist the truth wrapped in a good joke.” If we can laugh at controversy and find humor in adversity, the nation can begin to unify; we can return to normal conversation not choked with political charge. Sticks & Stones can make walls, but in this case, it is a small stone in a bridge that can unite our divided communities.