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.
The whole notion of you can’t punch down never made sense to me. A group of people that you can’t criticize or make fun of is not a group below you.
What do you mean “can’t”? There’s no law or anything, you can insult whoever you want just like Dave.
Then what’s all the outrage about?
Doing something that makes you an asshole is not a contradiction. You are free to be an asshole, through your actions.
“You can’t” in the sense of “you shouldn’t.” Because if you do, you’re an asshole.
So you can make jokes about only certain groups of people without being an “asshole” wouldn’t that make the other groups protected?
“Don’t kick puppies.”
“Oh, so dogs are ABOVE me?!”
Protected is not the angle you’re bitching about.
Nice straw man
Incorrect. You are explicitly complaining that a backlash for talking shit about people cannot mean they are “a group below you.”
But suddenly you understand that groups being protected is a different thing. Hmm. Maybe you should apply that to the original context, instead of needing someone to point out the absurdity with paraphrased mockery.
What does that have to do with kicking puppies?
It’s punching down.
You can figure this out on your own. I believe in you.
So it’s barely related to the point and was made so a counter argument could easily knock over the point? That sounds like a straw man to me.