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The class is centered on analyzing film, television, literature, and stand-up comedy.
With the release ofThe Closer, Dave Chappelle has been a particularly unavoidable figure this term.
Also, hes just funny.
I didnt know I couldnt do that.
Students are always particularly drawn to Chappelles discussion of racial stereotypes.
In this same special,he recounts the timea restaurant employee correctly guessed he was going to order chicken.
All these years, I thought I liked chicken because it was delicious.
If you dont like chicken and watermelon, something is wrong withyou, motherfucker!
These examples, even 20 years later, still hold their significance.
But what Ive noticed in the past few years is that students are finding Chappelle less and less relevant.
To my students generation, those specials are relics.
To them, he is the Chappelle of 2021 The CloserChappelle.
A man whos so consumed with yelling at people on the internet that he forgot to be funny.
The comedian he is now is the comedian hes been most.
What thefuckdoes that mean?
You might make mistakes.
You might punch down.
He does so in a moment when transgender and gender-nonconforming people areliterally dying.
He cant be transphobic because he has a trans woman friend, right?
Part of Chappelles early appeal was his stoner charm he was the funniest pothead in the dorm.
When boundaries are transgressed and people who dont deserve it are harmed, its no longer comedy its horror.
It was specifically intended to have real-life consequences.
Chappelle who left his multimillion-dollar contract with Comedy Central in 2005 certainly knows that more acutely than most.
He quit after dressing up as a Zip Coon minstrel in blackface.
This kind of response has less to do with jokes and more to do with ridicule.
It shows you agree with who is being targeted.
And, unfortunately for Chappelle, that might ultimately be whats happening.
They can see why wewere laughing then, but theyre watching a ghost of comedy past.
