Joe on the Outrage Around Dave Chappelle's New Special

Have you talked to Chappelle about all the shit he got for that special? Yeah, a little bit. We've texted back and forth. You know, he's just, you know, riding out the storm. Look, he's not a homophobic or transphobic person. He makes fun of himself. There's a bit in that special about him getting molested and jerking off in a man's face. Yeah. I mean, this is coming in a man's face. Look, it's fun. It's just making jokes. That doesn't mean hate. This is the problem with today. If you don't have an enemy, you make an enemy. And this is a real problem with people. We would look for things. Like if there's people that really hated you and they were the enemy, people that just joked around about stuff wouldn't be thought of as the enemy. It's like, and as the level of people truly hate you drops, you start looking for equilibrium and what you're upset about. And so now you're more upset about jokes. Now silence is violence. And now, you know, you can't just be this. You have to be that. And it becomes this like weird control level where people start to conflate. You start, when you start equating jokes with like real feelings, they're not the same thing. Well, I don't think that's what it is. I think they're trying to put different individuals or groups on a pedestal and kind of make them sacred. And we have someone comes along and knocks them off that pedestal. All of a sudden you're trying to undo what I'm trying to do, which is to make this person holy. And now you are my enemy because your agenda is the opposite of mine. Fully agree. I was getting too bad. No, it's okay. You're right though. 100%. But it's these ideas that you can't make fun of are dangerous. They're not good for anybody. They're not good for the people to hold those ideas, whether it's about who you are or what you do. The idea that no fun can be had about any of this is crazy because the idea is that then all fun is done maliciously and out of hate. And we know as friends that is just not true. All my fun is malicious. Well, it's also funny. If you and I were fucking with each other, we're saying ridiculous shit to each other. We would both be smiling while we did it. This is what roast battles are about. My friend Brian Moses. This is what a lot of what Kill Tony is about. Like it's fun. There's fun in making fun of each other. And we have to accept that. And then I need to know your real feelings about gay people, your real feelings about trans people, your real feelings about all religions and all races and all ethnicities. But we got to be able to joke around about each other. And if you get down to Dave Chappelle's real feelings, he's a lovely person. He's one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. He loves everybody. He is not a hateful soul. He's beyond jealous. He's just a guy who loves this art form called stand up comedy. And he tries to do his best navigating through this world of talking shit about things and saying outrageous things that get huge laughs or placating really sensitive groups that feel like they're in a protected class. And then the other people that pile on to that that also feel like this is a protected class. And they equate any jokes with hate. And this is where they're wrong. Like I'm telling you that Dave Chappelle does not hate anyone or anything. He's not that person. His jokes are just that. They're just jokes. And if you really pay attention to what he's saying, whether you agree with him or not in some of his jokes, like whether or not they're funny, just really pay attention to the overall message. It is in no way transphobic. It's just not. But this is a way for low status people to try to compete with Dave and try to get on his level. Because if I'm some kind of random journalist and I take down Dave Chappelle or Joe Rogan or somebody else, this elevates my status in my rank and takes him down a peg. And that's used from an evolutionary point of view. You're absolutely right. You can't be denied. If you're a person and you're looking up at a guy like Dave Chappelle, he's at the highest of high levels. You have to also equate that in anything you think about when you think about a guy like Dave Chappelle. But then you also have to realize that the problem is in listening to everybody, you're going to get a certain group of people that want people to not be able to work anymore. They want to stop you. They want to pull things down. They want to change what's available. You don't have to like it. Here's the thing about Dave Chappelle. Look, he's clearly the most popular comedian on planet Earth. He's number one. He's clearly one of the greatest comedians that's ever lived, clearly. So obviously a lot of fucking people like him. And what you want is people to not have access to him. When you have options, you don't have to like it. But if you want Netflix to take it down and you say it's hateful, this is an incorrect way to do this. If you want to make your own special about what was wrong with Dave Chappelle's special… Or go on YouTube with your monologue like Keith Elgorn. Yeah, exactly. Go for it. And good luck to you. And maybe you'll have a point that that person that you're criticizing can take into consideration and go, maybe I could do better at this. Because if something does bother you, if someone says something ridiculous about you, and it doesn't make any sense, it doesn't have any effect on you, the things that bother people are things that are at least slightly accurate. But I think this just kind of speaks to what we were talking about earlier, how they're trying to have their… In the same way how intentionally or not it's trying to push everyone to be an Amazon or a Walmart customer, they are trying to have everyone only consume media through pre-approved sources. Right. That's a problem. And if you're not reading the New York Times or CNN or the Wall Street or the Washington Post or whatever, that means you're doing something wrong. So this is what they're doing, that process of elimination, by trying to funnel people into certain outlets that they themselves can control, and that creates uniformity and cohesion among the population. I think the problem is he created a journalistic version of the Streisand Effect. I think that's the problem. Well, it's encouraging people to watch Chappelle? Yeah, it's encouraging for sure. That special's giant. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. And all the controversy has only been good. And then when people watch it… And the controversy is bullshit because it's not like he's Howard Stern back in the day. Well, it's not only that. What he's saying in this, he's telling a story about a real person that he was close with that died, that became friends with him through comedy. There's a whole story to it. I don't want to give it up because I think you should watch the special. I toured with Dave. We did a lot of shows together. This is his story that he had about this person that he loved that died. It's not a transphobic story, but there's jokes in there. And in those jokes, he's poking fun at everything, including himself. I mean, this is a part of his act. It's part of any comics act. There's a lot of it that's just designed to be funny while he's telling a story. That's one of the things that Dave does so well. He tells these stories, and he figures out a way to get his point across while being really funny. But when you're going to be really funny, you're going to make fun of yourself, you're going to make fun of other people, you're going to make fun of everything. But that doesn't equal hate. And that's not how men demonstrate camaraderie. Yes. Like coming from Brooklyn, you have the Jewish guy, the Italian guy, the Puerto Rican guy, you have the black guy. Everyone's busting each other's chops, and that's how you symbolize that you're comfortable with each other. I'm safe with you by saying things that would get me in trouble in other contexts, and I trust you enough to know that you're not going to use that in a bad way, that we're all bros here. Watch the entire episode for free only on Spotify.