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Dave Chappelle claps back: ‘You will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands’

October 26, 2021 | | Print Article
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(Video Credit: Daily Dose Comedy)

Wildly popular comedian Dave Chappelle answered outraged critics at Netflix in a video on his Instagram account over his comments during the comedy special “The Closer” and he refused to bend the knee to their demands.

Chappelle voiced his opinion to his fans at a stand-up comedy session on Sunday in Nashville, Tennessee. The crowd roared as the comedian demanded to know whether he was canceled or not.

“It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak to the transgender employees of Netflix and I refused. That is not true — if they had invited me I would have accepted it, although I am confused about what we would be speaking about,” Chappelle stated during the video.

“I said what I said, and boy, I heard what you said. My God, how could I not? You said you want a safe working environment at Netflix,” he noted referring to an employee walkout over the special.

“Well, it seems like I’m the only one that can’t go to the office anymore!” he commented as the crowd applauded.

Chappelle explained that he had created a documentary that had been scheduled to be aired at a number of film festivals until the controversy over “The Closer” exploded. Those showings were all summarily canceled after the blowup occurred.

“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that is not what it is. Do not blame the LBGTQ [sic] community for any of this s***. This has nothing to do with them. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say,” the comic asserted to thunderous applause.

Chappelle’s answer to being canceled will be to play the documentary at select theaters in 10 major cities. He also contends that he is willing to meet with members of the transgender community but only under his terms.

Those cities will include San Francisco (11/4), Minneapolis (11/7), Des Moines (11/9), Indianapolis (11/12), Cleveland (11/14), Toronto (11/15), Cincinnati (11/17), Columbus (11/19), Atlanta (11/21), and New York (11/22), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“This film that I made was invited to every film festival in the United States and some of those invitations I accepted. When this controversy came out about ‘The Closer,’ they began disinviting me from these film festivals,” Chappelle commented. “And now, today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch this film. Thank God for Ted Sarandos and Netflix, he’s the only one that didn’t cancel me yet.”

“To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands. And if you want to meet with me, I’d be more than willing to, but I have some conditions,” he said.

“First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing at a time of my choosing, and thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny!” Chappelle snarked. Gadsby is a comedian who slammed Netflix and its CEO over Chappelle’s special.

Gadsby viciously asserted that Chappelle’s special would unleash “hate and anger” for the LGBTQ community as he made millions of dollars “to process his emotionally stunted partial world view,” according to NBC News.

“For the record, and I need you to know this,” he remarked, “everyone I know from that community has been loving and supporting, so I don’t know what all this nonsense is about.”

Chappelle ended off by claiming he has yet to be fully “canceled.”

“You have to answer the question, ‘Am I canceled or not?'” he asked the audience.

Chappelle’s fans shouted, “No!”

“Then let’s go,” Chappelle concluded. “Thank you very much, and good night.”

Americans appear to be Team Chappelle all the way:

 

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