Michelle Buteau Slams Dave Chappelle in New Stand-up Special
Michelle Buteau is intent on bringing the love in her new Netflix special, A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall. But she still reserved a few powerful backhands for fellow comic Dave Chappelle during her one-hour set.
Using a bit about her Black lesbian friend as an example, Professor Buteau launched into a comedy lesson. “We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community,” she explained. “We can do that. We can make it funny, we just have to work at it. So if you guys ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that shit? I don’t think he know that shit.”
Some people might view Chappelle as the GOAT, but in Buteau’s estimation, “greatest of all time” doesn’t apply here. In his case, she jokes, GOAT stands for “going off about trans people.”
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“Dave, it’s not funny!” she announced to applause. “It’s dangerous. Make it funny.”
“I can’t believe someone would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me,” she told the crowd. “I want to make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained. That is my goal.”
Netflix, which has been the main bully pulpit for specials in which Chappelle insists on sharing his trans rants, at least is providing a forum for Buteau to tell him to give it a rest. She joins comics like Jerrod Carmichael and Hannah Gadsby, as well as outraged Netflix employees, in taking Chappelle to task.
Like Gadsby, Buteau rightly points out that Chappelle’s anti-trans bits aren’t only dangerous, they’re lazy. At this point, the main “joke” is that Chappelle won’t be told what he can and cannot say. Isn’t it hilarious and brave that he’s saying it anyway? But there’s little comedy thought or insight behind the routines, just contrarian foot-stomping.
Buteau likely won’t be the last comic to tell Chappelle that his rhetoric is dumb and dangerous. Unfortunately, such criticism usually encourages him to double down. Let’s see if he’s finally ready to listen.
