Chappelle’s ‘Closer’: DaBaby canceled for offending gays but not killing man
Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special, “The Closer,” has only just dropped on Netflix, but it’s already making headlines due to a controversial joke made at the expense of rapper DaBaby.
Chappelle, who is well-known for his withering jokes about race and sexuality, quips that killing a black man in the United States is less offensive than upsetting members of the LGBTQ community — and he cites DaBaby’s career downfall as proof.
Back in 2018, DaBaby admitted to fatally shooting a 19-year-old man inside a North Carolina Walmart, claiming he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors soon dropped the case against him before he went on to release two critically acclaimed, chart-topping albums.
However, DaBaby’s career came crashing down in July of this year, when he made a series of homophobic remarks at a concert in Miami. Music festival organizers dropped him from a series of star-studded shows, which prompted him to complain that he had been “canceled.”
The entire saga is skewered by Chappelle, 48, in “The Closer,” in which he jokes: “A lot of the LGBTQ community doesn’t know DaBaby’s history. He’s a wild guy. He once shot a n – – – – r and killed him. In Walmart. Oh, this is true. Google it. Nothing bad happened to his career . . .”
As the audience at the live special erupts with laughter, the comedian then quips: “Do you see where I’m going with this? In our country, you can shoot and kill a n – – – – r, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings!”
The joke has already sparked debate on Twitter, with one person claiming Chappelle had every right to mock DaBaby because his homophobic comments were “very offensive” and “in poor taste.”
DaBaby, 29, has been lying low since he made the anti-gay slurs onstage, during which he told the crowd: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put a cellphone lighten it up.”
He also told fans at the event: “Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d – – k in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up.”
However, Chappelle himself is no stranger to accusations of homophobia himself.
The comedian has long poked fun at the LGBTQ community, but in “The Closer” — his sixth Netflix special since 2016 — he insists he’ll no longer make jokes at the expense of the community “until we are both sure that we are laughing together.”
“The Closer” is allegedly the last of Chappelle’s comedy specials for Netflix, which have netted him tens of millions of dollars.
The final credits for the 90-minute special show a montage of moments picturing the comedian with a variety of other notable funnymen — including Bill Murray, David Letterman and Norm Macdonald, who died last month at age 61.
