Joe Rogan has come out swinging in defense of Dave Chappelle amid the unfurling controversy surrounding the comedian’s latest Netflix comedy special The Closer.
The Closer, which arrived on October 5th, has sparked accusations of transphobia from the LGBTQ community, and transgender employees at Netflix. Chappelle has come under fire for jokingly labelling himself “transphobic,” aligning himself with J.K. Rowling’s TERF views, and mocking trans peoples’ genitals.
Social media and LBGTQ organisations GLAAD and The National Black Justice Coalition have called on Netflix to take down the special. “Netflix has a policy that content ‘designed to incite hate or violence’ is not allowed on the platform, but we all know that anti-LGBTQ content does exactly that,” GLAAD wrote in a statement.
On Wednesday, October 20th, hundreds of transgender Netflix employees and allies gathered in a walkout protest outside the streaming giant’s Los Angeles headquarters to protest the special.
During the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan defended Chappelle amid the controversy, saying that the backlash was misguided. “He’s not a homophobic or transphobic person. He makes fun of himself,” Rogan said.
“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 look for things,” Rogan added.
“When you start equating jokes with real feelings, they’re not the same thing… These ideas that you can’t make fun of are dangerous, they’re not good for anybody.
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“The idea that no fun could be had about any of this is crazy, because then the idea is that all fun is done maliciously and out of hate, and we know as friends, that’s not true.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Rogan condemned efforts to have the special removed from Netflix. “Look, he’s clearly the most popular comedian on planet Earth, he’s number one. He’s clearly one of the greatest comedians who ever lived, clearly,” Rogan said.
“So, obviously a lot of fucking people like him. So what you want is people to not have access to him, when you have options: You don’t have to like it, but you want Netflix to take it down, this is an incorrect way to do this.”
Rogan went on to defend Chappelle’s practice, and contemplated that those in marginalized communities fail to differentiate humour with hate speech.
“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 onto that, that also feel like this is a protected class,” Rogan said.
“And they equate any jokes with hate, and this is where they’re wrong. I’m telling you that Dave Chappelle doesn’t hate anyone or anything. He’s not that person. His jokes are just that: Jokes.”
Joe Rogan weighs in on the outrage surrounding Dave Chappelle:
