Jerrod Carmichael Shares His Unfiltered Opinion of Dave Chappelle

Jerrod Carmichael, who publicly came out as gay in his HBO comedy special Rothaniel, spoke candidly about Dave Chappelle's transphobic remarks.

By Cydney Contreras Jun 16, 2022 5:27 PMTags
Watch: Dave Chappelle Speaks Out After Netflix Special Backlash

The kids are alright. At least, that's how Jerrod Carmichael feels.

The comedian reflected on coming out as gay in his HBO Max comedy special this May, revealing that his 15-year-old niece was the only family member to acknowledge his bravery. "She hit me with a quick text," he told GQ, adding that she wrote, "''I see you. I hear you.'"

It's for this reason and many others that Jerrod has great respect and admiration for people his niece's age. Well, he didn't say it in those exact terms. He actually said: "I love this generation. I actually f--k with them, and f--k all those comedians that are going so hard against them."

And yes, when he says "those comedians," he's talking about controversial figures, particularly Dave Chappelle. Jerrod railed against the Chappelle Show host, who's made transphobic remarks on multiple occasions. "Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?" Jerrod said. "That's the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans s--t? It's an odd hill to die on."

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He continued, "And it's like, hey, bro. Who the f--k are you? Who do you f--k? What do you like to do? Childish jokes aside, who the f--k are you? It's just kind of played."

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Jerrod reasoned that Dave is just creating a "boogeyman" for the purpose of selling tickets, but, in his opinion, this threat of cancellation isn't real, adding, "What does that mean, that people are mad on Twitter? Everybody's fine. These grown men are fine."

Following the October premiere of Dave's Netflix special The Closer, Dave went on tour and even received support from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who previously said, "We don't allow titles on Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don't believe The Closer crosses that line."

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Ted's remarks have since started a wider discussion about trigger warnings and how content creators impact communities. Hannah Gadsby, whose series Nanette streams on Netflix, told The Hollywood Reporter June 16 that she's not sure if she wants to work with the streaming platform after they featured Dave and Ricky Gervais (he recently made transphobic remarks in his comedy special, too).

But Hannah also seems to agree with Jerrod when it comes to Dave and Ricky's potential for redemption. When asked if she'd talk to Ricky, she said, "I wouldn't go out of my way to talk to him because I just don't think there's any point. He's made up his mind... So why bother?"

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