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Vultures review ofThe Closeroriginally ran earlier this month.
Were republishing it in light ofongoing turmoilat Netflix followingthe specials release.
Back then, you often paid out of pocket for crossing the line.)
I thought loud public backlash would runChappelles Showoff the air.
Chappelle is a master of pressure-point work, of transgressing toward profundity.
He isolates absurdities we take for granted.
He shakes us out of the comforts of our conditioning.
Sketch comedy was the perfect setting for Chappelles ruminations about race and class.
Beneath a flurry of punch lines and quotables, his sketches were dioramas of American disorder.
This hang time between the thoughtful setup and the questionable payoff typifies the experience of watching Dave post-hiatus.
He almost wants you to overreact.
it’s possible for you to feel him priming for a strike.
You hope it lands smoothly.
Occasionally, it does.
(Dave works crowds like a boxer.
He keeps you off-balance.)
Replying One they or many theys?
to a fan who says, Theyre after you!
is the rare pronoun gag delivered by a veteran comic without a smoldering bitterness.
The impression of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. directing glory-hole traffic is a riot.
Strippies sounds like an elevator pitch for a hilarious sketch.
It also wants you to know that he hates having to say this.
He wants the old thing back the freedom to be crass without having it reflect negatively on his character.
He doesnt want to make people feel bad but doesnt accept any grief for it when it happens.
If you react poorly, you are proving him right that you cant take a joke.
This is, to a wide swath of types of guy, a brilliant trap.
(Two things can be true.)
Intermittently, the collection is genius.
He enjoys it, right?The Closerexplains that, really, Chappelle wants the best for everyone.
I am not indifferent to the suffering of someone else, he says.
He just feels everyone is handling themselves foolishly.
(Don Lemon would like a word.)
He objects to the charge of transphobia; hes merely invested in the gender construct, personally.
Instead, we are preoccupied with cleaning up old messes and creating new ones.
In Chappelles eyes, these are examples of the mountain-moving power of LGBTQ rage.
She was a comedian in her soul.
(The slideshow implies that entertainers are his tribe in question.
Its too on the nose that in this analogy a person only joins one group at a time.
These intersections are blind spots for Dave.
He speaks about Black and queer struggles as if they are strictly in competition, not always entangled.
He has the textbook edgelord allys arrogance.
At the same time, he brings up Sojourner Truths Aint I a Woman?
This is also on the nose.
Chappelle doesnt enjoy this boldness when its pointed in his direction.)
You talk enough shit, and youll draw flies.
If the velvet mafia exists, why do bathroom bills persist?
(DaBaby has been on the Billboard Hot 100 chart twice since this cancellation arc started.)
This time, hes going for the predictable jabs and rehashing takes that were old hat five years ago.
His head is up his ass.
He needs new ideas.
I hope he enjoys the break.
I hate feeling like I will, too.
