Dave Chappelle's new Netflix special's defense of Michael Jackson and Louis CK seems designed to generate headlines

The Daily Beast

"In the first 20 minutes of his new Netflix special, Sticks & Stones, Dave Chappelle says he doesn’t believe Michael Jackson’s rape accusers, explains why he didn’t participate in the R. Kelly documentary, and defends Kevin Hart against his LGBTQ critics," says Kevin Fallon of Chappelle targeting cancel culture in his new special. "Later, he jokes about what he considers to be an overreaction to Louis C.K., who 'was a very good friend of mine before he died in that terrible masturbation accident.'" Fallon adds: "He knows that a swath of his audience, those who watched his button-pushing comedic commentary on The Chappelle Show and applauded that his astute, unfiltered genius, would be on board for the humor, no matter how uncouth or politically incorrect. That’s Chappelle’s talent: saying the things we’re not supposed to say, let alone think, and then consider what it says about us that we quiet those parts of ourselves. He knows that he will get those laughs when he says that he doesn’t believe Jackson’s accusers, owning the fact that this makes him a victim-blamer. When someone tells him that Chris Brown beat up Rihanna, 'I’d be like, well, what did she do?' he says. Hearing that Jackson molested children, he jokes he’s the kind of person who would say, 'Well, what were those kids wearing at the time?' More than both those things, he knows that this article is going to exist. He knows that this portion of his set will be pull-quoted and headlined and trending on social media as cultural critics wring their hands in disbelief that he could say something like that about Jackson’s accusers, or those outraged over Hart’s homophobic jokes, or angry about his own history of humor at the expense of the LGBTQ community. That’s the point of this part of the set, to take the air out of that instinct and to make us wonder what it says about our inability to understand the true value—or lack thereof—in cancellation culture, because we’re too blinded by woke outrage to notice what we’re really doing to discourse."

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• Chappelle's approach comes off like a defiant rejection of change at any cost
• Chappelle's special contains a surprise ending