Comedian Michelle Buteau blasted Dave Chappelle for making money off "not funny" and "dangerous" jokes about the transgender community in his successful Netflix specials.
Buteau hosted her own comedy special "Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall," which premiered on Netflix Tuesday. During her act, she made an explicit joke regarding her "beautiful, Black lesbian friend," which she claimed was an example of a respectful way to reference the LGBTQ community.
"What I’m saying is it can be done. It can be done. We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community," Buteau said. "We can do that, we can make it funny. You just have to work at it, right?
"So if you guys ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that s---? I don’t think he knows that s---."
"I don’t think we’ll run into Dave because he’s the GOAT. And he is the GOAT, if that means ‘going off about trans people.’
"Dave, it’s not funny. It’s dangerous," she continued. "I can't believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me, truly."
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Buteau declared, "I'm manifesting this s--- tonight. This is a Radio City Music Hall takeover, and I'm gonna tell everybody I wanna make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained."
Speaking to USA Today on the special, Buteau also referenced Chappelle’s comments and emphasized the importance of supporting the community.
"I’m not saying you can’t say things – I’m just saying, ‘Can you make it funny?’ Because it doesn’t feel funny," Buteau added. "You’re hurting people and you’re making it dangerous. And it’s not just Chappelle – it’s part of the culture that I don’t understand.
"When people say, ‘We can’t do what we used to do.’ Yeah! Slavery used to be legal, you guys. Sometimes we’ve got to move forward, and I’m sorry if it’s different, but wrap your little mind around it."
In 2021, Chappelle got into hot water with the left for transgender jokes in his Netflix special, "The Closer." Trans activists urged Netflix to drop the program and a small group of Netflix employees also staged a walkout in protest.
In 2023, he continued to make jokes about transgender people in his special "The Dreamer," when he recounted visiting Jim Carrey on the set of his 1999 movie, "The Man on the Moon."
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Carrey employed a "method" approach to portraying real-life comedian Andy Kaufman by remaining in character at all times, and Chappelle was told by the crew to address Carrey as "Andy" when he met him.
"I wanted to meet Jim Carrey and I had to pretend this n---a was Andy Kaufman all afternoon. And he was clearly Jim Carrey. I could look at him and I could see he was Jim Carrey," he remarked. "Anyway, I say all that to say that's how trans people make me feel."
