Michelle Buteau shared her opinion about Dave Chappelle‘s jokes about transgender people. In 2021, Chappelle faced criticism for making the transgender community a focal point in his Netflix special The Closer. Despite backlash, he stood firm in his follow-up special, The Dreamer, stating he has no plans to edit his jokes from The Closer.
In her newly released Netflix special, Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall, she explained why she wasn’t a fan of some of Chappelle’s work. She was referring to a joke of his that included a “Black lesbian friend” of hers, Variety reported. She observed that the topic sparked a range of responses from the audience, with some finding it funny and others appearing uneasy. She believes comedians can find ways “to tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community.”
“We can do that. We can make it funny,” Buteau told the crowd. “We just have to work at it, right? So, if you ever run into Dave Chappelle can you let him know that s**t? I don’t think he knows that s**t.”
View this post on Instagram
Even though she referred to Chappelle as the G.O.A.T. during her performance, she wasn’t referring to him as the greatest of all time, which is what the abbreviation typically means. Instead, she said it meant “going off on trans people.”
“I can’t believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me, truly,” she said. “I’m manifesting this s**t 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.”
