I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty damn tired of the Alphabet Mafia (AM) — affectionately known on Twitter as the LGBTQ+LMNOP@#$% community — thinking that they determine what everyone else is allowed to consume in terms of entertainment, especially comedy. That’s ironically amusing, because they seem to have to absolutely sense of humor.
As most of you know, AM’s latest target the past week or two has been legendary stand-up comic Dave Chappelle in the wake of his very not-woke Netflix special, “The Closer.”
Well, Chappelle must have woken up a sleeping giant, because fellow comedian Damon Wayans spoke to TMZ this week and praised the 48-year-old Chappelle for what is being considered as his brave stance in defense of comedy.
“I feel like Dave freed the slaves,” Wayans said. “The comedians. We were slaves to PC culture.”
Wayans then spoke of Chappelle seeming to sacrifice himself for the sake of comedy — a profession in which taboos are supposed to be talked and joked about in order to make them not so serious all the time.
“And he’s just, you know, as an artist he’s Van Gogh. He cut his ear off,” continued Wayans. “And he’s trying to tell us, ‘It’s okay.’”
Chappelle responded to the "woke" mob last week at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles over the furor concerning the comedy in "The Closer."
"F**k Twitter. F**k NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid ass networks,” Chappelle said. “I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to you. This is real life."
Wayans also made a great analogy in defense of freedom of expression, which is everything to true comedians.
“I just think he’s saying, ‘You know what? With all that I have, I’m not afraid to lose it for the sake of freedom of speech,’" Wayans said before elaborating. “You can’t edit yourself. Comedians, we’re like — Mercedes makes a great car. But they gotta crash a lot of them before they perfect it.”
The “In Living Color” regular is 100 percent correct. Stand-up comedy is like any other art. You have to experiment a lot before you know what works and what doesn’t.
The TMZ reporter pressed Wayans on the content of Chappelle's special, and the comedian answered him perfectly by addressing the larger issue.
"I can’t speak about the content of the show," Wayans said. "But what I say is there’s a bigger conversation we need to have. Someone needs to look us in the eye and say, ‘You’re no longer free in this country. You’re not free to say what you want; you say what we want you to say. Otherwise, we will cancel you.’ That’s the discussion we need to have.”
A-freakin-men!
At least there are still some comedians — even if the ones who stand up for free speech seem to be the older ones — who still understand that comedy can take on any topic as long as you make it funny.
For Wayans’ full comments, watch below: