Dave Chappelle: The Closer

Chappelle once again does his best to expose the inconsistencies, hypocrisies and nonsense so prevalent in the treatment of race, sex and celebrity in American culture, and to offer his own contrasting point of view.

I'd put this finale to the Netflix Chappelle series of specials on par with Sticks & Stones. Dave's refusal to back down or apologize for his material is something to be admired, even if I kind of feel like at this point he's only continuing to fuel the fire with the trans community solely out of stubbornness. However you feel about these topics, Dave always presents them with evidence on both sides of every argument and reminds us that it's essential to be able to laugh.

I love Chappelle, but this is sloppy. It lacks substance and cohesion and mostly just meanders its way through without much direction or thought. This isn't final product, one hour Netflix special material. It's more like second-rate podcast material. Chappelle doesn't seem to give a fuck anymore about the comedy aspect of his act-that, or he's losing his edge. I didn't find the content offensive (his critique is hardly objectionable), just not all that funny, thoughtful, clever or entertaining.

Really good, sane and rational and a good counter balance to the PC, victim minded millenial children out there

A fine hour of stand-up, which finds Chapelle more interested in opining than offering traditional “comedy”, though the childlike bluntness and directness used in the approach to his hot-button punchlines is certainly bracing. That a show as even-handed and level-headed as this could cause major meltdowns within some sections of society is puzzling and even slightly alarming – but props to Chapelle for charging in where others would fear to tread, even if the “fear” present is a bit mystifying.

It's fine. Anyone who loves it and anyone who hates it is not to be trusted. Strays too far from funny into story. Has some solid material.

Although he seems to really be on the defensive here, this doesn't feel like simply an addendum to his previous special. In fact, his punchlines come across across here as simpler and less convoluted than ever before. Whatever else can be said about this, it is amazing how people have demonstrated both how much they can miss the message with this one, as well as their remarkable ability to simply not let things go. It takes a comedian to reveal who the clowns are.

The special often devoids itself of comedy to become pure soapbox at times, but you know what? It's a soapbox I can appreciate on some level. Chappelle's personal stories are far more endearing than his usual parley into mocking the black identity and his reaction to the modern cancel culture of the day conveys just how abrasive it is. The jokes are weak as hell and his insight on trans issues are callous in their own way, but I think it says a lot about progressives if this causes such outrage.

Chappelle is totally peerless in what he's doing these days. He's already proved to himself and the world that he can make us laugh as well as anybody ever has. Now he wants to have conversations with us about the absurdities of our world and culture, and I think it's a very worthwhile conversation. I understand the backlash (and certainly disagree with some of the things he says), but I also think the outrage basically misses the forest for the trees.

It ain't much, but it's honest work. Not the funniest or most insightful but Chappell encapsulates wonderfully what stand-up is all about. Addressing the social elephants in the room with childlike candidness. Bluntness does not equal cruelty and people who take his comedy to heart should reflect what it says about them, not Chappelle. As long as there exists a "punch down" mentality, it only upholds segregationist double standards. That shit deserves to be called out.

Not as terrible as the left-liberal online consensus made it out to be, but it's still the worst standup Chappelle has put out. Like his previous Netflix entry, it's watchable because of him, not the content. In this case it's a muddled self-pity party with some scattered offhand jokes where Dave's digging down, not up, despite claiming to have a trans friend whose existence forgives all these bad feelings he has. Love to see another middle-aged celebrity go down the Graham Linehan route.

Not his sharpest most organized materials, but he continues to speak from the heart and be funny while doing it, something about 1 percent of people can do. Almost no one can do it as well as Chappelle. If you like him you will like this.

A slight improvement over "Sticks & Stones", "The Closer" is marginally funnier but still far from noteworthy from a comedic standpoint. Chappelle spends most of the special patting himself on the back, culminating in a desperate dependency on one moving story to prove his trans-friendly credentials, in a try-hard effort to convince us that his obsession with LGBTQ jokes is well-meaning and misunderstood. Instead, he proves several times throughout how painfully ignorant and out-of-touch he is.

empathy is bisexual

Say what you will but this was pretty good.

Jim Davidson level shite. Something must be up with the netflix algorithms that kept pushing this at me.

I love Chappelle and have watched all of his stuff available on streaming platforms. This is by far his weakest material he spends way too long on the transgender community being "triggered" by his jokes. Which is something he should've dropped the last special. Not because some of it isn't funny and is offensive(It's both funny and offensive) but because it's stale, beating a dead horse, and makes him look like he is holding a grudge because group of people doesn't like his jokes about them.

Loses points for the repeated instances in which he's convinced he's exposing 'inconsistencies', 'hypocrisies', etc..., but the alleged inconsistencies have actually been exposed and addressed 30 years ago. There are even terms, terms most not-that-erudite college students would know (e.g. 'intersectionality'), coined for the purpose of addressing said inconsistencies, which Dave Chappelle believes he's just now uncovering for the world to see. Plus, he's not that funny to begin with.

The GOAT.

I understand the hate and frustration surrounding this special, but i think it brings more people to the discussion than turning them to one side or another

It wasn't terrible comedy. Dave Chappelle is hilarious and he holds nothing as sacred, which is they way comedy should stay, but the subject matter doesn't always lend itself to humor. I've seen better stand-up specials, but this was solid, I chucked throughout, and he makes some really damn good points.

Initially funny standup set that kind to devolves as it goes on into more just lightly comedic storytelling, which if that’s your thing more power to you but not so much for me

One of his poorest by quite a stretch

Yeah, I watched this quickly in case it was pulled and buried in the Netflix dungeon crypt by the bloated corpse of Insatiable. It’s politically perverse - of course - and I find it odd that we’re having a cultural convo about the last-third’s canceltastic invitation when the first 5 minutes is a variable kabob of also non-PC skewering. It’s a piece full of wild anachronisms wrestling with race and privilege when one of those is not as well defined as it once seemed.

Not the best Chappelle standup I've seen but pretty funny, he's a great storyteller. Stupid that there is controversy here but he plays into it

Best part of this, is Netflix continuing to give a big FU to all the cry babies

I haven’t seen anything from Chappelle for almost 15 years, and it looks like I’ll have to go back to his earlier stage performances to see what all the fuss is about. I agree with most of his points but this just isn’t funny. In fact it barely counts as stand-up: more like a lighthearted speech to confirm his viewpoints on social issues, occasionally dropping in a lazy race joke just to wake people up. I didn’t even chuckle until about 20 mins from the end, and even then only a coupla times.

It's not funny

Not his sharpest show, but still not without wit.