The Most Dangerous Comic Alive

Sanitizing hate, one laugh at a time

After the unfortunate and untimely passing of Norm MacDonald, very few comedians have a shot at becoming the new 'Funniest Comic Alive.' Who would be the contenders? On that very concise list, Dave Chappelle ranks high. Maybe the highest. He's not simply a stand up-comic, more than a celebrity; he's a cultural influencer, one of the most far-reaching black voices in entertainment for over three decades. And he knows it. 

He shrewdly negotiated his deal with Netflix, performs only when he wants to and where he wants to, and there's not a single comedy club that wouldn't open its door to him. He has a vast fortune (estimated at $60m), lives far from the spotlight, and has attained a social status and level of wealth that very few men ever reach, where he truly can live his life on his own terms. 

Sadly, it looks more and more that freedom for Dave Chappelle means the freedom to sanitize the hateful views of Farrakhan for a wider public and help spread his hatred. Not surprising, considering his conversion to Islam is rumored to have been through the Nation of Islam, and he has kept close ties to the Reverend and members of NoI since. And for all his mocking of the woke and politically correct, Chappelle has come to embrace the same patterns as comedians who treat the stage as their pulpit and their comedy as a political confessional. 

This is what makes him so dangerous, so poisonous, in the times we live in. Thanks to his talent and influence, he comes and sanitizes the very antisemitic discourse that is leading to Jews being assaulted in record numbers in New York City and other places around the country since 1945.

And if you don’t believe that comedians and celebrities can lead to us down a very dark road, songs and comedy routines are what prepared the ground for, and eventually led to, the Rwandan genocide.

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A Long History

It's far from his first time dabbling in Antisemitism. As he admits himself, he’s been ‘warning us’ for the last 30 years. Still, let’s concentrate on the last two years alone. In his last Netflix special, ‘The Closer’, he spent two very long segments with very few laughs meant to hammer in the idea that:

1. Jews willingly left the land of Israel (erasing our genocide & expulsion at the time)

2. Jews might look like humans, but we're an alien race that looks similar to but are not quite human.

3. Jews do not belong in the land of Israel (then, where else?)

4. Jews are trying to steal land that is not ours

5. Jews embraced the behavior of Nazis after the Holocaust

6. Jews went so far that even the Nazis would say, 'Calm down.'

Not that Jews are not the only ethnic group Chappelle attacked in 'The Closer.' Describing the time he spent in quarantine, 10 days where he was watching 'these brothers beating these Asians up,' he felt this was what was happening inside his body. His strong African genes were beating up that Asian disease. At the height of the #StopAsianHate campaign, the violence inflicted on Asian Americans was just a punchline to him. 

And therein lies the difference between him and Norm MacDonald and why he will never simply take his place as the funniest comic alive. And certainly not the greatest of all time.

An Exception to the Norm.

Norm MacDonald, over the years, made multiple jokes about Jews and the Holocaust that would have been considered off-color by another. Some of these jokes, coming from anyone else, would have led not only to gasps and accusations of antisemitism, but it's easy to imagine the ADL getting involved, meeting with Rabbis, making public apologies, donations, the whole megillah. 

Yet it never happened. Norm was widely celebrated by many Jewish comedians and celebrities, both in life and death. In fact, after his passing, he was called a 'gift to Jewish humor.' Why should Chappelle be treated any differently? 

The answer is simple: Norm MacDonald's comedy came from a place where he wanted to make you laugh, even if that laugh came from you being uncomfortable. There was no hatred in the man, and it was clear that whoever or whatever he made fun of was part of the art of stand-up, and he was not trying to demean anyone. Except, maybe, a certain Swedish German of ill repute. As far as Jews go, he confided to Larry King that he had a Rabbi he often consulted, mentioned multiple times he had considered conversion to Judaism, and in fact showed a surprising knowledge of Jewish mysticism.

When Norm joked about Holocaust denial, it was clear the joke was on the deniers. When Chappelle made a joke about Kyrie and Holocaust denial, it was part of his defense of Kyrie to soften the charges against him. It wasn't to make fun of the denial; it was to make fun of those who took his Holocaust denial seriously. He quips that all he did was post a 'link to a movie, no caption, but apparently, it had some antisemitic tropes or something like that, and it had a weird title.' Is this how Dave would describe a white NHL player linked to a documentary attacking African-Americans and praising slavery, claiming it was quite humane and nothing like it's being portrayed in propaganda today?

When Norm made jokes about Jews running Hollywood, it was about making fun of those who believed in those conspiracies, like him declaring that Jewish leaders had made it snow in New York in April out of anger at Marlon Brando. Decades later, it seems some apparently did not get the memo that it was a joke and did echo the idea that Jews, in fact, control the weather. In his monologue, Chappelle doesn't joke about this; he says he's been in Hollywood for 30 years, and 'It's a lot of Jews, like, a lot.' Then it says it's not crazy at all to think the Jews control Hollywood; what is crazy is to say it out loud. It’s clear that he means it, whether you find it funny or not.

The Oldest Hatred

Chappelle's insidiousness doesn't stop there. Say what you will about him; the man is clever. He started his monologue by apologizing to Jews and Jewish organizations, echoing the statements of Nick Cannon, Whoopi Goldberg, and all the other celebrities who, unlike Kanye, had PR organizations with a firm grip on their clients who could make them partake in the usual farce. The farce that hatred is eradicated by meeting with a few activists or Rabbis for an hour or two, and capped with a donation to a charity of their choosing. He sees through it, and he's not wrong. Except he gets the wrong conclusion. For Dave, it's not that people should not be hateful; it's that people should not embrace the charade and pretend not to hate anymore.

In the past, he has mocked white people for claiming that 'they have black friends,' as if it was a pass for anything. Yet, Chappelle quickly shields himself behind the idea that he cannot be hateful because he has Jewish friends, therefore he ‘gets’ Jews! I guess we're not supposed to be seeing through that particular farce.

Then he discusses what he calls the "rules of perception": 'If they are black, it's a gang. If they are Italian, it's a mafia. If they are Jewish, it's a coincidence you should never speak about.' Notwithstanding the language used by the alt-right ('It's a cohencidence!'), the comparison simply makes no sense. There are black gangs. There is the Italian mafia. There is no organized Jewish cabal. Honestly, we can barely organize our weekly Kiddush. Israel has gone through 5 elections in 3 or so years, and there's no guarantee it won't hit 6 elections in 4. The only reason the expression is 'it's like herding cats' is because 'it's like being the chair of a Jewish committee trying to come to a solution everyone can agree on' doesn't quite roll off the tongue. 

He caps off the first part of his routine with, 'I know the Jewish people have gone through terrible things all over the world, but you can't blame them on black Americans.' Has there ever been, in the entirety of Jewish history, a single person who has seriously claimed that the terrible things Jews suffered from all over the world had been caused by black Americans?

No, Dave, there's not a single Jew on earth who blames the Holocaust, the Spanish expulsion, the Mawza exile, or the Second Temple's destruction on African-Americans. What we are saying is that when Kanye, Kyrie, Nick, or yourself repeat the propaganda of the Black Hebrew Israelites and Farrakhan, it motivates a small but hateful segment of black Americans to assault Jews in New York City, kill Jewish shoppers in Jersey City (after being unable to massacre Jewish schoolchildren), stab multiple people at a Hannukah celebration and killing a Rabbi. Jews are being assaulted because of your friends’ rhetoric, and you turn our suffering into a punchline. They are even repeating their words verbatim as they get arrested.

Forget being considered the funniest comedian alive or remembered as the greatest of all time. If you keep going down that road, your place in the annals of history might be closer to Riefenstahl than MacDonald.

As for me, I gotta say that the more I learn about that Dave Chappelle guy, the more I don’t care for him.