My Review of "Dave Chappelle: The Closer"

Dave Chappelle: The Closer has recently come out this week in 2021. It's the much anticipated stand-up special as it fulfills his stand-up obligation for Netflix. He mentions in this special that this will be the last televised stand-up special he's doing for a while. Knowing this, he went for the jugular and just went at it with a whole slew of jokes that could get him cancelled.

The jokes start off in somewhat similar fashion as his other specials. He prefaced the show with the controversies of his last stand-ups. There are a few groups of people that are quite angry with him for his previous specials.

To keep the audience up to date he's also divulged in some of the things that has happened to him since the last stand-up special. One of the examples is that he had contracted the Corona virus. He is one of the few comics that can make light of a pretty serious subject as contracting Corona virus. The joke that comes with this serious subject is the first eye opening shock that came to me.

This isn't a new thing though, Dave has been known to make fun of every group without prejudice but times are very different now. I hardly hear anyone make jokes about any groups for fear of getting cancelled and/or serious backlash from the subject group. So when I hear this joke it caught me by surprise even though I know he's done this in the past.

His jokes were dealt with a lot of fairly current events which made me believe that this special was taped not too long ago. They're basically current situations that we're seeing today. Since it was a large live audience it even further proves that the show was recently taped.

He makes a lot of interesting comparisons. They're topics that not a lot of people discuss for fear of retribution. In some ways he's correct in assuming that people are living in fear of hurting the feelings of others. With that said, I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing though. You have to understand that Dave is a person of a generation that thinks things should be a certain way. The older we get the harder it is for us to evolve and change because we've become very confident and comfortable with ourselves.

Still Dave isn't totally wrong in some of the things he's talking about. He talks about his jealousy of how quickly certain groups were able to ascertain acceptance in society. He's lived as a black man in America for so long and yet he doesn't see the same speed of progress for black Americans in general. He tries to explain this with examples and the examples can feel quite insulting to the group he makes mention.

The problem is that once a lot of people hear his first examples their ears will not hear anymore. I can see how they would not like to continue with the conversation with such an opener. You can even see it in the audience in the special. The camera will pan to the audience and you'll see certain individuals that aren't too pleased with what he's saying.

Even Dave has to know that they aren't going to listen to a word he's saying if he starts off like that. He even mentioned how sensitive people are nowadays. Fans of Dave will give him the benefit of the doubt and listen to the whole thing to understand what he really means. If you continue to listen you will understand what he's trying to say. There's still a divide in racial inequality but like Dave says in the special, the rules keep changing.

I think a lot of people will come to watch for the jokes but nowadays they really stay for the stories. Over the years I've found Dave to be more of a master storyteller than a guy that comes out with jokes. Don't get me wrong he still has some jokes but some of them don't really hit the mark like they used to with this new world we live in. His stories are still insightful and poignant. Oftentimes, I wonder why these stories are in a comedy special when they're actually pretty serious and sad stories.

Dave has a gift to lift people up and down throughout his shows. He's able to make us laugh and also feel great shame at the same time. The hills and valleys keep us engaged with his work. These stories are always a hell of a ride but in the case of the closer it felt like he knew that this was his last special so he just went for any offensive joke he could think of. He probably thought that it wouldn't matter if he got cancelled afterwards because he's already finished his contractual obligation. Technically he's quite wealthy and is in no need for money so he's good either way.

Overall, I was still able to enjoy the stories and perspectives of this special. I wouldn't say that it was as funny as his previous outings. You can tell he had fun with it and he just doesn't really care anymore. If anything I would think that a lot of groups will be after him for this special. I'm not totally sure if he will come out with another special. I will have to give this comedy special a 7 out of 10. It's entertaining but be weary of you're easily offended.