Chappelle is back in full comic force
Funnyman takes on justice system, police in two Netflix standup specials
Dave Chappelle: The Age of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas Netflix
The criminal justice system has long been comedic fodder for Dave Chappelle.
But with his new pair of Netflix specials, we get to hear how Chappelle discusses policing and race as the U.S. fiercely debates the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they police.
Chappelle has gone on tours since he walked away from a $50-million deal with Comedy Central in 2005 and his show went off the airwaves. But it’s been more than a decade since he’s presented so much instantaneously accessible new material to a massive, global audience. In Deep in the Heart of Texas, filmed in 2015, he defers on delving too deeply into police brutality. “I’m not going to say nothing about the police,” he says. “I’ll leave that for Chris Rock.”
But he had plenty to say about the criminal justice system in his second special, The Age of Spin, filmed a year later in Los Angeles. Chappelle structures the special around four stories about running into O.J. Simpson over the years, starting with one when the comic was just 18.
Chappelle’s fame also provides him a perspective about interacting with police that’s different from what we’ve heard before. He tells the story of stumbling outside of a Los Angeles club when a friend offered to drive. They were then pulled over by police.
“I should tell you the friend that was driving me was black, which doesn’t really have anything to do with the story other than to let you know that there was fear in the car,” Chappelle quips.
“Not my fear. I’m black. But I’m also Dave Chappelle. So I figured, you know, s--- will probably be fine.”
The cop recognizes Chappelle, and calmly asks the driver to get out. Chappelle starts messing with the radio. “You know a traffic stop’s going good if you’re listening to the radio when someone else’s outside of the car.”
In the Austin special, Chappelle tells the story of filing a police report in his Ohio town after white teens in a car throw snowballs at him and yell a racial epithet. White townsfolk who witnessed the incident were disgusted and filed police reports, and the cops ask Chappelle if he wants to press charges. “Huh? Sorry about that officer, I’m a little flustered,” Chappelle says.
“I’ve never been in a position before where I can decide the fate of white children.”
Later in the The Age of Spin, Chappelle cites the Netflix series Making a Murderer about Steven Avery — a white Wisconsin man convicted of sexual assault, exonerated, and then convicted of murder — and declares “everybody’s mad at police now.”
“The justice system designed for (Avery) to thrive, he’s failed miserably twice. I can’t even wrap my mind around it,” Chappelle says. “If Making a Murderer was about a black dude” he says the show would be called “Duh. Of course it would all go wrong.”
In The Age of Spin, he refers to the deluge of news stories about police brutality and how, especially for a younger generation, it can lead to apathy: “How can you care about everything when you know every goddamn thing? I’m getting over one cop shooting and then another one happens and then another one happens and another one happens.”
I’m black. But I’m also Dave Chappelle. So I figured, you know, s--will probably be fine.