Dave Chappelle has accused the Grammys of snubbing him for his controversial 2021 Netflix special The Closer — seemingly forgetting that it actually won him a Grammy.
Speaking at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival on Friday (8 August) during the premiere of his documentary Dave Chappelle: Live in Real Life, the comedian claimed both the Grammys and Emmys had blackballed him over jokes about transgender people.
“I’ve gone on to get snubbed by the Grammys and the Emmys because someone thought it was a good idea to tell trans jokes,” he said.
However, The Closer — which included several remarks about gay and trans people and saw Chappelle describe himself as “team TERF” — won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Multiple Grammy Wins Since the Special
Far from being shut out, Chappelle has picked up three Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album since 2022, including for The Dreamer, in which he joked about writing a play centred on a “Black transgender woman whose pronoun is, sadly, n***a.”
Controversies Beyond the Grammys
Chappelle’s relationship with the trans community has been contentious for years. During the 2022 Netflix Is A Joke festival, he was tackled on stage and later claimed his attacker was a “trans man.” That same year, while performing at Madison Square Garden, he referred to protestors outside the venue as “transgender lunatics” trying to “cancel” him.
Despite frequent complaints about “cancel culture,” Chappelle continues to work closely with Netflix and perform sold-out shows.
Comedian Michelle Buteau criticised his approach earlier this year, saying:
“We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community. We can make it funny, we just have to work at it… if you ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that st. I don’t think he knows that st.”
