I have no idea where you got that from. I say absolutely nothing about his history and contribution. I'm not even sure what "contribution" you mean. But even then, why would not assume I'm also a fan of Ricky Gervais (which I am)? Anyway, I'll take you at your word if you say that's not what you meant. Reeeally poorly framed though.
Dave calling himself team TERF and a transphobic comedian was so obviously a joke that it's embarrassing that some people are claiming to take him seriously. But I think it's also an attempt to highlight how ridiculous the term TERF is in its current usage.
Don't think that males should compete against females in professional sport (including combat sport)? You're a TERF. Do you understand why terms like "menstruator" and "person with ovaries" might feel reductionist and offensive to some women? You're a TERF! Have you grown up your entire life (not to mention the entirety of human history) with the idea that, for example, women give birth? And are struggling to accept the idea that men can suddenly do it too? You're a TERF! It's ridiculous.
Never mind the fact that Dave agrues against North Carolina's anti-trans bathroom bill in the special (which makes the Trans Exclusionary part hard to square). Never mind the fact that nobody who only just learned what the word "feminist" means from Websters dictionary could possibly be described as "radical". Never mind that most of the people who the term is applied to wouldn't be caught dead describing themselves as feminists. TERF is just a label thrown at anybody who doesn't unquestioningly accept everything that modern gender ideology demands. It's become a tool to demonise people and shut down discussion. Nothing more.
No, my argument isn't based on one trans person. All I'm trying to say is that neither of us can speak for the trans community or women or black people or any other group. Some people found the special funny. Some didn't. Going by the audience approval ratings (95% last time I checked), it seems the overwhelming majority of people did. "All the commentary" from the trans community (by which we almost exclusively mean trans activists on Twitter) on any topic, is pretty much universally hysterical and extremist and in my experience hardly ever reflects the feelings and opinions of ordinary trans people (actually the same is true of a lot of online anti-racist rhetoric, but that's another conversation).
But that said, I'm not trying to say that the opinion of those who were offended by the special doesn't matter. I'm not saying that they're wrong. I'm saying that the answer to a difference of opinon is to talk, preferably reasonably and without hyperbole, about your issue. There is vanishingly little of this in the discourse about the special. Pretending that a few. jokes pose an existential threat to trans people. Demanding that a wildly popular comedy special ispulled because a tiny minority didn't find it funny. Deliberately and repeatedly lying about or misrepresenting its content. All of this just makes those objecting seem unreasonable and untrustwirthy and drains any available sympathy.
Yes, Dave Chappelle has been getting flack his entire career for his jokes. And don't get me wrong, I have no problem with that. Even a small-fry like me gets plenty of flack for some of the things I write. If you put your thoughts out into the world in 2021 you're an idiot not to expect at least some criticism. That's how should be. It's just that the online trans activist community always turns it up to 11. It's just that no other community is so willing and ready to parade its dead every time somebody expresses an opinion they don't like. It's kind of grotesque (and even more grotesque, as I point out, is how that concern for their dead doesn't apply if a trans person expresses the wrong opinion).
The place where your substantive criticism falls down is that clearly Dave did speak to Daphne and I'd suspect other funny trans women as well. And clearly his jokes did make her feel included and relevant. She loved them. She defended them! The important difference here is that Daphne knew how to laugh at herself.
So yes, the bodies of trans people are the punchline in some cases. Just as the centuries of brutal racial oppression that black people have faced is the punchline in some cases. Just like the centuries-old conflict that has killed so many Jews is the punchline in some cases. Just as rape and child molestation and murder are the punchline in some cases.
Dave's question, and I think it's a good one, is why is only one of those causing all of this outcry?
