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Michelle Buteau has some words of advice for fellow stand-up comics who still rely on gay and trans jokes and punching down at the LGBTQ+ community in their sets: do better. Or, at the very least, make your bad jokes funny!
In her new comedy special Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall, which dropped hit Netflix December 31, 47-year-old Buteau takes aim at arguably the most famous anti-LGBTQ+ comedian of our time: Dave Chappelle.
At one point, she recalls a story about a Black lesbian friend then notes the mixed reaction her story seems to be getting from the audience. Some find the bit funny and laugh, while others appear uncomfortable.
“We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community,” she says. “We can do that. We can make it funny. We just have to work at it. So, if you ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that sh*t? I don’t think he knows that sh*t.”
She then calls him “the GOAT,” an acronym for “greatest of all time,” then clarifies, for Chappelle, it stands for “going off on trans people.”
In case you need a recap: In 2021, Chappelle caused major controversy when he made several “jokes” about the transgender community in his Netflix special The Closer, including calling himself “Team TERF,” an acronym for “trans exclusionary radical feminist.”
Despite calls for the special to be yanked from the streamer, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos repeatedly defended Chappelle’s transphobia as freedom of artistic expression, resulting in several Netflix employees staging a walkout that October.
Chappelle, who also received criticism for making “jokes” about the gay and trans communities in his 2019 Netflix special Sticks & Stones, later responded by saying, “If this is what being canceled is, I love it.”
“Dave, it’s not funny,” Buteau says in her new special. “It’s dangerous. Make it funny. I can’t believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me.”
“I’m manifesting this sh*t tonight. This is a Radio City Music Hall takeover, and I’m gonna tell everybody, I wanna make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained.”
In an interview promoting her new special with USA Today, Buteau added, “I’m not saying you can’t say things. I’m just saying, ‘Can you make it funny?’ Because it doesn’t feel funny.”
“You’re hurting people and you’re making it dangerous. And it’s not just Chappelle. It’s part of the culture that I don’t understand. When people say, ‘We can’t do what we used to do.’ Yeah! Slavery used to be legal, you guys. Sometimes we’ve got to move forward, and I’m sorry if it’s different, but wrap your little mind around it.”
A Buteau-ful Mind is Buteau’s second Netflix comedy special after her 2020 debut Welcome to Buteaupia. Her performance marked the first time a female comic has recorded a special at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall.
Michelle Buteau has some words of advice for fellow stand-up comics who still rely on gay and trans jokes and punching down at the LGBTQ+ community in their sets: do better. Or, at the very least, make your bad jokes funny!
In her new comedy special Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall, which dropped hit Netflix December 31, 47-year-old Buteau takes aim at arguably the most famous anti-LGBTQ+ comedian of our time: Dave Chappelle.
At one point, she recalls a story about a Black lesbian friend then notes the mixed reaction her story seems to be getting from the audience. Some find the bit funny and laugh, while others appear uncomfortable.
“We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community,” she says. “We can do that. We can make it funny. We just have to work at it. So, if you ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that sh*t? I don’t think he knows that sh*t.”
She then calls him “the GOAT,” an acronym for “greatest of all time,” then clarifies, for Chappelle, it stands for “going off on trans people.”
In case you need a recap: In 2021, Chappelle caused major controversy when he made several “jokes” about the transgender community in his Netflix special The Closer, including calling himself “Team TERF,” an acronym for “trans exclusionary radical feminist.”
Despite calls for the special to be yanked from the streamer, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos repeatedly defended Chappelle’s transphobia as freedom of artistic expression, resulting in several Netflix employees staging a walkout that October.
Chappelle, who also received criticism for making “jokes” about the gay and trans communities in his 2019 Netflix special Sticks & Stones, later responded by saying, “If this is what being canceled is, I love it.”
“Dave, it’s not funny,” Buteau says in her new special. “It’s dangerous. Make it funny. I can’t believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me.”
“I’m manifesting this sh*t tonight. This is a Radio City Music Hall takeover, and I’m gonna tell everybody, I wanna make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained.”
In an interview promoting her new special with USA Today, Buteau added, “I’m not saying you can’t say things. I’m just saying, ‘Can you make it funny?’ Because it doesn’t feel funny.”
“You’re hurting people and you’re making it dangerous. And it’s not just Chappelle. It’s part of the culture that I don’t understand. When people say, ‘We can’t do what we used to do.’ Yeah! Slavery used to be legal, you guys. Sometimes we’ve got to move forward, and I’m sorry if it’s different, but wrap your little mind around it.”
A Buteau-ful Mind is Buteau’s second Netflix comedy special after her 2020 debut Welcome to Buteaupia. Her performance marked the first time a female comic has recorded a special at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall.
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