Michelle Buteau slammed Dave Chappelle and his controversial jokes about the transgender community in her new comedy special “Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall,” which debuted Tuesday on Netflix.
Buteau began criticizing Chappelle after telling a story about her “Black lesbian friend.” She noted the subject matter elicited a spectrum of reactions from the crowd, with some laughing and some uncomfortable, but emphasized that comedians should be able “to tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community.”
“We can do that. We can make it funny,” Buteau said. “We just have to work at it, right? So, if you ever run into Dave Chappelle can you let him know that shit? I don’t think he knows that shit.”
Buteau then facetiously referred to Chappelle as “the GOAT,” an acronym usually meaning “greatest of all time.” However, Buteau said in Chappelle’s case, “GOAT” means “going off on trans people.”
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“I can’t believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me, truly,” Buteau continued. “I’m manifesting this shit 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.”
Chappelle, who has never shied away from edgy humor, came under fire in 2021 after targeting the trans community in his Netflix special “The Closer.” Despite the heavy backlash, Chappelle doubled down in his follow-up special “The Dreamer,” refusing to cut the jokes.