In a recent stand-up comedy routine, Dave Chappelle opened up about the resulting fallout from the release of his new Netflix special The Closer and the backlash he received from the LGBTQ+ community.
During the set, Chappelle also told the audience that his documentary film “Untitled” had been shunned by film distributors after members of the LBTGQ+ community, particularly transgender individuals, accused the comedian of transphobia.
“In summer of 2020, when the whole world shut down, I was outside doing shows. My neighbour had a cornfield and he let me throw shows there, and people came from all over the country. Some people came from around the world to see them shows,” Chappelle said.
He continued, “The best comedians on earth came to my home and broke bread with me. We lived our lives. We found a way to keep moving forward. I made a whole documentary about it.”
“The first night of those shows was a piece that some of you might have seen. It was called 8:46 and it dealt with the death…the murder of George Floyd,” Chappelle explained. “This film that I made was invited to every film festival in the United States, and some of those invitations I accepted.
“And when this controversy came out, about The Closer, they began disinviting me from these film festivals,” he continued. “And now, today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch this film.”
Chappelle then asserted to the cheering crowd, “Thank God for Ted Sarandos of Netflix. He’s the only one that didn’t cancel me yet.”
Circling back to his documentary, Chappelle mentioned that while he desperately wants people to see it, he also understands why some investors may be reluctant to support the project.
“I desperately want people to see this movie, but I understand why investors would be nervous,” Chappelle continued. “Since nobody will touch it, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I will make it available for all of you in 10 American cities, going on sale in the next few days.”
He then declared, “You will be able to see this movie in its entirety and you can see what they’re trying to obstruct you from seeing.”
Upon hearing about the news regarding Chappelle’s documentary being shunned, The Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro entertained the idea of giving the comedian a helping hand, simply tweeting, “Happy to take a look over here, Dave.”
While Shapiro’s tweet may come off as an afterthought, the conservative commentator has already offered some help to various individuals who have been cancelled by the woke mob in the past.
In February of this year, Disney fired Gina Carano from The Mandalorian, after the former MMA fighter made an analogy that didn’t sit well with the company’s higher ups.
That same week, Carano announced that she was working on a brand-new project with The Daily Wire.
At the time, Shapiro said, “We could not be more excited to be working with Gina Carano, an incredible talent dumped by Disney and Lucasfilm for offending the authoritarian Hollywood Left.”
He continued, “This is what Daily Wire exists to do: provide an alternative not just for consumers, but for creators who refuse to bow to the mob.”
“We’re eager to bring Gina’s talent to Americans who love her, and we’re just as eager to show Hollywood that if they want to keep cancelling those who think differently, they’ll just be helping us build the X-Wing to take down their Death Star,” Shapiro concluded his statement.
Related: Gina Carano Announces New Film Says “They Can’t Cancel Us If We Don’t Let Them”
A few weeks ago ESPN sportscaster Allison Williams resigned due to to the company’s strict COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
For those unaware, ESPN Inc. is co-owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company, and the new COVID-19 mandate was announced to be implemented in October.
As soon as news of Williams’ resignation began doing the rounds, The Daily Wire offered to give the sportscaster a helping hand, which eventually led to the official announcement that she has now teamed up with the conservative media company “to lead a special sports series that will be available exclusively for Daily Wire members.”
When asked by Shapiro during a subsequent interview what exactly drove the wedge between her and ESPN, Williams said without hesitation that it was the new vaccine mandate.
“It gets under my skin when I hear that I quit. I don’t feel like I quit. I feel like I was forced to leave.” Williams said. “The notion that I made a decision, and therefore it’s my…that’s not a decision. I mean, the decision between getting an injection or keeping your job is not a true decision.”
“I went through all the necessary legal and HR steps to see if there was a way I could work safely without being a burden to the company, and they decided that that was not an option,” she explained.
Again, while Shapiro’s tweet may come off as nothing but an afterthought, it is not quite the stretch to believe that The Daily Wire is more than willing to team up with Chappelle to help him distribute his “Untitled” documentary.
After all, The Daily Wire is a company that openly advocates for free speech, and the whole controversy surrounding Chappelle’s new Netflix special basically boils down to the LGBTQ+ community and its easily offended allies wanting to censor the comedian’s routines.
What do you make of film distributors shunning Chappelle’s documentary following the release of his recent Netflix special? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below or on social media.