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Tuesday, September 03, 2019

In 'Sticks & Stones', Dave Chappelle Refuses to Yield to the PC Overlords

Sticks & Stones is Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix comedy standup special.  It’s something that I had no interest of watching in the first place.  Even though Chappelle is supposedly a legendary standup comic, I haven’t been a fan.  But just like his previous Netflix specials Deep in the Heart of Texas and The Age of Spin, I became intrigued of watching Sticks & Stones because of one sole reason: it triggered the SJW snowflakes.

After watching it, it was clear that he sees himself mostly aligned with the left side of the political spectrum.  But in a culture where the feelings of the few are being allowed to trump over common sense and free speech, it’s refreshing of him to dare be provocative, especially when in doing so, he highlights the inconsistencies and absurdities inherent to his side’s worldview.
My favorite is the part about abortion.  First, he declares that men should have no opinion about abortion; only women should – the whole “my body, my choice” talking point.  “Gentlemen, that is fair,” he insists.  Then once the mostly cheering pro-abortion crowd is in the hook, he drops the bomb: "Ladies, to be fair to us, I also believe that if you decide to have the baby, a man should not have to pay. That is fair. If you can kill this motherf****r, I can at least abandon 'em.  My money, my choice.”   Indeed, if one is moral, then the other should be moral, too.  If one is wrong, then the other is wrong, too (for the record, for me, both are wrong.)  It’s the same logic.  And then the clincher: “And if I'm wrong, then perhaps we're wrong. So, figure that s**t out for yourselves.”  He doesn’t fully commit to it, but I feel like he’s realizing that abortion is evil.  Unfortunately, most if not all pro-abortion people won’t follow that logic.  They won’t think it’s a valid equivalency, for they now deny that a fetus is a human being. 

His bit about the LGBTQ community – the “alphabet people”, as he calls them – being in a metaphorical car ride is also hilarious and insightful.  And at the end, he dismantles the crux of transgenderism when he jokes about being a Chinese person trapped inside a black man’s body, and validating it by simply stating, “This is how I feel inside!”  It’s a point that I’m not unfamiliar with.  But that should definitely give pause to an open-minded individual who has subscribed into the transgender logic, since it’s basically following the same logic.
Other notable topics he touches upon are suicide, school shootings, poverty-stricken whites who are struggling with drug addiction, R. Kelly, the documentary Leaving Neverland and how he doesn’t believe Michael Jackson’s accusers (this is the my least favorite stretch of the show), the recent controversies surrounding fellow comedians Kevin Hart and Louis C.K., and the Jussie Smollett hoax – which I felt he could’ve and should’ve pressed harder on.  There’s also an epilogue afterward where he has a Q&A session with the audience, in which he shared his thoughts on the 2020 presidential elections; some advice on doing comedy; a couple of anecdotes, including one about a transgender named Daphne; and more.

All in all, Sticks & Stones hasn’t made me a Dave Chappelle fan yet.  But it definitely made me laugh a couple of times.  And it’s also worth giving some appreciation because it’s a testament that comedy has still not been killed by political correctness – at least, not yet.

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