Hannah Gadsby isn't interested in talking with Dave Chappelle after transgender jokes: 'It's a toxic place'
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Hannah Gadsby is opening up about why they're refusing to talk about Dave Chappelle in their latest Netflix comedy special.
The comedian, who is genderqueer and uses they/them pronouns, previously lambasted Netflix head Ted Sarandos for name-dropping them in an internal memo discussing Chappelle's anti-trans comments in his 2021 stand-up special The Closer. "Just a quick note to let you know that I would prefer if you didn't drag my name into your mess," Gadsby said at the time, adding, "F--- you and your amoral algorithm cult."
Now, Gadsby tells Variety that they don't believe making jabs at Chappelle within their routine — or even having a sit-down conversation with him about his remarks — would be productive either personally or professionally.
"For a start, it's boring. There was a time in the tour when it was certainly in front of my mind, and then it very quickly receded," Gadsby told the outlet. "My audience likes me because they don't like the usual toxic perspective, and to talk about him would be to center his conversation — and I just don't want that voice to be dictating how I approach my work."
Gadsby further explained that they didn't think a conversation would be beneficial because "I didn't think he said anything that I was interested in" discussing.
Ali Goldstein/ NETFLIX; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Hannah Gadsby; Dave Chappelle
"I'm a genderqueer, autistic, vagina-wielding white person. There could be a really interesting conversation between us, but I don't think that's going to happen," they continued. "I don't think there's good faith on his part. He's done three specials grinding down on the same points without any change in nuance, so I just think he's on his track. Good on him. That is not my track. And I'm not going to go out of my way to engage with that."
Also, Gadsby added, talking with Chappelle would mean that they would likely "have to do it on his terms."
"I just think it's a toxic place. I don't think he's open. I just don't think it's constructive," they said. "There's just so much cruelty going on, and we both represent communities that are experiencing that cruelty, and I don't want to stand in direct opposition to that. There is nuance, and there is intersectionality at play here. But he's not engaging in that yet, and I'm not gonna make him. But I'm not also going to be drawn in on his terms."
But it's not just Chappelle. In general, Gadsby noted that it feels like conversations have hit a point where "we're not listening to people with lived experience anymore" these days.
"We're listening to people who have really hostile reactive views, and that it's caught up in a moral panic, which also has a very, very strong right-wing online presence that is stirring up the debate, and it's fairly unacknowledged," they said. "I want to come from a more constructive point of view, like I am genderqueer. I have a life, and it doesn't revolve around trying to justify my existence."
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