After Def Comedy, Dave’s popularity went crazy. He became a regular guest on late-night TV shows such as Politically Incorrect, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Howard Stern Show, and Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Dave took on many small comedic roles further lengthening his resume. That is until he played the infamous Reggie Warrington in Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor in 1996.
“ When I see that they put every black man in the movies in a dress at some point in their career, I start connecting the dots. ”
In 2016, Netflix announced they would be releasing three new stand-ups from the acclaimed comedian paying him $20 million a piece. The first two specials were released on Netflix in March, 2017, which came directly from Chappelle’s personal comedy vault. These two specials were filmed at Austin City Limits Live in April 2015 and at the Hollywood Palladium in March 2016. The specials marked the comedian’s first specials released in 12 years, and proved to be an immediate success as Netflix announced a month later that they were the most viewed comedy specials in Netflix’s history. Shortly after the release Netflix announced they expanded the deal to a fourth special and released Dave Chappelle: Equanimity and Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation, in December, 2017.
A few topics he covered during these specials:
Growing up in the suburbs My parents did just well enough so I could grow up poor around white people. When Nas and them used to talk about the projects, I used to get jealous. It sounded fun. Everybody in the projects was poor, and that’s fair. But if you were poor in Silver Spring, nigga, it felt like it was only happening to you. Nas does not know the pain of that first sleepover at a white friend’s house. You just come home back on Sunday and look at your parents like, “Y’all need to step your game up.”
Rachel Dolezal What is Rachel willing to do, so that we blacks believe that she believes she is actually one of us? Bitch, are you willing to put a lien on your house so that you can invest in a mixtape that probably won’t work out? […] If you want my support, you’re gonna have to change your name to the blackest shit I’ve ever heard. Bitch, you’re gonna have to change your name to Draymond Green. I don’t know a blacker name than that. That shit is black on paper. If you type Draymond Green into Airbnb, that shit will log off automatically.
Getting old I don’t like looking at my d*ck anymore. My dick looks distinguished. It’s old, an old-looking d*ck. It’s got salt-and-pepper hair all around it. My dick looks like Morgan Freeman in the ’90s. Without the dots. My d*ck narrates, “Dave pulled me out and started jerking me around and jerking me around. But not with the same vigor as when he was young. He and I both knew nothing was coming out.”
Protests during the National Anthem I could kill every white person in America at one time. You know how I’d do it? Just wait for the Super Bowl, and right when they sing the National Anthem, I’d have O.J. Simpson walk to the 50-yard line with them bad knees. “Is that O.J. Simpson on the field? What the hell’s he doing here? Oh, I know what he’s going to do! Stop him!” [Kneeling] Pow, ahhh!
Misogyny I used to do shows for drug dealers that wanted to clean their money up. One time I did a real good set, and these motherfuckers called me into the back room. They gave me $25,000 in cash […] I jumped on the subway and started heading towards Brooklyn at one o’clock in the morning. Never been that terrified in my life. I’d never in my life had something that somebody else would want. I thought to myself, “Jesus Christ, if motherfuckers knew much money I had in this backpack, they’d kill me for it.” Then I thought: “Holy shit, what if I had a pussy on me all the time? That’s what women are dealing with.” […] If those same drug dealers gave me a pussy and said, “Put it in your backpack and take it to Brooklyn,” I’d be like, “Nigga, I can’t accept this.”
But what really pissed people off were his jokes about the Transgender Community.