Dave Chappelle’s comedy special “The Closer,” which sparked a large amount of backlash on social media has been nominated for two Emmy Awards.
The legendary comedian received Emmy nods Tuesday morning for pre-recorded variety special and directing for a variety special.
According to Deadline, It is his fourth nomination in the category in five years. In 2018, his Equanimity special won the award, while in 2020 he also beat rival comedians Hannah Gadsby, Jerry Seinfeld, and John Mulaney as well as his own PBS special around him winning the Mark Twain comedy award.
As we previously reported, The Closer, which was released in October 2021, obtained backlash for Chappelle’s take on transgender rights. It resulted in a walkout from trans employees at the streamer, while co-CEO Ted Sarandos was in the crosshairs after defending the special and admitting that he “screwed up” the internal communication of the issue.
Dave Chappelle recently released a new Netflix comedy special that was released under the radar on Friday through the streaming giant, and focused on a speech he gave at his old school he attended after declining the offer from the school to rename the theater after him following his transphobic joke controversy.
His lecture at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, last November was the primary focus of the latest show available from Netflix and Chappelle, “What’s in a Name.”
In the new special, Chappelle recalled how the students reacted to transphobic jokes made in “The Closer,” and how he had to defend his rights to artistic freedom.
“All the kids were screaming and yelling. I remember, I said to the kids, I go, ‘Well, OK, well what do you guys think I did wrong?’ And a line formed. These kids said everything about gender, and this and that and the other, but they didn’t say anything about art.”
He added, “And this is my biggest gripe with this whole controversy with ‘The Closer’: That you cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance from his words.