Comedian John Mulaney is under fire for forcing his audience to endure a surprise set from noted transphobe Dave Chappelle. Stop convincing straight cis men that they’re funny challenge!
Despite being the internet’s favourite white guy during the peak of Tumblr, Mulaney has had many a stumble.
His messy public breakup with Anna Marie-Tendler and subsequent pregnancy with Olivia Munn definitely dampened the clouds hanging over his image.
Now he’s gone and fucked up even worse, by surprising his crowd at an Ohio show with Dave Chappelle, who has kind of made transphobia his thing. I won’t get into it too much, but Chappelle is basically an old guy who feels restricted in his language because he can’t offend everyone under the guise of comedy.
Instead of telling audiences to grow a tough skin, have you tried just being funny? We can’t tell folks to go to other comedians’ shows anymore because it looks like Chappelle will appear anywhere.
Pretty disappointed in John Mulaney, saw him tonight and yeah, he was funny, but he gave Dave Chapelle the platform to make some transphobic jokes. Also very disheartening to hear a crowd of 12,000 around you (a trans person) laughing at transphobic jokes. Thanks Columbus.
— Libby (@libbeefy) May 21, 2022
and then was salty when some ppl booed him……..
— maddie (@boobeoisie) May 21, 2022
The show was part of Mulaney’s current tour From Scratch. This is the second time that Chappelle has been randomly placed as an opener.
Both times, he has reportedly included a transphobic joke in his set.
John Mulaney deadass built his career thanks to queer teens/young adults turning his comedy into common quotes and memes, and he turns around and shits in their faces by bringing Dave Chappelle to one of his shows, tacitly endorsing his comedy and jokes
— k a t h e r i n e ? (@sapphoswamp) May 22, 2022
The main takeaway from the Mulaney thing is that you should take all the hope you had in him and put it onto a totally different stranger you don’t know
— Mr. Chau (@Srirachachau) May 23, 2022
Members of the audience have been sharing their experiences of the show online, including the fact that Mulaney made a point to ban recording during the show.
I wonder why he wanted nobody filming Chappelle’s set.
Very brave of John Mulaney to make sure no one in the audience could record the show knowing that he was gonna bring out Dave Chapped Lips as an anti-trans treat. https://t.co/0s5Hj6wYSe
— Saeed, Or The Other One (@theferocity) May 21, 2022
Other Twitter users claimed that Mulaney expressed how close he was to Chappelle throughout his set, and came out to hug him after he was finished opening.
Chappelle has far too many platforms already, he doesn’t need his buddy giving him the green light to spring transphobia on an unsuspecting crowd.
https://twitter.com/nicknoel721/status/1527879942897389572?s=20&t=NU2CLEOmxOr_lrsNZP9eVQ
One audience member wrote down some of the things Chappelle allegedly said during his set, and it includes ableism, transphobia, racism and some rather strange comments about Russia.
Argue with your wall about the definition of comedy, some things are just fucked up to say, period.
#DaveChappelle is a vile human actively attacking minorities who are already a target of constant harassment.
And #JohnMulaney is as disgusting for actively supporting, platforming & exposing his audience to this type of derogatory ambush and verbal abuse. pic.twitter.com/k46Vn50Npj
— Rayne-y Day ☔️ (@SarcasticCatBoy) May 22, 2022
All I ask for is just one week without trans people being dragged through the dirt because some people just love to express their fear through idiocy.
I leave you with this meme about the situation before I get too heated.
the john mulaney shit is why y’all HAVE to stop dubbing cishet men “queer icons” just because they don’t know what to do with their arms
— Nightling Bug 🗝️ (@NightlingBug) May 21, 2022
