What did Michelle Buteau say about Dave Chappelle? Comedian calls out fellow comic over his comments on trans people

Comedian Michelle Buteau recently called out fellow comic Dave Chappelle over his allegedly controversial jokes about trans people. In her new Netflix special, Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall that premiered on Tuesday, December 31, Michelle criticized Chappelle's past routines.

During the special, Buteau recalled an incident with her "Black lesbian friend." She noted that the audience's reaction ranged from laughs and uncomfortable silence, prompting her to assert that comedians should be able "to tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community." She continued:

"We can do that. We can make it funny. We just have to work at it, right? So, if you ever run into Dave Chappelle can you let him know that sh*t? I don’t think he knows that sh*t."

Buteau is referencing Chappelle's anti-trans jokes and remarks since his 2021 Netflix special The Closer. This included a quip about punching a lesbian in a night club and even about the genitals of a trans woman.

Despite the strong backlash, Chappelle doubled down on his comments in his follow-up special The Dreamer. In the program, he joked that if he was ever imprisoned, he hoped it was in California so that he could pretend to be a transgender woman.

He claimed he would then be sent to a women's prison and abuse the inmates there.

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Michelle Buteau joked Dave Chappelle was the GOAT, a.k.a. the person "going off on trans" people

In her comedy special, Michelle Buteau continued to call Dave Chappelle the GOAT, an acronym colloquially used to mean Greatest Of All Time. However, she quipped that in Chappelle's case, it meant "going off on trans people."

Buteau expressed her shock at someone making "millions and millions of dollars" by making people feel "unsafe," adding that it was "wild." She asserted:

"I’m manifesting this sh*t tonight. This is a Radio City Music Hall takeover, and I’m gonna tell everybody I wanna make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained."

Michelle Buteau addressed Dave, stating that his jokes weren't "funny" but "dangerous."

Dave Chappelle's Netflix special, The Closer, released on October 5. In the program, he claimed he was a "TERF" (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), adding:

"Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth."

He also recalled an incident when he "beat up" a lesbian in a nightclub. However, he also called attention to the hypocrisy at Black artists like rapper DaBaby getting canceled for making jokes about the LGBTQ community (in July 2021 he made a joke about AIDS), but not shooting a Black man (DaBaby was involved in a shooting in November 2018 that led to the death of 19-year-old).

"In our country, you can shoot and kill a n**ga but you better not hurt a gay person's feelings. And this is precisely the disparity that I wish to discuss," Chappelle noted.

At the time, in addition to backlash online, the special faced criticism from the company's employees. According to an October 2021 article by CBS News, hundreds of Netlfix staff members staged a walkout on October 20, urging the company to offer responsible content.

Per the publication, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos apologized to his employees about defending Dave's right to free artistic expression.

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Dave Chappelle has not publicly reacted to the development.

Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall is available to stream on Netflix.