Jerrod Carmichael Calls Dave Chappelle an Egomaniac, as He Should

The comedian and actor told Esquire that Dave Chappelle expected a "public apology" from him after he (rightly) criticized Chappelle's legacy as "a bunch of opinions on trans shit."

By Audra Heinrichs  |  April 4, 2024 | 1:04pm
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Jerrod Carmichael Calls Dave Chappelle an Egomaniac, as He Should

Fresh off a buzzy premiere for his new docuseries, the Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, the critically acclaimed comedian is airing some—very justified—grievances about the prolific transphobe known as Dave Chappelle.

In a new Esquire profile, Carmichael was asked about his two-year beef with Chappelle, which began after the latter made some eye-roll-inducing comments about Carmichael’s first stand-up special in 2022, Rothaniel—in which he came out as gay. “I didn’t think I’d ever, ever, ever come out,” Carmichael told the audience during the special. “At many points in my life, I thought I’d rather die than confront the truth of that.”

Chappelle, in turn, called Rothaniel: “the bravest special for 1996.”

“It’s like, that’s a funny enough line, whatever, but I wonder if he gets the irony that the fact that you are mocking it even then is why it was hard,” Carmichael told Esquire. This isn’t the first time Carmichael’s spoken publicly about Chappelle’s deeply problematic views veiled as “jokes.”

In 2022, around the same time as Rothaniel‘s premiere, Carmichael vented about Chappelle’s comments about trans people to GQ.

“Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?” Carmichael asked rhetorically. “That’s the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit? It’s an odd hill to die on. And it’s like, ‘Hey, bro. Who the fuck are you? Who do you fuck? What do you like to do?’” He wasn’t wrong! However, to no one’s shock, Chappelle didn’t see it that way.

“He took it as ‘Fuck Dave Chappelle,’ because he’s an egomaniac,” Carmichael told Esquire. “He wanted me to apologize to him publicly or some shit.”

Obviously, Carmichael has no plans to publicly apologize or some shit but he did expound on his thoughts about Chappelle’s brand of comedy, which, has basically just become punchline-less bigotry with a brick wall behind it. Chappelle, he said, is “not revealing anything personal about himself and he’s removed from what he’s talking about, and I think he’s smarter than that and deeper than that and has more interesting thoughts.”

Perhaps that was true at one time, but frankly, I haven’t seen it for years.

 
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