Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
[Manage newsletters]( [View in browser]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we canât stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.
This Week: - That Chappelle special really is that bad. - Please watch Maid on Netflix. - Erika Jayneâs media strategy boggles the mind. - New Adele is coming, and I am already weeping. - Pooping for love. That Chappelle Special⦠Whatâs the Point? The thing that people who decry cancel culture often miss is that the examples they use are people who havenât actually been canceled. It drives me crazy. Kevin Hart? We had a conversation about the pain [words he used caused](, and then he went on to [continue to make millions of dollars]( in movies and TV series. But there is still this idea that he was âcanceledâ because we had a discussion about how he used the platform that, because heâs a multi-million dollar movie star, he felt he was entitled to have without consequence. More and more, though, thatâs the thing: without consequence. [Cancel culture]( isnât real, and neither is consequence. This has been on my mind ever since I watched, and was baffled by, [Dave Chappelleâs new Netflix special]( The Closer. This is a newsletter about the things I canât stop thinking about, and this week itâs the brilliant [Craig Jenkins column in Vulture]( that debates Chappelleâs role as a cultural provocateurâespecially in context of this new special. This is a special that acknowledges the past criticism Chappelle has received for homophobic and transphobic jokes, and then doubles down on them like that aforementioned entitlement. As if weâre not evolved enoughâor maybe even âtoo wokeââto get a joke. Or understand that the joke is in pursuit of a heightened observation about culture. Or that the criticism doesnât matter because he doesnât value social media and online critics as a valid entity. Or whatever. Itâs all dressed up in âI get it/you donâtâ drag. âAny of you who have ever watched me know that I have never had a problem with transgender people. If you listen to what Iâm saying, clearly, my problem has always been with white people,â he says at one point. (A false equivalence between the LGBTQ community and people of color is a favorite refrain of his.) âIâm team TERF!â he exclaims in a sequence defending J.K. Rowling, invoking the term for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or feminists who are transphobic and do not believe trans women are women. He addresses the LGBTQ community that has taken him to task over past jokes. The false equivalence and the idea that there are actual repercussions for being transphobic or homophobic return, though from a place of grace: âAll I ask of your community, with all humility: Will you please stop punching down on my people?â Cancel culture isnât real, but the demand to learn is. And thatâs where people like Dave Chappelle fall short. They place the anxiety on opportunity, instead of the point of view and how that reverberates through society. That marquee punchline in The Closerââmy peopleââcenters around the [controversy over rapper DaBaby](, who gave a deeply homophobic speech rife with misinformation about AIDS and then was called out for being wrong to do so. The idea is that weâre so sensitive that artists can no longer express themselves, because if they go too close to the line then paranoid queers will join arms and make it so they can never work again. Not only do they always work again, but thatâs such a bad-faith interpretation of what these discussions are about that itâs almost laughable a person being paid tens of millions of dollars to opine on Netflix makes it his mission statement. Itâs not a judgement or assumption on how Chappelle feels for allies to be annoyed by this. My colleague Cheyenne Roundtree [spoke to the family of Daphne Dorman](, the late transgender comedian who Chappelle talks about in The Closer, who took her own life in 2019. The family is outraged at accusations that Chappelle is transphobic or homophobic. That is important, especially given the discourseâand backlashâhe is receiving following the special. But even with that, Iâm struggling to understand the value of what he does in The Closer. Is he whining? Thatâs a juvenile, reactionary distillation of it. In some regard, yes, he is displeased that what he felt were enlightened thoughts about the trans and LGBTQ community were being pilloried by those who âdidnât get it.â Itâs lame that he would devote an act to people who âdonât get it,â but, in some respects, thatâs what heâs doing. More than that, though, heâs trying to prove that the whyâthe why you didnât get itâis still more interesting than your offense or anger. But the âwhyâ doesnât pass muster. Itâs not just that the jokes fall flat; the writing in The Closer may be the worst of Chappelleâs career, reliant on an audience reflex to clap and scream at the mention of a scandalous word instead of actually moving them in any way. Itâs also not that he doesnât make points. He does, and theyâre uncomfortable in the way he intends them. Itâs that, in the end, heâs defensive to the extent that theyâre no longer provocative, or even cogent. Iâll defer to Jenkinsâ excellent column for more on this: âIn Chappelleâs eyes, these are examples of the mountain-moving power of LGBTQ rage. This framing ignores how each oneâs stubbornness in the face of backlash for the awful thing they said only led to more awfulness, how these are stories about refusing to budge when asked for a meager concession by fans who want to support, how each one still sits on the same mountain of cash.â Look, I acknowledge my own bitterness when it comes to this Chappelle shit. The last time I tried to engage thoughtfully [with his comedy]( and its potential for cultural enlightenment, I received death threats in comments on Instagram posts of my then-newborn nephews. Itâs impossible to interrogate any of this because the fandom has racehorse blinders on. In the years since The Chappelle Show launched, we have coronated him not just as a brilliant comedian, but a cultural arbiter. Therefore his musings arenât just profound, theyâre indisputable. We do that often for comedians. They tell a joke thatâs relatable about how we feel about airplane peanuts, and suddenly they speak on behalf of the entire human experience. (Iâm being glib, but the point is there.) Chappelleâs whole thing is saying the things weâre not supposed to say, let alone think, and then making us consider what it says about us that we quiet those parts of ourselves. But what if those things donât actually have value when theyâre articulated? What if theyâre just, at face value, wrong? Saying âthis is bullshitâ isnât being too woke, or a hater, or reactionary, or dumb. Itâs taking the material on that face value, which is ostensibly what an entertainer like Dave Chappelle wants. Watching The Closer was an uncomfortable experience. Not because what he was saying made me rethink my own thoughts and values. But because of how embarrassingly it didnât. Maid Is Such Good TV In my years as an entertainment journalist and critic, I have passionately abided by the idea that art is a capsule of the mood and feeling of a certain time. And therefore I have no notes about the current television moment, which seems to be screaming: Wow, it really sucks to be alive, huh? The [Squid Game of it all]( is its own conversation. But weâre finally interacting with a real world in which systems make it impossible to be a human person. This all sounds casual and snarky, yet itâs realâand the reason weâre all returning to the dormant instinct of watching en masse, as a monoculture, and then unloading about it. That thing on Netflix isnât just entertaining us, itâs speaking to us. And we need to speak about it. Thereâs the ways in which we all, unfortunately, understand the motivations of [the characters in Squid Game](. Itâs why those [explosive moments in Midnight Mass]( have sat with us in the time since we watched, in a real, contemplative way. And itâs why Maid, I think, has become somewhat of a surprise hit. [Alternate text] Itâs not genre at all, so thereâs no âwhy the horror analogy of Maid gives me all the feelsâ BuzzFeedology to be argued. The series is so clear-eyed and raw that Iâm shocked that so many people seem, in the week since it premiered, to have rallied around it. Margaret Qualley stars as a twenty-something woman who had a child with her boyfriend (Nick Robinson, fantastic and unrecognizable from his [Love, Simon days]() during a period of bliss, but now is recognizing him as a violent and manipulative captor. The best thing about her is her instinct to escape, which she does. The horrifying thing is that society wonât let her. Alex, Qualleyâs character, is a person whose eyes are darting back and forth in a constant state of confusion, processing the overwhelming information sheâs receiving and how she could possibly take it in while still giving attention to her two-year-old girl. What makes Maid work is that itâs such a human story, but itâs also a story about systems. Everythingâthe paperwork, the police protocol, the job market, generational influence, and, again, the paperworkâmake it so that, at her most vulnerable and endangered, the only rational thing to do to survive is to go back to the man who she fled in the first place. Itâs not a pedantic or patronizing âlook at how we treat women in this societyâ diatribe, but an unflinching and harrowing look at how we actually treat women in this society. Specifically, poor women. Maid is a superhero story, in that we watch Alex find the fortitude to navigate those systems that make it impossible for her to survive, let alone succeed. But itâs also a condemnation of those superheroes. Why should anyone need to be that great, that superhuman, in order to have a home, care for her daughter, find a job, and be without abuse in her life? This is one of those âstar is bornâ performances from Qualley, made even more potent that Andie MacDowell, her mother in real life, also plays her momâand source of generational traumaâin this. Itâs probably the best work of MacDowellâs career (spoken by a person who watches Four Weddings and a Funeral three times a year). Itâs trivializing to say that you can relate to this show, given the hell that women in Alexâs position are actually put through. But the ways in which you feel for her, I think, can only be good for us. The Worldâs Worst Humblebrag The Super Bowl-eventizing of the Erika Jayne-Tom Girardi saga has become increasingly grotesque as [this season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills unfolds](, documenting Erikaâs reaction to being accused of complicity in her ex-husbandâs fleecing of millions from widows and orphans his law firm represented. That said, inject any and all Erika Jayne drama directly into my veins. I need it. Itâs how I thrive. The reason for this existential crisis is the just-released trailer for the four-partâas in four hours, across four weeksâcast reunion, in which Erika is, in moderator Andy Cohenâs own words, put âon a skewerâ while he fires âup the barbecue.â The trailer is delicious. It telegraphs that not only is Erika going to finally be asked seriouslyânot at a fancy dinner where castmates are more concerned about friend politics than the truthâwhat she knew about Tomâs misdeeds, but also seems to call her out for manipulating that truth on TV for damage control. Juicy!!! I would be so into all of this, if not for how Erika shared the trailer on social media. âThe champ is here. Me,â Erika [posted on her Instagram](. It echoes [her reaction to the announcement]( that, for the first time, the RHOBH reunion would be four episodes: âNow what would make it four parts? Me.â Itâs the most fucked-up humblebrag in the history of social media. Yes, the reunion is four parts because people whose family members died in a horrible plane crash were then robbed of their settlement money because the lawyer in charge took those millions and funnelled them into a trash pop starâs glam budget and, now, viewers canât tell exactly what that star is lying about while on a reality TV show talking about it. It is all because of you. Good for you, girl. Hello. Itâs Me. Crying. Again. It is only a brief break I have taken to write this newsletter, following the release of about [15 seconds of Adeleâs new song](, after days of just staring out my window contemplatively. [Alternate text] People have been joking about not being emotionally stable enough to listen to what will surely be a devastating new album from the singer, written and produced following her divorce. But I wonder if this album will actually be uplifting. A track list of all club bangers? Adeleâs disco era? Because hereâs the thing: As anyone who has gone through a traumatic break up knows, all you want is your ex to know that you are still talented and also skinny again. Adele has [checked both those boxes](. This new album? A generous gift to the rest of us. Weâre All Searching for Our Stoolmate [Alternate text] These are the faces of two people who have pooped [sitting next to each other](. [Alternate text] - Baby-Sitterâs Club: No snark, one of my favorite shows on TV. We should all be so pure! (Mon. on Netflix) - Buried: For all those addicted to being traumatized by true-crime docuseries, this is a good one. (Sun. on Showtime) - Good Timing: Comedian Jo Firestone manages the impossible: A hilarious comedy special thatâs also heartwarming. (Fri. on Peacock) [Alternate text] - Dopesick: For a series about one of the countryâs most urgent crises, itâs strangely paint-by-numbers. (Wed. on Hulu) - No Time to Die: Itâs time. (Fri. in theaters) Advertisement
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