Culture

Comedian John Mulaney faces fan backlash for having Dave Chappelle as his opener

By Jordan Robledo

23rd May 2022

Comedian John Mulaney has been slammed by fans for including Dave Chappelle in his recent comedy show. 

Back in October 2021, Netflix released Chappelle’s comedy special, The Closer. In the feature, the 48-year-old declared himself a “TERF” after defending Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s transphobic comments.

“They cancelled J.K. Rowling — my god. [Effectively] she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as shit, they started calling her a TERF,” Chappelle said.

After making “jokes” about the bodies of trans women, he went on to say: “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. That is a fact.”

Shortly after the special dropped, Chappelle and Netflix were hit with pushback from LGBTQ+ activists and various celebrities – which resulted in a high-profile company-wide walkout.

But even though he received massive amounts of backlash, Chappelle has continued to tell transphobic jokes in his comedy sets. 

During Mulaney’s Ohio stop of his From Scratch tour, LGBTQ+ fans of the Big Mouth star were surprised when Chappelle was announced as the opener. 

According to a report from Variety, during his opening set the comedian told an array of jokes targeting the LGBTQ+ community. 

After Chappelle’s 15 minute set, Mulaney returned to the stage and hugged the controversial figure before starting the show. 

Due to the venue’s no phone policy, fans took to Twitter after the show and expressed their disappointment over Chappelle’s inclusion.

One fan wrote: “Okay so tell me why I just went to the John Mulaney show and Dave Chappelle was a surprise opener and made not only a transphobic joke but a homophobic one.”

Another user tweeted: “Dave Chappelle made a surprise appearance at John Mulaney’s show tonight and it took appx 6 seconds for him to start being homophobic so uh… that happened.”

Fans also called out Mulaney for giving Chappelle a platform for his anti-trans jokes. 

“John Mulaney, so many of us think the whole world of you. So I’m really disappointed that Dave Chappelle was at tonight’s Columbus show, doling out transphobic jokes—and I’m kind of devastated that you then embraced him and thanked the audience for dealing with it,” another fan said. 

Representatives for Mulaney and Chappelle have not released statements addressing the aforementioned performance.