After taking Dave Chappelle‘s “legacy” into question in 2022, Jerrod Carmichael is continuing to speak out about the controversial comedian.
While speaking with GQ magazine in a June 2022 issue, Carmichael had called out Chappelle’s material targeting trans people, arguing that his “legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit,” per Variety.
“Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?” he posed at the time. “That’s the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit? It’s an odd hill to die on.”
He continued, “And it’s like, hey, bro. Who the fuck are you? Who do you fuck? What do you like to do? Childish jokes aside, who the fuck are you? It’s just kind of played. But he’s choosing to die on the hill. So, alright, let him.”
While recently speaking with Esquire, Carmichael clarified his previous remarks to GQ, claiming that Chappelle 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,” he added.
He also shed some light on Chappelle’s alleged reaction to said remarks.
“But he took it as ‘fuck Dave Chappelle,’ because he’s an egomaniac,” he shared. “He wanted me to apologize to him publicly or some shit.”
Carmichael had come out as gay in Rothaniel, a special which was released on HBO in April 2022, two months prior to when his GQ interview was published. In his interview with Esquire, Carmichael claimed that Chappelle “referred to it as the bravest special for 1996.”
“And 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,” he added.
Carmichael just debuted the first episode of Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show last Friday (March 29), while Chappelle released The Dreamer last December on Netflix. Despite the backlash he’s received, Chappelle has sustained backing from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who recently defended his stand-up specials during a March appearance on Dana Carvey and David Spade‘s Fly on the Wall podcast.
“That’s why we have so much to watch on Netflix, because tastes are really diverse, and certainly within comedy,” Sarandos said at the time. “The point I was trying to make when people got angry was the idea that if you don’t like that idea, switch it and find another one. Find one you do like.”
