Jerrod Carmichael is 35 years old and he’s been working in and around the comedy world for more than a decade. The weird thing is, he was more like an “art-house fave” for people in the comedy world, a smart writer and creator who wasn’t quite a household name until recently. In fact, even Jerrod acknowledges that people didn’t really stop him on the street until he hosted SNL a few months ago. He has mega-famous friends like Kanye West, Leonardo DiCaprio and his BFF Bo Burnham. Jerrod has a wonderful GQ Hype profile about his life, his influences, getting back into stand up and what he thinks of the comedians who spend all their time complaining about cancel culture and transgender people. That’s the section I’d like to discuss:
As for Carmichael’s relatives, he says “it’s hard for a family to… just acknowledge the one part that you need acknowledged. My [15-year-old] niece is the only one that really did that. She hit me with a quick text, I see you. I hear you.” Carmichael suspects her age has something to do with that: “I love this generation,” he says earnestly. “I actually f–k with them, and f–k all those comedians that are going so hard against them.”
It’s not hard to guess who he might be talking about. “Look, I get it. Everybody’s got to create a boogeyman to sell tickets. But it’s not true,” he says, referring to the much-hyped threat of cancel culture. “Who’s getting canceled for what they’ve said? What does that mean, that people are mad on Twitter? Everybody’s fine. These grown men are fine. I think, a lot of times, people who offer nothing truthful or meaningful about themselves then complain about society at large and create this boogeyman. It’s like, listen, that’s the most urgent thing in your life? God bless you. I’m tired of hearing it. Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro? That’s the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans sh-t? It’s an odd hill to die on. And it’s like, hey, bro. Who the f–k are you? Who do you f–k? What do you like to do? Childish jokes aside, who the f–k are you? It’s just kind of played. But he’s choosing to die on the hill. So, alright, let him.”
Exactly. 100%. It’s so good, and I love how other comedians are finding ways to criticize Dave Chappelle’s transphobic bullsh-t and even incorporate the criticism into their acts. And Jerrod is right, I never would have f–king thought that the brave, brilliant comedic artist that Chappelle was twenty years ago would turn into… just some guy complaining about how everything’s changed and how trans people are bad and deserving of mockery.
There was another amazing part of Jerrod’s interview where he talks about how he hates the “Jack of All Trades mentality.” He thinks if you’re good at something, just be good at it and try to be better. He said: “I hate when a female singer has a decent voice but they suck at dancing. Bitch, stop moving. Be like Adele, just stand there…” LMAO, “bitch, stop moving.”
Cover courtesy of GQ, additional photo from Backgrid.
-
- Beverly Hills, CA – Comedian Jerrod Carmichael uses the buddy system for some shopping in Beverly Hills. Pictured: Jerrod Carmichael BACKGRID USA 28 FEBRUARY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: Yellow Mamba / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I’m gonna check him out. Also, Fuck off x infinity Dave Chappelle
I had never heard of him- and then i watched his recent HBO special where he came out. It was powerful. Then i watched another, and his SNL monologue.
He is really funny.
Glad to have him in my comedy playlist now.
Especially with all the room left since i deleted all my chappelle stuff.
Sad what happened to chappelle. Turn from a brilliant young man, to an old bigot protecting his money, and his privilege to not have affordable housing built near his property- and crapping on people who are murdered and commit suicide at an astonishing rate, and even have trouble getting jobs in our society. Yeah- those are the people who need mockery. I can’t even enjoy chappelle’s old stuff- not even my favorite- the baby standing on the corner bit.
I like Dave. But Dave’s not street, his dad was an academic. But he loves that street feel.
Yet he’s married to an Asian woman — so why doesn’t he talk about Asian women being attacked by Black men? Cowardice?
Cmon, Dave. Why distract w/this issue that’s dragging you down, when real Asians are being attacked? This is the true mystery.
Maybe he’s a wannabe street guy raised middleclass, who can’t talk about real street. But I loved his show back in the day.
For the life of me I cannot understand why people have such an issue with trans folk. Why tf does it matter? Who cares what people dress like or refer to themselves as or choose as pronouns. I guarantee that if you asked trans people “what’s the most interesting thing about you?”, being trans would not make the top 10. They are just people…. like… why are we so obsessed about that one facet of them???? Everybody please, let’s all get a hobby and stop harassing people.
It’s so strange and I think I’ve commented previously that I can’t figure it out.
Now alongside that I absolutely get the ‘need’ for certain groups to demonise other groups to paint them as the enemy and create a sense of togetherness for their group and the right is absolutely using trans people for that but the hate seems to be much more widespread. Or maybe they’ve just been hugely successful. Either way it’s disturbing and a stain on society.
I guess it’s also capitalising on most people’s ignorance/lack of experience with trans people. Like, a suburban middle age person in the Midwest may never have met* a trans person, so the whole idea of it seems foreign and much easier to hate. (*that they know of!*).
The first trans person I met was my boss when I was 19 working at a futon store. The second trans person was a co-worker at a bank who was an accountant. So this is literally what I think of when I think of trans people. Andreas, the owner of a futon store, and Leila, a nerdy accountant who occasionally brought in baked goods. Not exactly boogiemen or deviants. Basically middle-age women who are just trying to get on with their lives like the rest of us.
Exactly. People should be comfortable in their own skin and love who they want.
I am pretty daamn sick of the amount of hate out there.
I wish these putzes (Chappelle most definitely included) would realize how lucky so many of us were to be born in a body congruent with our identity. Why would you be so hateful towards folks who just want their outside to match their inside?
It’s that need to categorize, put other people into neat little boxes. I admit, I had an issue for a long time. I like routines and being able to classify things and people, and that’s how I view the world. The most basic classification I had was Male and Female.
Trans throws that out the window.
So yeah, I had to really think on that for awhile, which made me research what exactly a “woman” is. I found out all about intersex and how the definitions that GC people want to use for women would also screw over a lot of CIS women, too, which made me philosophically pro-trans rights.
I still get tripped up occasionally (hey I’m old and habits die hard), but I realize that the need to classify people is a me problem and not a them problem, so I keep my mouth shut and listen.
It’s okay to trip up over vocabulary or definitions sometimes if, when corrected, you say “oh shit sorry!” and use the right terminology going forward. This is another hill that conservatives love to die on, and I just don’t get it. Just go “whoops, sorry” and use the right word, the end!
I don’t know all there is to know about gender identity, sexual preference, etc. But I compensate for any gaps in my knowledge by minding my f’ing business and saying I’m sorry when I get something accidentally wrong.
Apart from what SarahCS said about the need to demonize people, I think some of it is just a lack of imagination. That’s why so many GOP don’t get things until they experience something themselves: “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be trans or need an abortion, so clearly anyone who does is just wrong because they’re not like me.” It would be sad if it wasn’t so damaging to others.
“That’s why so many GOP don’t get things until they experience something themselves: “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be trans or need an abortion, so clearly anyone who does is just wrong because they’re not like me.”
I think this is true a lot of the time…we hear about those who suddenly change their attitude/beliefs/etc when THE ISSUE becomes personal to them. but not in the case of that hypocritical GOP dude who voted against protections for same-sex marriage and then, days later, ATTENDED THE WEDDING OF HIS GAY SON. If I were his son I would have tossed his a$$ out of the ceremony and disowned him. how cruel can you be?
If only we could just let him get away with it.
OMG that was awesome. Thank you.
Yaaasss…”Bitch. Stop moving.” He’s right about that and he’s right about Dave. F*ck Dave and the transphobes and work at being good at what you like and what you excel at. Wisdom right there.
I like what he’s getting at; and I am not ironically canceling his wordage…but why does it have to be “bitch”? Wouldn’t “girl, stop moving!” work? Just a quibble in the scheme of things but why does it always become bitch? Yeah, subjective, I know.:-)
Much less problematic than Chappelle, for sure. Damn shame what things have devolved into…
Chappelle became rich off stereotypes of African Americans. Then he has the guts to whine about it during his concerts.
If you’re so unhappy take all the money you made and give it back to Comedy Central.
Other than that keep quiet.
I’ll gently push back on your specific take on Chappelle. Chappelle’s Show in particular is groundbreaking and still so good (if you can separate art from artist). And when he touched on race it was mostly to make fun of white people’s racism. It wasn’t meant to be taken as stereotypes of Black people, full stop. And I still think he nailed it back then.
However. So terribly disappointing and infuriating what he has become in regards to his transphobia. Agree with Jerrod, weird hill to die on. Chappelle doesn’t realize the rest of the world is passing him by and his views will likely bring on his irrelevance.
F*ck Chappelle. Protect trans folks at all cost.
This is so good. Definitely gonna watch his special.
Jerrod Carmichael Is my new fav comedian.
I gotta question someone who is good friends with Kanye of all people.
This is all so good. I’ll be paying more attention to Jerrod. And sprinkled in there one of the only good takes on “cancel culture” from a famous person. It doesn’t exist, people.
Chappelle’s obsession seems personal, like he fell for a woman and she came out to him as trans, and it angered him. He’s not faithful to his wife. Azalea Banks busted him out on THAT one.
When Jerrod asked, “who do you f- with”, he is asking, “why do you care so much about this one issue?” It makes Chappelle look closeted somehow, like many homophobes and transphobic people.
WHY does Dave care so much about discussing trans people? I’m surprised that Chappelle is refusing to see how this makes him look. He has so much support that he probably can’t. He’s entrenched, like Trump.
“Chappelle’s obsession seems personal, like he fell for a woman and she came out to him as trans, and it angered him.”
this is kind of what I was thinking…and it applies to the question asked above about why people have such issue with trans folks. yes, some of it is they don’t know (as far as they know!) a trans person, but I think some of it is that they were attracted to someone they found out is trans, or they got “tinglies” for someone they KNOW is trans. just like with the people who rail the hardest against gay people…IMO a LOT of them are closet-cases who are afraid of their feelings. and by being a violent homophobe, they are trying REALLY HARD to deny their feelings by “hating” them. “if I hate them enough, I’ll stop feeling them.”
Thank you for writing this! I love Jerrod’s takes and delivery. He is so right about Dave not telling us about himself! I’ve never realized that.
Good for Jarrod for calling Chappelle out on his transphobic sh!t!
“These grown ass men are fine” is absolutely it. Publish that in the book on “cancel culture” and call it a day!
This guy is so on target and cute as hell. No way does he look 35. I’d say he easily looks 27 or 28. I’d love to see some of his comedy.