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Dave Chappelle talks about comedy in the age of Trump

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Dave Chappelle says he is very clear about his role as a comedian.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

DAVE CHAPPELLE: We’re like a nation’s kidney. We help everyone metabolize not just facts but feelings around facts or ideas. And jokes are just a shorthand for all of that.

KELLY: But what’s it like to do comedy at a time when U.S. politics feels so polarized? Chappelle shared his thoughts recently on NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast. He spoke about it with Morning Edition host Michel Martin.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

MICHEL MARTIN: We are in a moment where the president of the United States expresses things that many people find deeply offensive, and I’m just wondering, does that change your work? You know what I’m saying?

CHAPPELLE: No. And he’s a bad example because he has a dismissive shorthand about people. Like, a comedian, if we’re up there talking, it’s a way different type of interface than, say, being president of the United States because…

MARTIN: Oh, it’s a totally different job. I credit that. But I’m saying…

CHAPPELLE: No. But I’m saying – I’m talking about not just…

MARTIN: … I just want to know…

CHAPPELLE: …The job, the actual interface, how we…

MARTIN: I just…

CHAPPELLE: …Actually are communicating to people.

MARTIN: Well, say more.

CHAPPELLE: Well, the presidency is the presidency. Like, you know, if you vote for the person or not, that’s your president. This is an authority figure. This is the executor of all of America’s affairs. And I just have to move my crowd. You know, you can opt out of my crap. But you shouldn’t have to leave America because the president’s making the block too hot for you. And I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes, you know? I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. I didn’t – that’s not what I was doing. I’ll give you an example.

MARTIN: Yeah.

CHAPPELLE: It was before I learned the phrase, I respectfully decline. And I was on Capitol Hill, and everybody ran up to take pictures with me from every congressional office. And I just take pictures with whoever asked. I didn’t ask how they voted or what their voting record is. And everyone, at first, it was like, CBC people. And then here comes Lauren Boebert, and she said, can I get a picture? And I’d already taken 40 pictures. I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody. But I didn’t know the phrase, I respectfully decline. So I just took the picture. And then she posted a picture, before I could even get from there to the show, and says something to the effect of, just two people that knew that it’s just two genders. She instantly, like, weaponized it or politicized it. So I got to the arena, and I lit her ass up for doing that. And she should never do that with a person like me. But now she knows.

KELLY: Comedian Dave Chappelle speaking with NPR’s Michel Martin for our Newsmakers video podcast. You can see the full interview – it is worth it – on NPR’s YouTube page. Just visit youtube.com/npr.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMMON SONG, “THEY SAY”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered and host of the Consider This Saturday podcast, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.

Martin came to NPR in 2006 and launched Tell Me More, a one-hour daily NPR news and talk show that aired on NPR stations nationwide from 2007-2014 and dipped into thousands of important conversations taking place in the corridors of power, but also in houses of worship, and barber shops and beauty shops, at PTA meetings, town halls, and at the kitchen table.

She has spent more than 25 years as a journalist — first in print with major newspapers and then in television. Tell Me More marked her debut as a full-time public radio show host. Martin says, "What makes public radio special is that it's got both intimacy and reach all at once. For the cost of a phone call, I can take you around the world. But I'm right there with you in your car, in your living room or kitchen or office, in your iPod. Radio itself is an incredible tool and when you combine that with the global resources of NPR plus the commitment to quality, responsibility and civility, it's an unbeatable combination."

Martin has also served as contributor and substitute host for NPR newsmagazines and talk shows, including Talk of the Nation and News & Notes.

Martin joined NPR from ABC News, where she worked since 1992. She served as correspondent for Nightline from 1996 to 2006, reporting on such subjects as the congressional budget battles, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, racial profiling and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At ABC, she also contributed to numerous programs and specials, including the network's award-winning coverage of Sept. 11, a documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, a critically acclaimed AIDS special and reports for the ongoing series "America in Black and White." Martin reported for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She also hosted the 13-episode series Life 360, an innovative program partnership between Oregon Public Broadcasting and Nightline incorporating documentary film, performance and personal narrative; it aired on public television stations across the country.

Before joining ABC, Martin covered state and local politics for the Washington Post and national politics and policy at the Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS series Washington Week and a contributor to NOW with Bill Moyers.

Martin has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association and a 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association. Along with her Emmy award, she received three additional Emmy nominations, including one with WNYC's Robert Krulwich, at the time an ABC contributor as well, for an ABC News program examining children's racial attitudes. In 2019, Martin was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in journalism. She is the 2021 recipient of PMJA's 2021 Leo C. Lee Award.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and earned a Master of Arts from the Wesley Theological Seminary in 2016.

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