Dave Chappelle Calls Students Who Criticized 'The Closer' 'Instruments Of Oppression' in New Netflix Special

Dave Chappelle is sharing his thoughts on critics of his comedy special The Closer.

Netflix released a new special featuring the comedian on Thursday night (July 7), which focuses on his recent speech at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Dave is one of the school’s most famous alumni, but recently turned down having a theatre named after him after he received backlash from students over the transphobic jokes he made in The Closer.

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“All the kids were screaming and yelling,” he recalled in the special, per Variety. “I remember, I said to the kids, I go, ‘Well, okay, well what do you guys think I did wrong?’ And a line formed. These kids said everything about gender, and this and that and the other, but they didn’t say anything about art.

He continued, “And this is my biggest gripe with this whole controversy with The Closer: That you cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance from his words. It would be like if you were reading a newspaper and they say, ‘Man Shot in the Face by a Six-Foot Rabbit Expected to Survive’, you’d be like, ‘Oh my God,’ and they never tell you it’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon.”

Dave added, “When I heard those talking points coming out of these children’s faces, that really, sincerely, hurt me. Because I know those kids didn’t come up with those words. I’ve heard those words before.

“The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. And it has nothing to do with what you’re saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my right, my freedom, of artistic expression.

“That is valuable to me. That is not severed from me. It’s worth protecting for me, and it’s worth protecting for everyone else who endeavors in our noble, noble professions.”

He concluded, “And these kids didn’t understand that they were instruments of oppression. And I didn’t get mad at them. They’re kids. They’re freshmen. They’re not ready yet. They don’t know.”

Netflix’s CEO recently defended the streamer’s decision to keep supporting Dave amid the controversy surrounding his comments.