Dave Chappelle Says Republicans Weaponized His Transgender Jokes | Dave Chappelle | Celebrity News and Gossip | Entertainment, Photos and Videos

Dave Chappelle is addressing his jokes about the transgender community, and how they were used by Republicans.

The 51-year-old comedian sat down with NPR to discuss his career in comedy, which included his controversial 2021 Netflix special The Closer, followed by The Dreamer, where he also made trans jokes.

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“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. That’s not what I was doing,” he said on NPR’s Newsmakers.

“I’ll give you an example, before I learned the phrase, ‘I respectfully decline,’ 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 vote or what their voting record is. At first, it was CBC people. Then here comes Lauren Boebert and she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ And I had 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,” he continued.

“And then she posted the picture before I could even get from there to the show and says something to the effect of, ‘Just two people that know that it’s just two genders.’ Just instantly, like, weaponized or politicized. So I got to the arena, and I lit her a– up for doing that. And she should never do that to a person like me,” Dave said.

Dave also addressed Donald Trump, and whether he thought he was funny.

“Maybe if he wasn’t president, I’d think that was funny. Or maybe at times… I do think, you know, that that’s wearing thin,” Chappelle said. “There are funny things about him. Like, if I were to talk about him, it would be funny. ButI think what he does is so consequential and so much of these things, you know, in my lifetime, I’ve never really seen anything of a phenomenon quite like I’m not trying to be political, but it’s remarkable. I don’t know. I don’t know how funny it is.”

Watch the full interview above.

He dropped a surprise special as well in December.