Surprise! Dave Chappelle Has Another Netflix Special on the Way
Dave Chappelle is feeling generous this holiday season. Netflix has announced that on top of releasi..
Dave Chappelle is feeling generous this holiday season. Netflix has announced that on top of releasing his upcoming special, Equanimity, they’ll also release a second surprise special from the comedian, titled The Bird Revelation. Both specials, his third and fourth for the streaming platform, will be available on Dec. 31. If you time it just right, you can hit play and have Chappelle coax you into the new year with a fresh punchline.
The Bird Revelation was filmed at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles on Nov. 20, making it a particularly quick turnaround for Netflix. Equanimity was filmed at the Warner Theater in Washington D.C., Chappelle’s home town. D.C. also holds a special place in the comedian’s career; one of his most iconic specials, 2000’s “Killin’ Them Softly,” was filmed at the city’s Lincoln Theatre.
Chappelle has enjoyed an incredibly fruitful relationship with Netflix, releasing two stand-up specials with the platform earlier this year. The specials—The Age of Spin: Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium and Deep in the Heart of Texas: Dave Chappelle Live at Austin City Limits—have pulled the comedian back into the mainstream for the first time in years, though they haven’t received wholly rapturous reviews. He’s been criticized for telling transphobic jokes, making light of things like misgendering people, and mocking trans women in general.
In an interview with the Washington Blade, Chappelle denied being transphobic, partly because “I’m not even sure what the term means.”
“Do I discriminate against somebody because they’re trans? I would like to think absolutely not,” he said, later adding that he’s “not an obstructionist of anybody’s lifestyle, as long as it doesn’t hurt me or people I love and I don’t believe that lifestyle does.”
In a teaser for the new special, Chappelle’s jokes for Equanimity seem to largely revolve around economic and social issues.
He also tosses out some quips about the first time he had a sleepover at a white friend’s house, then came back home disappointed. “You just look at your parent like ‘y’all need to step your game up—everything at Timmy’s house works!’”
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:7 TV Characters Who Have Gotten Stuck on a Subway Just Like You
Ilana and Abbi, Broad City
No tale of two girls’ misadventures in the Big Apple would be complete without at least one ill-fated subway ride. In Season 3, Abbi and Ilana experience just that in an episode titled, appropriately, “Getting There.” They just want to get to the airport—but as any New Yorker knows, the train has other plans.
Arnold and Friends, Hey Arnold
There’s an entire episode of this 90s Nickelodeon staple about Arnold and the gang getting on a subway after dark, thanks to a movie that ran long. There’s a claustrophobic woman chanting “big open spaces,” a homeless guy telling everyone to “get out of my house,” and a dog that unexpectedly gives birth to puppies, bringing everyone together. The episode ends with everyone holding hands and singing—which, though imaginative, is perhaps the most unrealistic thing this cartoon ever did.Photo: From Hulu.
Cory Matthews, Boy Meets World
What was it with 90s sitcoms and trapping people in trains? Cory, Sean, Eric, and Topanga get stuck underground on their way to a New Year’s Eve party—as a woman gives birth. But hey, they also manage to throw their own party on the train and find a P.S.A. starring Mr. Feeny.
The Tanner Family, Full House
Poor Uncle Jesse just wants to get to his long-delayed high-school graduation, but alas, Team Tanner gets stuck on a motionless B.A.R.T. train instead. (See, the subway is awful no matter where you live!) The silver lining? Jess convinces an aspiring high-school drop-out to stay in school, and ends up having an underground graduation ceremony of his own. Fun fact: something similar happened to a real-life Hunter College student this summer.
Oscar and Felix, The Odd Couple
This one’s an oldie but a goodie: Oscar gets tired of New York City, so Felix tries to show him what a magical place this town can be. Unfortunately, they get stuck in a subway car with some very unfriendly company—including a woman who carries a defective flashlight just so she can hit people over the head with it, should they get too close. She’s clearly well versed in New York etiquette.Photo: From CBS.
The Golden Girls
This one isn’t technically a subway story, but it’s a Golden Girls classic: remember the time our favorite four ladies got stuck at a train station overnight? They recall the incident in a flashback episode called “Bedtime Story” back in Season 2, remembering how they were stranded by the one train station from which trains actually left early. That’s how you know it’s fiction.Photo: From NBC/Getty Images.
Elaine Benes, Seinfeld
Remember when poor Elaine gets stuck on a train that just keeps stopping? She also experiences that horror that every New Yorker knows so well: the lights cut out as the train sits motionless. Her silent, internal, vastly relatable screams of profane frustration will forever ring in our ears.Photo: From Castle Rock Entertainment/Everett Collection.PreviousNext
Ilana and Abbi, Broad City
No tale of two girls’ misadventures in the Big Apple would be complete without at least one ill-fated subway ride. In Season 3, Abbi and Ilana experience just that in an episode titled, appropriately, “Getting There.” They just want to get to the airport—but as any New Yorker knows, the train has other plans.
Arnold and Friends, Hey Arnold
There’s an entire episode of this 90s Nickelodeon staple about Arnold and the gang getting on a subway after dark, thanks to a movie that ran long. There’s a claustrophobic woman chanting “big open spaces,” a homeless guy telling everyone to “get out of my house,” and a dog that unexpectedly gives birth to puppies, bringing everyone together. The episode ends with everyone holding hands and singing—which, though imaginative, is perhaps the most unrealistic thing this cartoon ever did.From Hulu.
Cory Matthews, Boy Meets World
What was it with 90s sitcoms and trapping people in trains? Cory, Sean, Eric, and Topanga get stuck underground on their way to a New Year’s Eve party—as a woman gives birth. But hey, they also manage to throw their own party on the train and find a P.S.A. starring Mr. Feeny.
The Tanner Family, Full House
Poor Uncle Jesse just wants to get to his long-delayed high-school graduation, but alas, Team Tanner gets stuck on a motionless B.A.R.T. train instead. (See, the subway is awful no matter where you live!) The silver lining? Jess convinces an aspiring high-school drop-out to stay in school, and ends up having an underground graduation ceremony of his own. Fun fact: something similar happened to a real-life Hunter College student this summer.
Oscar and Felix, The Odd Couple
This one’s an oldie but a goodie: Oscar gets tired of New York City, so Felix tries to show him what a magical place this town can be. Unfortunately, they get stuck in a subway car with some very unfriendly company—including a woman who carries a defective flashlight just so she can hit people over the head with it, should they get too close. She’s clearly well versed in New York etiquette.
The Golden Girls
This one isn’t technically a subway story, but it’s a Golden Girls classic: remember the time our favorite four ladies got stuck at a train station overnight? They recall the incident in a flashback episode called “Bedtime Story” back in Season 2, remembering how they were stranded by the one train station from which trains actually left early. That’s how you know it’s fiction.From NBC/Getty Images.
Elaine Benes, Seinfeld
Remember when poor Elaine gets stuck on a train that just keeps stopping? She also experiences that horror that every New Yorker knows so well: the lights cut out as the train sits motionless. Her silent, internal, vastly relatable screams of profane frustration will forever ring in our ears.From Castle Rock Entertainment/Everett Collection.
Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
The post Surprise! Dave Chappelle Has Another Netflix Special on the Way appeared first on News Wire Now.