Gervais, Chappelle: Laughing In The Face Of Cancel Culture

The passing of comedian Tommy Smothers over the holidays almost went unreported. But in 1968, the prime-time TV show featuring Smothers and his brother Dick was considered the essence of counter-culture resistance against Viet Nam, racial intolerance and the drug scene. Folk singer Joan Baez used the show to pay tribute to her husband David who was going to jail for avoiding the draft. 

Its creative staff featured (among others) David Steinberg, Steve Martin, Bob Einstein, Rob Reiner and Lorenzo Music in sketches that defined the insubordination of the younger generation. One of its producers was a Canadian, Alan Blye. In one cheeky running gag Pat Paulsen ended up running for president. So when CBS cancelled the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1969 to placate sponsors and the White House it produced a furore. Cries of “censorship” reverberated from the hip Left. “Never again would censors attack free speech” they wailed.

Fast forward to the dawn of 2024. Two controversial comedians launched new podcasts on Netflix in the teeth of a howling mob of Woke critics who want them banned for heresy or apostasy. But Ricky Gervais and Dave Chapelle are not being threatened with cancellation by Trumpian reactionaries. No, it’s the current generation of smug progressives who want them silenced. Permanently. For breaking the code.  

This is typical pushback from the scolds: “Gervais’s jokes, which mock illegal immigrants, homeless people, trans people and more, are the sort of opinions that, far from getting you cancelled, are likely to be vote winners at the ballot box,” Nervous Nick Hilton wrote in the leftwing UK The Independent. Says humourless trade paper Variety: “Ricky Gervais’ New Netflix Special Tries So Hard to Be Edgy and Offensive — but It’s Just a Total Bore.” Take that.

Chappelle has been raked for “punching down” on the Left’s pet causes. For all the threats Gervais and Chappelle have received over alleged LGBTQ-2 slurs in the past, they have never backed down from the comedic art of in-your-face political commentary. And their new products Armageddon (Gervais) and The Dreamer (Chappelle) are no exception.

Sample: Chappelle tells an extended story about meeting his idol Jim Carrey on the set of Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon. The problem was that Carrey stayed in character as Kaufman even between scenes. Chappelle is advised to call him Andy, not Jim. But an exuberant Chapelle forgets and still calls him Jim.

The crew is mortified. Chappelle is puzzled, talking to what is clearly Jim Carrey but calling him Andy. It was a strange experience says Chappelle. Dramatic pause. “Sort of like how I feel talking to a trans person.” The crowd explodes in guilty laughter, knowing that it would kill their own careers to ever voice such “sedition” in everyday conversation.

Gervais is equally aggressive. In one bit he talks about the mob who want to pull down statues of people who might have been involved in the slave trade 200 years ago. “But they built that beautiful hospital over there,” says Gervais. “Okay, you can leave that. But pull down the statue and throw it in the canal.” Pause. “But he built that canal.” Ricky-as-rioter: “Okay, you can leave that. But pull down the statue.” Etc.

Both men reflect on their bête noir reputations. Chappelle pokes fun at his tour with Chris Rock in the months after Rock was slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars. Then Chappelle himself is assaulted onstage in L.A. by a homeless man allegedly incensed over Chappelle’s jokes about gays. He references his security man now perched just offstage. And describes Puffy coming to his rescue.

Gervais does a symposium about words-as-weapons in the radical left and its effect on audiences. He pleads for divorcing the comedian from the comedy, urging his audience to laugh freely again. Hearing the uproarious laughter for forbidden words and concepts in London (Gervais) and Washington D.C. (Chappelle) was like attending a secret society, a Resistance to the tyranny of radical scolds. And a glimmer that the worst could be over.

For those with memories that go back even further than The Smothers Brothers, these extemporaneous challenges over free speech recall 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, who was hounded till his death for controversial material on sex and politics. In his later years Bruce, who was an unrepentant liberal, would forgo jokes and routines just to read trial transcripts from his cases to a stunned crowd. 

Like Gervais and Chappelle, he was obsessed about free speech and liberty. Unlike them, he was not rescued by Netflix. 

Gervais and Chappelle stand in stark contrast to the podcast/ TV series Smartless, featuring comedians Will Arnott, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. This is the Scientology of comedy. Drumming consensus. Started during Covid, Smartless features the trio talking glibly about their lives in the culture bubble and introducing a surprise guest to the other two. Needless to say Smartless stays on the approved side of Woke culture in its lengthy list of guests.

While the roster is choked by “safe” entertainment and news figures (Rachel Maddow, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmell, Jen Psaki, Bill Maher) you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone bending even slightly Right on the roster. Wayne Gretzky? Certainly no one is going to do a comic dissertation on why the people who lionized the Smothers Brothers now endorse swatting the homes of their enemies. Or palling it up with Hamas. 

The episode with black comic Kevin Hart is especially revealing for the three progressive hosts. (The roster of Smartless guests is paler than a Vatican synod.)  Using the Woke Ranking of Grievance, Hart is untouchable for this Hollywood crowd. Exotic and uncontrollable, he owns the set as Arnett, Bateman and Hayes try not to get caught off the reservation as he savages them for talking about peeing sitting down. 

As the gay man on set Hayes is similarly protected from most cancellation sins. But Canadian Arnett and especially Bateman are like long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. As the conversation heads to the DMZ of comedy Bateman keeps saying, Oh, not you’re not going to get me canceled. His palpable fear of falling afoul of his censorship colleagues is as far from Chappelle and Gervais inviting censure as you can get and still call it comedy. 

Speaking of which. Ricky has come up with a fabulous idea for the moribund Oscars broadcast. He thinks he and Chappelle should co-host. Make our day. As long as there’s a camera on the Smartness guys as their world is torn apart. 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.