Beyond Beef (Netflix comedy specials)

No, this is not about your new favorite fast food chain vegan burger option. I have noticed a lot of “beef” lately over some comedians and their jokes. I am sure you know of the two I am speaking about but Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle have sparked a bit of a controversy in my circles as of late. I watched both of the specials and found them both entertaining. The question is… Does that make me all the phobics listed in the articles? The comedians themselves are not what I am interested in writing about, but I will have to explain a few details. There are a tons of articles telling you about how they are trans-phobic idols of an older form of comedy that breeds hateful violence or praising them as defenders of free speech on the front lines of the PC wars. Now I see these people just trashing people on posts and threads because of the “team” the represent.

“Teams” are an issue for me as a whole. I don’t fully subscribe to any ideology that limits my perspective of thinking. From sports to politics and now comedy, I see division among the people. Recently I ran across a thread on social media about the difference between these two comedians jokes. I bit. I bit hard enough to read almost ever response and look up more information on the opinions in place. I have seen a lot of hate for Dave’s special. It was shocking because I found the piece right on the edge of offensive. An artful comedy pulling at the strings on the developing cultural differences that have become more highlighted in recent years. Bill’s was, well Bill Burr. He is an aggressive comic who has a very successful podcast and is doing the same thing as Dave in his own way. I know his stance on so many things but maybe I am used to the over the top antics of Bill Burr by this point. Clearly one was much more willing to push the line and step on it the whole show. Bill went full Burr and Dave politely danced around with genius delivery and I think there is a difference in their specials but let’s get in to what I learned.

So here I am looking at this thread thinking “oh boy, we got some drama.” Before you judge me too harshly I was unable to sleep and just fell in to this conversation by happenstance. I have written before about my failed attempts at getting points across on social media or text based platforms and these people didn’t read it at all. Hit that subscribe and you will not fail like them or me. Name calling and insinuations were thrown around like hands after Popeye’s ran out of chicken sandwiches. I find listening, or reading in this case, really gave me more information than talking. The following statements were the overall understanding of those “teams” I spoke of earlier. So Dave was not at fault for offending the trans community due to his ability to not assume any perspective of who was the “T” or trans person in his joke was. He made jokes about the situations they were found in and how he can’t stop writing about how hilarious it all is to him. He showed empathy but still got his jabs in basically. Bill is at fault because he immediately made the character in the joke a male with his sexual organs removed and made a jokes about their choice to become female. I am paraphrasing but this is accurate enough to continue on with the conversation. This not only lead to differences of opinions but racism and general intolerance due to lack of education.

This isn’t because Dave is black and Bill is white. It was brought up but that was not the main part of the thread. It became about the “race card.” So someone made a comment that if Bill was black maybe he would have had a lighter response like Dave. Maybe so. In a world of “what if’s” maybe is a great response. So the poster asked the commenting people if they believed in the “race card.” What a drastic change in conversation. From trans-phobic jokes to racism. Some replied they agree it does exist. I for one have used this term in the past and do not want to act innocent of these crimes. The poster and his “team” proceeded to explain how it was a belittlement of the oppression of minorities, specifically black people, to use that term. That it undermined the struggles they had to overcome and was indeed a racist term. So all those who replied yes were deemed racist. I am not a fan of that logic. I am willing to accept a phrase or word I have used is offensive and accept the new rules as they come out. But ignorance of the rules are indeed forgivable in some circumstances. It does not help that the people giving the “lesson” were beyond arrogant and hateful. We will get to that in a minute.

Now I am polling friends and asking people if they think that phrase is racist or offensive. I am messaging my black co-host and getting some input from him as well. This leads, yet again, in to more deliberation. So I have written this article to ask the readers a question. What can you learn if you are not presented the information? Let’s not take the road of “look it up” or “you have a smart phone, use it” approaches. Let’s be honest. You expect someone to look up a guideline or information on something that is not a part of their daily life. Let’s highlight me. I am a white straight male and have a diverse group of friends. However, I don’t know many people from India or the middle east. If I accidentally offend someone with a phrase I was unknown to be demeaning or hurtful I would apologize once informed. If I was unaware of the negative response I don’t expect a pass per say, but at least a second chance. Anyone who genuinely knows me will tell you I have a big heart but I will joke about anything. I made fun of my father’s autoimmune disease while he laid in the hospital because that is how I cope. I am the guy who speaks about the elephant in the room. Why? Because I want you to talk about it. I want to understand. I want to engage conversation to learn from both sides.

Dave did a better job at showing that same sentiment I have but I think that is why they added the extra content at the end of the special. It gave a look at Dave the man, not the comedian. Bill did not record/release that opportunity to the crowd or maybe did not offer that time to them. Maybe this is his real downfall. I am sure a joke of mine would offend a slew of people if they truly did not know who I am. So let’s walk back to the conversations at hand. So the “Bill is a piece of shit team” decided they would educate everyone else. In the process they were as pretentious as possible. Insults and questioning the other sides intelligence was most of the starting points they made to the “Bill is just a comedian” team, which I was starting to side with just due to the abusive way the woke community was acting. The hawkish PC side made very valid points. I read through the trolling coarse dialogue and found myself actually siding with them on the “race card” issue. Then I noticed something as I was reading. No one else was even in the threads any longer. The “Pro Bill” team was gone.

So you may be asking yourself, “what does that have to do with anything?” Everything. Every conversation has a point. Knowledge, aggression, manipulation, etc. can be learned through simple words. Eyes can be opened and new experience will grow. I am not claiming they will all be positive, but I really honestly think the can all be enlightening. The woke community won the argument but never once made an impact on the other side. One claimed to be impervious to new knowledge since they believed to be a higher form on human that could rationalize something as complex as a spectrum of gender with no limitations while the others dug their heels in and kept saying “it is a comedy routine” and PC culture ruins everything. Here was the difference for me in the conversation. One side implied that the fault of an attack on the trans community would be rationalized by the hateful speech of comedians. Meanwhile, they approved of Dave who ended a joke with the explanation of how writing about trans people made them feel that “trans” would become a household term bringing a commonplace to the concept which many struggle to still accept and this normalization of the term would bring acceptance. So isn’t Bill doing the same thing in a different way? He may have a little more enthusiasm on the subject at hand but generally it is the same thing. That was only answered through opinion of how one can speak and no actual information. Logic or tolerance were used as the judgment of how someone can speak about the issues but those rules are ever changing. I picked through the hay pile and found the understanding they were trying to display but unfortunately what I saw was many open people on the sidelines of the conversation just walking away with nothing but more anger and confusion.

White people do not take well to being called a racist, let alone by mostly other white people. The “race card” issue was raging on with one team still in the thread. White people who were unwilling to shed themselves of the privilege their skin tone brought were marginalized and the conversation continued. Absence of the knowledge the hate implied in the phrase “race card” was touted as the new way of finding a homophobic unsophisticated racists that were not up to par with the rest of the community. I find this to be lazy and irrelevant to anyone in the LGBTQ community. This kind of broad stroke generalization is what makes the people so divided in the first place. To assume you can judge someone off the answer of one question that they may not have been informed of is the same, in my mind, as judging someone of their skin color or decision to have an operation to feel like who they really are inside.

Comedians like these two were never intended to be the epicenter of a quarrel. Do not misunderstand what I am saying in that they were intended to question or antagonize the listener in some way and invoke a response of laughter. Jesters were the ones who would give bad news to the king that no one else dared to deliver and modern comedy stems from this sentiment. The idea that sometimes you need to hear the truth of the people or the concerns of a new ideology with a humorous delivery helps lessen the blow but still get a point across. As much as I love conversation and deliberation I find that with my newly acquired knowledge about the term “race card” I also learned that nothing is sacred any more. I am not saying these phrases or racial comments need to be protected by any means so do not misunderstand me on that point. I am speaking about comedy. Comedy will be dulled down to be as compliant to single minded thinking as a corporate office. Edgy or hawkish comedy that once helped people remain humble will disappear as will conversation. People will continue to see themselves as kings among the weak minded unintelligent on both sides of the aisle. I just hope us people not willing to break down to a team are capable of mediating peace in these trying times.