Jerrod Carmichael recently opened up to Esquire magazine about tensions with fellow comedian Dave Chappelle. Carmichael, who is making the press rounds in support of his new HBO series, generated headlines in June 2022 when he criticized Chappelle, who had already been earning backlash for making jokes about the transgender community.
“Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?” Carmichael asked during a GQ magazine profile at the time, referring to the comedian’s comments about trans people. “That’s the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit? It’s an odd hill to die on. And it’s like, ‘Hey, bro. Who the fuck are you? Who do you fuck? What do you like to do?’”
“Childish jokes aside, who the fuck are you?” Carmichael added. “It’s just kind of played. But he’s choosing to die on the hill. So, alright, let him.”
In his new Esquire interview, Carmichael expanded on his thoughts about Chappelle. Carmichael, who came out as gay publicly in his April 2022 HBO special “Rothaniel,” said that Chappelle joked about the set and “referred to it as the bravest special for 1996.”
“And it’s like, that’s a funny enough line, whatever, but I wonder if he gets the irony that the fact that you are mocking it even then is why it was hard,” Carmichael said, adding that Chappelle apparently did not take the criticism about his legacy well.
“He took it as ‘Fuck Dave Chappelle,’ because he’s an egomaniac,” Carmichael continued. “He wanted me to apologize to him publicly or some shit.”
Clarifying his original criticisms, Carmichael told Esquire that Chappelle is “not revealing anything personal about himself and he’s removed from what he’s talking about, and I think he’s smarter than that and deeper than that and has more interesting thoughts.”
Variety has reached out to Chappelle’s representative for comment. Carmichael’s latest series, “Jarrod Carmichael Reality Show,” airs new episodes on Fridays on HBO and Max.
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