Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Schulz Reacts: Is Chappelle Special Protest Good For Comedy?

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

This week for Flagrant 2's exclusive Patreon clip, Andrew, Akaash, AlexxMedia, Mark and Dov discuss the recent protests over Dave Chappelle's recent comedy special. Flagrant 2 is a comedy podcast that delivers unfiltered, unapologetic, and unruly hot takes directly to your dome piece. In an era dictated by political correctness, hosts Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, along with AlexxMedia and Mark Gagnon, could care less about sensitivities. If it’s funny and flagrant it flies. If you are sensitive this podcast is not for you. But if you miss the days of comedians actually being funny instead of preaching to a quire then welcome to The Flagrancy. Join the Patreon Asshole Army: http://bit.ly/2xQwHYf

What up people, Shultz here and you guys are about to listen to a clip from our weekly Patreon episode. If you want to sign up to our Patreon, support the flagrancy, support what we are doing, completely uncensored, flagrant content, you go to patreon.com slash flagrant2. With no more interruptions, here is the exclusive clip. It's interesting, man, with the special stuff going on right now i didn't want to say it because i didn't want to put anything out there when it first happened but when when chapelle dropped the special and and um netflix didn't back down and shouts to netflix for not backing down yo much respect much respect but uh everybody was like i think um i I think even one of the, Damon Wayans even said, like, Chappelle freed the slaves. Like, they were going.

Thank God a black guy said something like that. Yo, I'm joking. Like, Bob Saget just comes out. Chappelle did it. He freed us. But you can't even really support it because you can't, as a not black person, be like, that's what I've been trying to say. They'd be like, what? So the initial reaction was like, that's it.

Comedy's different now. We can say whatever we want. Now, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to put it out there in the world. But the second I saw this much backlash for Chappelle, I'm like, yeah yeah this is the worst possible thing okay comedy because if he's getting that backlash if you're a young comic yeah you have no chance to be edgy they're not taken if they're worried like if they're having make, if the head of the company is having to make statements on behalf of the most popular comic, arguably in history, right? Jokes. Yeah.

If he has to make statements and potentially apologize for some of the things that he said or not being able to understand, he came back and I thought he handled it really well, but I apologize for not really understanding what the trans community at his workplace... But still didn't say it. He said it's not hate speech, definitionally. Exactly. No, he was great. I think how he's handled it is masterful, but the fact that he's got to make these comments, we don't hear him commenting on anything else. Yeah.

Right? They're not asking him to comment on Bridgerton. They're not asking him to comment on any of these other things. So it's like that's going around internally, and that's causing a lot of fuss internally. So if he's got to come out, and he's got to address what's going on he's going hold on i'll do this for chappelle i ain't doing this for john flanagan yeah or the random young comic that's trying to come up doing a 15 minute special yeah so it's too much fucking heartache

it's too much stress yeah it's too much pressure on the network. So we can go and we can look at this and be like, this is amazing that we got to see it. But the commotion isn't going to affect Chappelle. It's going to affect the new comics trying to be edgy. It's not worth the risk. So the whole time I've been on the side of this is the tipping point because the silent majority felt confident saying openly, yo, guys, this is funny.

Who cares? I think a mistake we also, and Netflix didn't back down, but I think a mistake I might have made, I hope I didn't, but you sound right right now, is I thought it's kind of like court, where the precedent has been set,

and now we all are going to follow this precedent. Every case that comes up where somebody's offensive, Netflix was like, well, we didn't take down Chappelle, but that's a good way of thinking also. I already had to deal with this for Chappelle. I'm not dealing with it for you. It's the Jordan rules.

Oh, yeah. The refs protect Jordan. Yeah. Right? You went to the rim hard, a foul's going to get called. Right. Maybe if it's a light foul, if it's Jordan, you're going to call it. If you're bullying him,

you're going to call it. There's issues, right, that the refs are going to have. And maybe the league was telling the refs, yo, you got to look out. It's superstar treatment. It's Gretzky, right? We got to make sure Gretzky is the league.

This is the brand. Quarterbacks in the NFL. You can't hit them too low. You can't hit them too high. They're quarterbacks. But if you're a rookie, pick up the bags, bitch. You know what I mean too low. You can't hit them too high. They're quarterbacks. You gotta protect our guys. pick up the bags, bitch.

You know what I mean? You gotta go through that rookie treatment. My fear, my concern is, and this is what happened before, this is what the climate was before I put out 4-4-1

and then views from the cysts. The climate was like, there was a lot of comics that were changing what they wrote jokes about and how they wrote jokes because climate was like, there was a lot of comics that were changing what they wrote jokes about and how they wrote jokes because they're like, there's no way I can get on Netflix or there's no way that I can get on HBO or Showtime if I am this edgy because that's not what they're putting out. Right? Yeah. So my fear is that happens again. In the same way that people have changed what they post on Instagram, they change what they post on TikTok, we change what we post on TikTok.

We take all the curse words out. We just blank the curse words. Because if you post it with the curse words, they take it down. Account gets banned, whatever. That changes how you write jokes. That changes how comedy is digested. And it changes how you think creatively. You go, do I want to work six months on a joke that I know can't go anywhere or on any platform?

Yeah. You start going, I'm not saying that's something that I've done, but there are people, and I completely understand them, who start going, look, I got to make this special. This is how I make a living. I make specials. And if I have a trans joke, and that's going to get cut when I go to Netflix because I'm not as big as Dave Chappelle. I'm not going to do the trans. Right. That's what people are going to think. Yeah. And yeah, I I didn't want to fucking say it because I was hoping that the backlash would just kind of go away. And I think within a month this thing will be gone. But I don't think that this is a great moment for comedy. And this is the tipping point. And now we've moved past it.

I think that if you try to do a trans joke on any major network right now the note will come in hey we don't want to deal with it i hope that if people support netflix very publicly yeah the majority of people are open and say yo i'm glad netflix didn't take this down i'm glad netflix didn't back down. Then maybe Netflix will be kind of like, all right, you know what? We took some heat from these people, but the majority support what we did. It's on the majority to keep being vocal

and being like, yo, these are jokes. Funny is funny. The thing that I agree with you 100%. They probably won't though, because people don't normally, you got to be really moved to tweet some shit. Yes. And you're not really going to be moved

if you're not trans. If you're trans, I understand why you're moved to speak, offended or Yes. And you're not really going to be moved if you're not trans. If you're trans, I understand why you're moved to speak, offended or not. If you're not, you're like, yeah, I like it. Yeah. It's also a weird thing to support because you start seeming like it's positioned as hate speech and then you're supporting it. So now you're supporting hate speech. You're not. You're just supporting jokes and jokes about

everybody but if the position that you're taking yeah is labeled as hate speech yes now you feel like you're the person that is supporting the hate speech and you start going do i really want to be the person who says that publicly yeah i'm not a comedian i'm not invested in this at all is this the thing that i want to go out on a limb to support defend yeah you start going it's not worth the tweet how often have you thrown some shit in drafts you're like do i really give a fuck yeah all right guys we're gonna take a break from this exclusive patreon clip because i gotta make sure your dicks are sturdy hard girty full to the max and the way that we're gonna do that is with blue chew okay same active ingredient that's inside cialis or viagra but this is the chew this is the one we rock with and this And the way that we're going to do that is with Blue Chew. Okay, same active ingredient that's inside Cialis or Viagra.

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Use that promo code Andrew at bluechew.com. You're going to get it for free. All you got to do to bluetooth.com use the promo code andrew use that promo code andrew at bluetooth.com you're gonna get it for free all you gotta do is pay five dollars shipping free dick and the best dick that you've ever had in your life fellas deliver it ladies get it delivered you all deserve it now let's get back to this exclusive patreon clip you can watch the full episode and support the asshole army at patreon.com slash flagrant like the other day i posted some shit about the fucking cara delevingne girl yeah and then just you know she's pegged the patriarchy or whatever like that and i just i just posted how like super that is with the models we talked about in a regular episode and then instagram hits me the

next day they're like you've lost the ability to uh add links on Instagram. So I can't do like swipe ups or like add links to shows. And that's going to go because you posted a hateful speech or whatever this. I don't give a fuck about this bitch. I don't give a fuck about models. I don't give a fuck about pagan. I don't give a fuck about the patriarchy. I lost the ability to make money for something I don't give a flying fuck about. Yeah.

Now I want to be able to just say things that I don't give a fuck about. But now there's a cost to it. Right? And so if I'm thinking the next time I want to comment on some dumb story that I'm going to forget about 15 minutes later, imagine what Netflix is saying. You think when Netflix gets that next special, someone got

a trans joke in it, you think they're not going to look at it and be like is it worth a month of scrutiny? Is it worth a month of scrutiny? Hopefully. Hopefully, it takes a long time for it to turn the other way, but this is the very beginning. I remember

2007, seeing PC shit start to be a thing. And some of it was needed, probably, but it took a long time to get to the point in 2015 where comics were like dude i don't know what jokes to make i don't know how to make that was an eight year nine year gap whatever it was so hopefully this is the first and there's still going to be a lot of backlash but then it'll subside the kind of like the outrage machine yeah and it'll take a

few years i just hope the networks have like nuance and discretion when it comes to why they think chapelle is getting heat you know what i mean like because chapelle's not necessarily in terms of like the criticism i'm seeing like and i agree with your point that i think people will feel the heat right now and be like yeah we don't want to put like a trans joke no matter what it is for the next month but eventually it'll cool down and then they'll get a comic that has a trans joke in like a year and they'll say okay did chapelle get canceled because he did the one day or many days joke or did he get canceled because he said gender is a fact? You know what I mean? Like, is that what the criticism is?

That's a good point. And so it's like he wasn't necessarily they weren't coming at him and maybe they would have came at him if it was just jokes. But it was because he made some declaration about trans in general. I hope that you're right. Right. I don't know if they will use the discretion. My my fear is that the criticism didn't have nuance either right the criticism was always like hey these jokes are transphobic literally violence you're killing me and blah blah right but like if they specific if the community specifically came out and said hey that they they's joke was really funny right but saying that gender is a binary we think is transphobic and they kind of swept it all up if that was the criticism then i think that maybe even the network would be like okay i could see

how you guys are upset about that right but it was just swept up like you said it was one angry hate ball that was thrown at the trans community and that's how they felt at least that's how they interpret it so i'm like like i i'm sure 100 that there is a there's a special and a comic has a joke about trans right now sitting in netflix's office and they're looking at it going okay yeah what do you want we can keep this but we'll push it back six months because they definitely aren't going to be the network that has the transphobic joke and then during the heat of it drops a new special transphobic joke like if theo vaughn had a trans joke in his special because his special just dropped yeah you'll go check out the special

by the way um i guarantee that there's going to be a conversation at least no do you really need this heat right now you see what's happening yeah it's just which i'm also curious from netflix's perspective how much it's affecting their bottom line like i wonder if like they're dealing with superficial fires but underneath they're actually making what is the algorithm cult thing that's what i'm saying are they getting crazy subscriptions like i don't think that oh sorry to interrupt but i don't think it affects their money at all i think what it is is i don't think stand-up is necessarily a money maker right so it's like netflix probably survives off of their like very popular series and documentaries and also uh getting the rights to like friends and these

types of shows right that's what makes up the majority of viewing time specials are great and they're cool little pops but i don't think that that is the majority of time that people are spent viewing netflix so they're looking at this. They're going, do I want to get this much? I could just put documentaries of bitches getting killed. Like, if I put those out, nobody gives a fuck. I could spend millions of dollars on bitches getting killed. That's the best possible spend.

It's more probable people will cancel their Netflix subscription over this. They'll probably resubscribe later. But more probable that happens, then I'm going to subscribe because of them supporting Chappelle and not bowing down to Chris Pritchard. Yeah, they ain't going to make no more money. Net subscribers, if anything, they probably dip, which does suck. You think so? No, no, no. I don't think they dip at all. I don't think it dips.

Just saying net in terms of people who might cancel temporarily versus people who will add because of this special. You see what I'm saying? Oh, I disagree. I think way more people will add. Everybody who didn't You see what I'm saying? Oh, I disagree. I think way more people will add. Everybody who didn't have Netflix and couldn't watch the special and heard about all the hoopla. Yeah. Goes, I need to watch the special.

But then to Mark's point, they still won. So they might look at that. Yeah, they won. Yeah. And the algorithm, the people who just go off the algorithm might say, well, this was successful. So we handle the superficial fire. We got some heat, blah, blah, blah. So we'll keep making these specials.

Why not? I don't know if they want that kind of scrutiny constantly. And I don't know if they want to deal with the internal turmoil because there is internal turmoil. When you have people leaking data that work for you, when you have people talking about potential protests, it's a lot of stress. And if that's not the thing that actually makes you the money if the documentary

if tiger king makes you money you're like yo make tiger king fam what the fuck we're doing with this i was actually shocked he made a second statement sorry i was walking things back he made another statement what two days ago variety i was surprised i was like you've already made your statement to your point netflix doesn't seem like they would do this Netflix seems like they just keep shit moving and to see him make a statement. I was like, oh shit This is this is still going. Yeah, all I'm saying is if you're a young comic right now It's like I'm not saying this is because this is my path I'm saying is because this is the only path for you

If you're a young comic and you want to do edgy jokes, you have to do it on YouTube Yeah, this isn is there's no other option for you yeah you cannot it is not worth the risk for these big networks hbo hulu showtime netflix any of them it is not worth the risk for your following you don't have enough of a following it's worth the risk for chapelle it's not worth the risk for nobody yeah so you have to build up your following and get it to the point where you are worth the risk for nobody yeah so you have to build up your following and get it to the point where you are worth the risk if you want to do edgy jokes if you don't want to do edgy jokes now is the time yeah i mean it really is like now bro there's somebody who don't deserve

a special that's about to get one on netflix because of the chapelle thing yeah they're thirsting for a trans comedian. They want one so bad. You could be a half a year into the game. They're like, we need you. All right. Let's go. Yeah. Let's fucking do it. Steal someone's joke.

Do a Hot Pocket thing. We don't care. Like, make it work. Say, you got a Hot Pocket. Who cares? Make it happen. For real. Like, if you're trans right now, pitch, pitch, pitch.

Yeah. Pitch, pitch, pitch. You're a part of the LGBTQ community. Pitch, pitch, pitch. Because they need to prove. Every network will want it. Because then we're not like Netflix. We're a part of the LGBTQ community. Pitch, pitch, pitch. Because they need to prove. Every network will want it. Because then we're not like Netflix. We want it more than Netflix.

Yeah. Oh, Netflix wants it the most. But everybody would take it. You get a bidding award. And I know you're going, oh, you might be thinking, oh, they're just doing this to, what is the term? There's like, they're using me as a shield. Like a token or something. Yeah.

Be a token. Token gets you on a subway. Yeah, get the token. Token gets you on a subway. And then get the token. Token gets you on a subway. Token will get you on the ride. And then what you do with that ride is up to you. You can do whatever you want with it. You can build yourself a beautiful fucking career out of it.

But take the opportunity.