Dave Chappelle wins Grammy for Netflix special accused of transphobia
Dave Chappelle has picked up a Grammy Award for his controversial Netflix special that attracted accusations of transphobia.
The comedian was awarded the Best Comedy Album award for his 2021 show The Closer, which has been incredibly controversial ever since it released.
During The Closer, Chappelle spoke in support about JK Rowling and her opinions on the transgender community, declaring himself to be in agreement with her and saying he was 'team TERF' (trans-exclusionary radical feminist).
Chappelle was accused of being transphobic for this, though Netflix boss Ted Sarandos defended the comedian and insisted the streaming service would never show content 'designed to incite hate or violence'.
Advert
Netflix was accused of being an 'amoral algorithm cult' and there were calls for it to take down Chappelle's show, which they did not do, while hundreds of the streaming service's employees staged a walkout.
The comedian said he was 'more than willing' to speak to members of the transgender community about what he'd said, though insisted he would not let people 'summon' him and demanded that anyone wanting to speak to him about The Closer watch the whole show first.
The Grammys had come in for criticism after The Closer was nominated alongside Louis CK, who admitted to sexual misconduct in 2017, and his show Sorry.
It was also up against Patton Oswalt's We All Scream, Jim Gaffigan's Comedy Monster and A Little Brains, A Little Talent by Randy Rainbow.
Harvey Mason Jr., the CEO of The Recording Academy (who put on the Grammy Awards), said they 'don't control who the voters vote for' and said they were 'never going to be in the business of deciding someone’s moral position'.
The winners of the Grammys are decided by voting members of The Recording Academy, with the first round of votes determining the nominees in each category before choosing a winner.
The Closer had previously been nominated at the Emmys for Outstanding Variety Special and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, winning neither.
As for what else happened during the ceremony, Kim Petras became the first transgender woman to win a Grammy Award as she and Sam Smith picked up the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance accolade for working together on the song 'Unholy'.
Quavo reduced fans to tears with his performance during the 'In Memoriam' section with a tribute to late nephew and Migos bandmate Takeoff, who was shot dead aged 28 last November.
Meanwhile, Chris Brown lost his temper over losing out on the Best R&B Album award to Robert Glasper, taking to social media to say 'who the f**k is Robert Glasper' and declare that he didn't even know who the new Grammy Award winner was, which sounds like Chris Brown's problem and nobody else's.
On a more positive note, people enjoyed meme-ing Ben Affleck's bored expression as he looked utterly uninterested in the award ceremony he was attending alongside wife Jennifer Lopez.
One person joked that the movie star 'looks like someone just told him his dog died', while another was convinced they could see him 'checking the clock' to see how much longer he'd have to be there.
Joe Harker