Jerrod Carmichael is down with the younger generation, but he does not get some of the older generations at all. In a new GQ profile, he said that the only person who reached out to him after he came out was his 15-year-old niece.
The 35-year-old comedian came out as gay in his HBO special “Rothaniel” that was released back in April, and says he got exactly one text after that. “I see you. I hear you,” his niece wrote him.
“I love this generation. I actually f— with them, and f— all those comedians that are going so hard against them,” Carmichael said.
He then turned his target one older comedian in general, one who served as an inspiration for many young Black comedians — hell, almost all comedians at one time — Dave Chappelle.
“Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?” Carmichael asked of the 48-year-old groundbreaking comedian who’s become more known now for his continuous anti-trans jokes. “That’s the legacy?”
Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit?” Carmichael continued his rhetorical questioning. “It’s an odd hill to die on. And it’s like, hey, bro. Who the f— are you? Who do you f—? What do you like to do? Childish jokes aside, who the f– are you? It’s just kind of played. But he’s choosing to die on the hill. So, alright, let him.”
Chappelle has openly identified himself as “Team TERF,” as noted by ET, and said in his recent “Closer” Netflix special that “gender is a fact.” He also self-identifies as among the “canceled,” a common refrain from conservative circles.
But Carmichael takes issue with that, too, saying, “Who’s getting canceled for what they’ve said? What does that mean, that people are mad on Twitter? Everybody’s fine,” Carmichael said. “These grown men are fine.”
“I think, a lot of times, people who offer nothing truthful or meaningful about themselves then complain about society at large and create this boogeyman,” he continued. “It’s like, listen, that’s the most urgent thing in your life? God bless you.”
Considering how influential and titanic a figure Chappelle has been for years, him coming out as a TERF is akin to J.K. Rowling effectively doing the same. In both cases, their huge fanbases have had to reconcile how to move forward with this new information.
During Carmichael’s special, he opened up about a “secret” he’d been keeping, “one that I kept from my father, my mother, my family, my friends, and you. Professionally, personally. And the secret is that I’m gay.”
Carmichael was invited for the first time to host an episode of “Saturday Night Live” that also hit in April, basically alongside the HBO special where he came out.
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