Shine Dave Chappelle’s “C” logo (with the red at the top and green at the bottom) on the side of any building and watch Millennials and members of Generation X walk towards it like summoned ThunderCats…

Not since Muhammad Ali has there been a cultural warrior fighting some of the hardest fights; with both an artistic integrity and an incredible brand awareness… often at the expense of his followers’ comfort.

Would my life be easier if he made other choices…yes. But to see it that way is to miss the point.

I will start by respectfully saying…If you’re offended by what he has said in the past, because you’d rather he keep a certain community’s “name out your Mxxxfxxxx mouth.” I hear you wholly. Full stop…

I am not without empathy for those who watched for a laugh and left feeling targeted.

I know firsthand that the accumulation of micro-provocations can make almost anyone march up to a podium; if only to inform the joke teller and a room full of onlookers, “someone in this audience didn’t find it funny.” Please know your posts, comments, op-eds and replies are resultant slaps that come after one’s had enough. I get it. I do.

To put it frankly, sometimes the idea that someone isn’t worried about offending us, can be enough to offend us.

I am not without empathy for those who watched for a laugh and left feeling targeted.

But let’s not confuse people who watch comedy for a laugh with fans of comedy as an artform. There is a distinction.  

Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but the United States has transitioned into a group of codependent tangentially connected tribes segregated by media preferences.

Every syllable of data we receive each of us goes through a personalized filter woven together by our own ambitions and fears. Strangers can now offer validation that family members cannot; fight or flight instincts can now be triggered by the mere suggestion of an alternative point of view.

That said, comedy is a performance art.

Beginners of the craft try to relate to the audience. The most experienced find an almost impish joy in making audiences laugh at things they would normally not find funny. Don Rickles could make you laugh at your own life’s obstacles in real time and audiences came back for more. The teasing was a form of inclusion in his actual art.

That said, comedy is a performance art.

As a performance artist, Dave has given us Clayton Bigsby, the Racial Draft and the Player Hater’s ball. After 20 years those sketches are still among the best filmed. And in each of those sketches, there are lines that when removed from context would have even offended him. Making the context itself…the art.

I’ll admit “don’t look at the subjects of his painting look at the stroke technique and frame” isn’t the sexiest explanation for his approach; so let me do it another way.

His mentioning of the late Norm MacDonald provided the perfect artistic homage to what eventually lands in a controversial punchline.

A quick history lesson: Norm was fired from SNL for continuing to tell OJ jokes on Weekend Update after being ordered to stop. Norm didn’t feel the brass should dictate terms for comedy regardless of how loud their voice may be in his ears.  So Norm bit the pill for future comedians. So when Dave lands on his unexpected punchline… it was his way of saying, “you all don’t get to determine what’s funny…regardless of how loud the voice.”

The telling of the joke was performance art and the mention of MacDonald was him illustrating the depth of forethought that went into it.

Comedy should be hard to do.

Though it feels our filters have become so tightly woven — from algorithm induced ambitions and fears — that we are harder to reach as a broader collective. Its as if our funny bones have been desensitized with grafted scar tissue.

I’m an optimist.

My optimism is rooted in the belief that if we can grow apart in spite of our best intentions, lovers of art can also grow back towards each other on a different day when our ambitions and fears are more aligned.

Regardless of sensitivities…Watch the Dreamer. There are easy laughs throughout.

If you know the art is in the context and you love the artform…you’ll also know the harder laughs are better. Either way I’m going to continue to keep my eye out for the “C” logo (with the red at the top and green at the bottom)…Wishing more of my friends could see the art through their filters but still loving and accepting them when they can’t.