Netflix has found the stopgap solution for the periods between Dave Chappelle specials.
Chappelle, the modern-legend comedian whose legacy has been complicated by the anti-trans material in his Netflix specials, has helped to clarify that the streaming service primarily cares about eyeballs at any cost. What is complicated, and heartbreaking, about Chappelle’s recent material is that he is a generationally gifted comic storyteller who seems compelled by belief to speak out against trans people. Meanwhile, what seems clear about Joe Rogan, whose new special, “Burn the Boats,” aired live on Netflix Aug. 3, is that he’s a sort of inverse Chappelle. He is not a generationally gifted comedian, or even a very good one, but his invocations of culture-war wedge issues bring him attention he would otherwise not have merited.