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Jerrod Carmichael recently expressed his regret over criticizing Dave Chappelle publicly in an interview on The Breakfast Club.
Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is walking back his public criticism of Dave Chappelle over his recent comedy specials and his focus on trans people, based on remarks he made during his appearance on The Breakfast Club. “I deeply regret saying anything about Dave Chappelle to the press. I want to say that I’m sorry for that,” Carmichael said during the episode which aired Tuesday (April 16).
Carmichael took time to express that he’s a fan of Chappelle, calling him a “bright light in a dying industry,” and claiming that he’s “more important than ever before” because of today’s crop of comedians “just posting clips of them doing crowd work online and calling it art, and it’s not art.” He also elaborated on his critique: “The criticism I had was that of a fan, someone who respects him so much, that I want him to focus his genius on a wide range of topics. It started really being focused on one thing. I’m a big fan of Jay-Z. If Jay-Z made three albums about trans people, I’d be like, ‘What’s going on with Jay-Z?’”
The comedian, who is on a press tour for his HBO documentary series, Jarrod Carmichael Reality Show, had raised eyebrows with his comments on Chappelle in a GQ interview in 2022. “Chappelle, do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro? That’s the legacy? Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit? It’s an odd hill to die on.” He also spoke further about Chappelle’s thoughts in an Esquire interview last month: “He took it as ‘F–k Dave Chappelle,’ because he’s an egomaniac,” Carmichael said. “He wanted me to apologize to him publicly or some s–t.”
When asked if he and Chappelle had spoken since his earlier comments, Carmichael said simply: “Yeah, I know Dave. And I’ll tell you, honestly, from now on, any thoughts I have for Dave will be directed in a phone call to Dave. I’ll never do it again. I do apologize for that… I don’t need it, I don’t want the attention, it’s gone on too long.”
