Jerrod Carmichael Sorry for Criticizing Dave Chappelle’s Trans Joke

Jerrod Carmichael expressed some regrets over his recent criticism of Dave Chappelle — not his actual disappointment with the comedian for leaning heavily on jokes about trans people, but that he aired those grievances to the press.

On The Breakfast Club Tuesday, Carmichael sported a bit of a grin as he delivered a classic kind of non-apology apology, saying, “I deeply regret saying anything about Dave Chappelle to the press. I want to say that I’m sorry for that.”

Back in 2022, Carmichael brought up Chappelle’s trans jokes in a GQ interview, bemoaning the fact that his plethora of anti-trans jokes were coming to dominate his legacy. “Do you know what comes up when you Google your name, bro?” he said, adding: “Your legacy is a bunch of opinions on trans shit? It’s an odd hill to die on.” 

In an interview with Esquire earlier this month, Carmichael offered an update of sorts, claiming that Chappelle took his comments as, “Fuck Dave Chappelle, because he’s an egomaniac. He wanted me to apologize to him publicly or some shit.”  

In issuing his sorta public apology on The Breakfast Club, Carmichael went on to stress that he’s still a “huge” Chappelle fan. He called the comedian a “bright light in a dying industry,” especially in an era where stand-up is dominated by comedians “just posting clips of them doing crowd work online and calling it art, and it’s not art.”

He continued: “Dave Chappelle is an artist — he’s one of the few artists that we have — and I care deeply about the work that he makes. With that said, the criticism that I had, had nothing to do with the morality of the joke, had nothing to do with the ethics of the joke… The criticism I had was that of a fan, someone who respects him so much, that I want to focus his genius on a wide range of topics.”

A few moments later, when Carmichael was asked if he’d spoken to Chappelle, he said, “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.”